Story of the World: Ancient Times- Egypt

I'd like to share a few of the great projects the children did while studying Ancient Egypt.  As I mentioned in this post, we are going through Susan Wise Bauer's book The Story of the World: Ancient Times.

My children are absolutely enthralled with this book.  We were able to check out the audio CD of the book read by Jim Weiss and they listen for hours.  The activity book that goes along with the chapter book has review questions, narration, coloring pages, recommended reading lists, and hands-on project ideas.  We also checked out numerous books from the library, one of which was this book:

which had some really adorable craft ideas. Here are a few of the ones we chose to do.

The Pharaoh's Blue Crown

We followed the directions pretty closely, expect for some minor changes.  Here is a step by step of what we did:

1.  Cut out the following shape from white poster board.  The bottom should fit around your child's head.

2. Draw and cut the following shapes (snake and sun) out of a piece of construction paper (color of child's choice)

3.  Cover the front of the crown with a piece of construction paper and then glue the shapes onto the front.  (excuse the color difference)

4.  Fold the snake back and glue.

5.  Cut out a small rectangular strip from card stock (or poster board) This will go under the head of the snake to hold it up.  Fold it in on both ends.

6.  Glue this little rectangle under the head of the snake and then fold the head of the snake over and glue.

7.  After the crown is complete measure to the child's head and hot glue the back. 

Tah- Dah!  Here is the angry Pharaoh now, ready to lay down the law. :o)

 Here is the fearsome trio.

Those collars they have around their necks were made to resemble the collars worn by Egyptian pharaoh's and nobility to add richness and color to their plain linen clothing. (as quoted in the book)

Decorated Collar

The " how to" on this one are pretty self explanatory.  Measure child's neck/shoulder width  and cut out a U shaped collar from white card stock/ poster board.  Hole punch the inside corner on either side and run ribbon through it in order to fasten collar in the back.  Bring out a few random crafting supplies and allow the child to be creative!  Here are a few pictures of the kiddo's working on their collars.  ( I used my hot glue gun for both projects.)

The last project we did (I know, we've been very busy :o) was to build a model shadoof .  A shadoof was a contraption used by the Egyptians to irrigate their land, a way of moving large amounts of water.

Daddy helped out with this one and the kids loved it!  Check it out!

We've genuinely enjoyed learning about the Ancient Egyptian culture.  It's also been interesting to talk with the kids about modern day Egypt and everything that's currently happening over there.  We've read articles and looked at protest pictures. Their little eyes were wide open the whole time I was describing the situation. 

This has been a learning experience we won't soon forget. Love you all!