tpage

This section of our website should be thought of as a classroom resource which will help children to 'discover' the Ancient Egyptians by looking at and considering evidence. It is based on the English National Curriculum History Non Stat scheme of work No 10!! It will not replace your 'books' an videos etc, just supplement them. It is designed for children of 7-9 years old. The complexity of a civilization such as Egypt is so vast ... knowledge is important .. but learning techniques even more so. No Tutankamun here, no pyramids, no sphinx ... just looking at some of the things that the Egyptians left behind.

(It all works in Internet Explorer ... I can't vouch for Netscape as my copy doesn't work properly!!)

Section 1 ... Looks at Egypt as a Country.

Children discover that it's a hot place, a lot of desert and rock, watered by the River Nile.
It was just the same in Ancient days. We can make links between the Geography of Egypt and the civilization that flourished there.

Why were the temples and houses built out of stone?
Why were the 'local' boats made out of Papyrus?
- Because there was little wood.

Why were there few battles?
- Because neighbouring countries didn't like sending their armies across large deserts to attack!!

Why didn't the Egyptians wear many clothes?
- It was hot!!

I'm sure you can think of other links. At the end of the section there is a brief 'quiz' for the children to take and print out.

Section 2 : How do we know what life was like? (1)

The Egyptians wrote things down. The problem was ... no one could read the writing. There is a brief look at the Rosetta Stone and the work of Champollion in decoding the hieroglyphics.

There are three basic resources for you to use. English/Hieroglyphics translators ( the only ones on the Internet with a backspace!!) ... and a series of 'messages' for the children to decode.

Section 3 : How do we know what life was like? (2)

Not only did they write on walls, but they painted them too. Every picture tells a story!! We have nine 'stories' for the children to see before they try to make an Egyptian picture of their own. If you want more paintings, there's a lot in the gallery at the Virtual Egypt website.

Section 4 : How do we know what life was like? (3)

It's difficult finding pictures of Ancient Egyptian artefacts all in one place. Here we have 18 everyday objects for you. We are not too bothered about them guessing correctly what they are but being able to deduce what you might do with them ... eat them, play them, sit on them etc. The activity involves 'numbering' actions and matching them to artefacts.

A reference page of images is included in case you want to print them out to use in further activities.

Section 5 : How do we know what life was like? (4)

They made statues and temples in honour of the important ones. Here we 'interpret' what we see at the Temple of Abu Simbel ... and learn what an important chap Rameses II was!!

This is presented in 'quiz' form... wrong answers take you back to the start, but that's called 'revision'!! At the end of the quiz the children are asked to complete a 'precis' sheet.

So all in all the children will have a good LOOK and a good THINK about Ancient Egypt.

Links: The four links given at the bottom of the first page will let you extend the work ... the sites have INFORMATION ... if you wish to get the better readers to write 'mini' reports then they will help.