Hieroglyphics Lesson Plans

Students compare modern day text messaging with the use of hieroglyphs as forms of communication. They translate hiroglyphic mesages written by classmantes and check for accuracy.

Students explore the writing, art, and religious beliefs of ancient Egypt through hieroglyphs, one of the oldest writing systems in the world, and through tomb paintings. Hieroglyphs consist of pictures of familiar objects that represent sounds.

Learners explore websites about ancient Egypt to translate their names into hieroglyphs and then use that translation to create a clay cartouche of their name.

Students visit a website and discuss the hieroglyphics of Ancient Egypt.  In this Egyptian hieroglyphics instructional activity, students complete a cartouche.  Students switch papers and have to interpret the writing of their classmates.

Learners complete activities using Egyptian symbols and the hieroglyphic alphabet. In this Egyptian symbols instructional activity, students create a pictorial alphabet and use the symbols of the hieroglyphic alphabet. Learners identify and represent their own drawing figures from the Book of the Dead.

Students investigate early written languages by writing with clay.  In this communications lesson, students research early symbols of society and compare them to modern communication tools such as billboards.  Students utilize a clay tablet to write hieroglyphic symbols.

Sixth graders imagine and record what a pyramid they might create would be like. In this pyramid lesson, 6th graders construct the contents of their pyramid which would include a hieroglyphic of their name, drawing of the structure, example of a wall graphic and composition describing the contents of their pyramid. Students use the writing process to go from draft to final copy.

Second graders investigate what their lives would be like without writing. They recognize different types of writing, including pictographs and phonemic letters. Students describe ancient Egyptian writing practices and create hieroglyphic codes.

Students explore and compare hieroglyphic writing to the modern English alphabet through the creation of personal hieroglyphs.

Students use hieroglyphic characters to spell a name, write a sentence, and create their own Rosetta stones. They can have fun using online hieroglyphic translators too.