Old Kingdom of Egypt Lesson Plans

Learners work in small groups to investigate a variety of art and architecture forms common during the Old Kingdom epoch in Ancient Egypt. Learners then evaluate how these art forms reflect a culture's beliefs and values. And, finally, groups do research on an assigned art form and create an example.

Research ancient cultures with your class. They will read assigned text in class and utilize a map to identify the location of Egypt. Students complete many ancient Egypt activities including multiple choice questions, role-plays, and research assignments.

Students use maps, atlases, and Internet sites to learn about the geographic features and topographical features of Egypt. They compare and contrast the importance of the Nile River through the Pre-Dynastic, Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom, and Modern Egypt eras. Students design a booklet to compile information regarding the Nile River and its importance.

Students develop a timeline of events associated with Egypt, Mesopotamia, Indus River, and Huang He. They prepare a clay, wood, or pper model of a representative artifact from one civilization. They write a description of their item. Students draw a representative fashion, and write an explanation of their drawing.

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.

Ninth graders are introduced to the Prown's technique of describing various objects. As a class, they view pictures of the pyramids in Egypt and discuss how the size and shape of them show their belief in eternal life and religion. They describe them based on the Prown technique and create their own pyramids to end the lesson. They also complete the same steps with a Shawabti figure and another object of their choosing.

Students explore the pyramids of ancient Egypt. They travel back in time to recreate scale drawings of the Great Pyramid and discuss the inside of the Great Pyramid. They research and find out about the mummification and burial process.

Students discover the writing, art, and religious beliefs of ancient Egypt through hieroglyphs. The class creates a pictorial alphabet of its own and then learns and uses the symbols of the Egyptian hieroglyphic alphabet. Students identify and represent in their own drawings figures from the Book of the Dead, a funereal text written on papyrus. Pupils identify ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses and explain their historical social and religious roles.

Students analyze symbols and figures of Ancient Egypt. In this Egyptian symbols lesson, students identify Egyptian hieroglyphs and their uses. Students analyze the meaning of the Book of the Dead and the roles of Egyptian gods and goddesses. Students draw their own figures and try to write the name of it in hieroglyphs.

Sixth graders complete a long-term unit on ancient and early civilizations. They conduct Internet research, define key vocabulary terms, analyze maps, and create a PowerPoint presentation about a selected early civilization.