Hands-on Activities for Ancient Egypt

The history and mythology of ancient Egypt transfers over into play time with the toys seen here. Why promote the commercialism of Disney and other mass media? Instead, instill a love of history with toys that reinforce what you are learning in your homeschool lessons.

The toys can also be used during lessons to illustrate points. Or children can use them to re-enact the stories in the books you read. In this way, the action figures become a concrete way for children to narrate back their homeschool lessons. Using physical objects to help with the narration helps children who are still developing the skill of narration. Plus, it helps to keep the different characters and locations straight. Some children like to act out what is being read to them as it is being read. Then they can do it again, retelling the story themselves.

Children can create elaborate or simple playscapes, using the figures above. They can also construct dioramas to show daily life in ancient Egypt, depict stories from Egyptian mythology, or explain something from Egyptian history.

One of the simplest and least expensive types of hands-on activity to do along with a study of ancient Egypt is to make cartouches or hieroglyph banners. Use the stencils or stamps here to "write" your own messages or decorate the walls.

Use this Egyptian hieroglyph alphabet to help you spell out a message. A fun activity would be to create a message and then test others in the family to see if they can solve it from the hieroglyph code.

Using brown paper makes your papercraft look more authentic. Open a brown paper bag from the grocer (yes, you will need to specially ask for one) and use it as the base for your stone "wall" of an Egyptian temple. Or purchase a roll of or sheets of kraft paper from the art supply store.