Teaching Ideas for an Egyptian Day!

Learn about Ancient Egypt by having an Egyptian Day in your classroom! Our post has plenty of cross-curricular ideas to try with your children. These ideas could also be used as part of History lessons in a week, month or term.

Remember to download our popular Egyptians resource pack too!

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

English

• Create a quiz based on our free fact cards.
• Try writing in hieroglyphs.
• Write a diary entry for a pyramid worker.
• Write some instructions on how to mummify a person. This site will help you.
• Make a fact file about the Egyptian gods.
• Write a newspaper report about the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.
• Learn about writing in Ancient Egypt at The British Museum’s site.
• Write a report about Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife. This is a useful site for information.

Maths

• Try some of the great Egyptian maths ideas here.
• Explore the Ancient Egyptian Number system on this site and try writing a few numbers of your own.
• Explore number pyramids in this activity.

Science

• Try mummifying a tomato using salt and bicarbonate of soda or Epsom salts.

Computing

• Type some messages using the hieroglyphic typewriter.
• Play the pyramid challenge (requires Adobe Flash)
• Create a quiz on Ancient Egypt using PowerPoint or other presentation software.

Design Technology

• Make an Ancient Egyptian reed boat using these instructions.
• Make a game of Senet with these tips.
• Make a shaduf out of lego.
• Hold an Ancient Egyptian banquet. Remember to sit on the floor and have a water bowl nearby to dip your hands in! Try some Ancient Egyptian foods like figs, lentils, honey and dates. You could even make some Egyptian bread from the recipe on this page.
• Make your own papyrus from brown paper, glue and water.
• Research Ancient Egyptian inventions.

Art

• Make some Egyptian masks. There are some examples in the photos in our History Classroom Displays gallery.
• Paint some Egyptian designs on homemade papyrus (see Design and Technology ideas above).
• Design your own Egyptian god.

Music

• Listen to some Ancient Egyptian music and have a go at composing some of your own.

Geography

• Mark the important landmarks on a map of Egypt.
• Plan a trip to visit the sights of Ancient Egypt. How could you get there? What would you need to pack?
• The River Nile was crucially important in Ancient Egypt, as it still is today. Make a poster with key facts about the Nile.

History

• Make your own canopic jars.
• Find out about jobs in Ancient Egypt, and compare them to similar jobs today.

Physical education

• Create your own dance to Egyptian music.

Religious education

• The Ancient Egyptians believed in many gods. Find out about a few of them. How do they compare to other religions that have many gods?
• Some parts of the bible are set in Egypt. Read the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt.

PSHE

• Research the building of the Aswan Dam. 90,000 people relocated to make room for it, and Ancient Egyptian monuments had to be moved. Do you think this was the right thing to do?