Egypt: Pyramids and Mummies

Here are two super-easy projects we tackled last week as we read about Ancient Egypt from Susan Bauer’s The Story of the World.  If you are looking for something to focus on for a few days in your homeschooling, go check out some books at the library about Egypt, and then try out the following two super-simple projects.

Sugar Cube Pyramid.  Use paintbrushes with white glue to make a pryamid out of sugar cubes.  Start with a base of five cubes across and five cubes wide.  The next layer will be a four-cube square and so on.  You can sprinkle sand from the sandbox on the outside and on the cardboard to give it a realistic look.  Also, as the kids are working, remind them that each of the cubes in ancient Egypt weighed the same as an elephant and that the Pharoahs built the pyramids as their own tombs. 

Making Mummies.  Dramatically act out the mummification process.  Choose one pharaoh to “die”.  Scoop out his insides and pretend to put them in a jar (Priest Kelty dramatically demonstrating to dead-pharaoh-Cade above). 

Sprinkle salt on the pharaoh’s “heart” (we used a plastic one) (obviously) to place back into the pharaoh later (This was to preserve the organ, since the Egyptians believed that in the afterworld the heart was weighed, and if it was light enough–good enough–that they would live happily in the next life.) 

Have everyone in the family go “mourn” for the pharaoh (they would mourn for 30 days while the organs/body got ready for mummification).  We enjoyed this part because we got to wail obnoxiously while the dead pharaoh had to try not to giggle.

Wrap the mummy with toliet paper (they used linen cloths–not sure if Charmin was around back then).

Place a mask carved as the shape of the pharaoh on the mummy (a.k.a. a paper plate with  picture of the child stuck on it).  This was so that the gods could identify who the mummy was when he arrived in the afterworld.

Carry the mummy to a pyramid (room, bed, couch) and surround him (in this case Kelty) with all of the king’s finest things (stuffed horses, pink accessories), since they believed a person could take whatever was with them in their burial chamber to the afterlife.

There it is.  Simple and fun and memorable. 

Wish all my homeschooling days were like that.