Ancient Egypt: Middle School Ancient History

Ancient Egypt was one of the first major civilizations. In our Middle School Ancient History learning we briefly talked about other early civilizations, like Mesopotamia and how they impacted history. After that, we moved on to mummies and pyramids and pharaohs.

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Our second big unit for Middle School World History is Early Civilizations. We learned about several other civilizations before Ancient Egypt, but this is one that really grabbed the attention of my kids and so we dove in deeper. We learned about the Stone Age and Neolithic Era first (CLICK HERE FOR THIS UNIT). Below are the resources we used and some unit ideas.

Ancient Egypt Unit

Base Text: Everything You Need to Ace WORLD HISTORY in one Big Fat Notebook. This is by no means an all inclusive, perfect “textbook” but it does give you a solid outline. Throughout our World History Unit we are using this as a spine to build off. We read the chapters and do the review questions together with some notebooking. Then we get into the other books related to the topic on our shelves, watch documentaries, do hands on activities, etc. Buy Here

Notebooking: we are using notebooking to keep track of what we’ve learned in World History. My kids are highly visual learners who also really enjoy art, so this is a great fit for us. We read the study guide above and read more in the resources below and then they take time to record what they find the most interesting and important. This is usually a combination of drawings and writing. By the end of the year they will have a record of early World History they can review and share as a work sample of all they have learned. Our notebooks are spiral bound, unlined journals, similar to these.

More Resources about Ancient Egypt

Many of the books listed below will be used throughout our Middle School World History course throughout the school year. They cover the range of early history. For this Ancient Egypt Unit we simply read and focused on those pages.

Tales of Ancient Worlds: Adventures in Archaeology by Stefan Milosavljevich and Sam Caldwell – short stories that walk you through discoveries and build a story around each one. It helps tie science to history and also personalizes history through stories. Find Online

A Child Through Time: The Book of Children’s History illustrated by Steve Noon – offers the story of a child for many of the main periods in history. It begins with Taya, an Ice Age Girl, and ends with Ruby Bridges during the Civil Rights movement. Find Online

How the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World Were Built by Albatros – The pyramids of Giza are the first section in this nonfiction book. It shares a little background about Egypt and the pyramids. Then it goes into the extraordinary feat of science, manpower, and materials that went into the building of the pyramids. Find Online

Math & Ancient Egypt

For Math during our Early Civilizations Unit we focused on Geometry. We covered a lot of 3D shape concepts, but we started with Pyramids. We researched the size of the pyramids and then calculated the area and volume of each.

Reading, Writing & Ancient Egypt

Our big writing project during out Ancient Egypt unit was writing a mini-research paper on a pharaoh. Each kid chose one pharaoh from Ancient Egypt. They found books at the library, watched videos, and did more research online. We worked on note taking and resource page writing. They pulled it all together in a short paper to share about their chosen pharaoh.

We also learned all about hieroglyphs. This was easy to find information about in various books, but our favorite was the Fun with Hieroglyphs Kit. The kit has a fabulous book inside that goes in depth on all things to do with hieroglyphs along with some activities to do with the stamps. The hieroglyph stamps are fun. My kids wrote letters incorporating hieroglyphs to their homeschool pen pals. (Order Here)

Geography & Ancient Egypt

The Nile River was a vital part of Ancient Egypt thriving. We read GREAT RIVERS OF THE WORLD by Volker Mehnert and Martin Haake. There is a fold out spread on the Nile and how this geography impacted history.

Science & Ancient Egypt

Mummies were a huge interest going into our Egypt unit. My kids spent this unit watching National Geographic’s Lost Treasures of Egypt on Disney+. They were fascinated by not only the mystery, but also the way science is used to uncover lost history.

Tied to mummification, we also dove a little into some anatomy. We learned about basics using:

• Waldock Way’s Human Body Unit
• Videos on YouTube especially this one by Crash Course
• and this Mammal Organs dissection kit that we are working through with our weekly science co-op.
• Read Mummies Made in Egypt by Aliki. This isn’t new by any means but it’s still well done and easy to find in most libraries.

Ancient Science also has tons of history themed science activities that we’ve started working through. These are simple experiments that usually use materials we have on hand and the book ties them to history and explains the science behind them. Find Online

Timelines of Everything from Smithsonian – this is one of my favorite books on our shelves. It puts history and science and art into timelines. The timelines are different and creative and it is such a wonderful visual on so many topics. Find Online

Art & Early Civilizations

Vincent’s Starry Night and Other Stories: A Children’s History of Art by Michael Bird – is a gorgeous, thick book that tells stories of history through art. It walks through history chronologically, telling stories inspired by different iconic artworks of the period. Find Online

Art That Changed the World from DK Books – offers more details and facts about art through history. It is also laid out chronologically starting with Prehistoric Art. This book has a huge collection of artwork from each period, details about each, timelines and more. Find Online

Ancient Egypt & Games

We love games in our family so finding fun ones to play together that relate to whatever we are learning is a must! Here are some fabulous games to play during this unit.

• Imhotep: Builder of Egypt. This is a strategy game in which you’re trying to transport blocks to build pyramids. It’s steeped in the history about trade and travel on the Nile and building of the pyramids that we talked a lot of about during this unit.
• Mr. Noggins Ancient Civilizations trivia game. My kids love this series of games. They’re essentially flashcards but for some reason they are engaging and fun. We have a bunch of them, but this one relates specifically to Ancient History. This is a go-to carschooling activity for us. Find Online
• Seven Wonders Duel is another fun game that relates to Ancient History. It is a two person game, although some of the expansions allow more players to join. My kids like to play against me. Find Online