Ancient Egypt: Create Your Own Kingdom!

Materials Needed

• Paper (construction paper in tan, yellow, or gold is great, but white paper works too)
• Pencils, markers, or colored pencils
• Scissors
• Glue or tape
• An empty, clean jar with a lid (a jam jar, pickle jar, or mason jar is perfect)
• Air-dry clay or salt dough (recipe: 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 cup water)
• A small ball (like a ping pong ball or rolled-up foil) for the jar lid
• Notebook or writing paper
• Access to the internet for a brief hieroglyphics search (optional, a printed chart works too)

Lesson Overview

This lesson moves beyond memorizing facts about Ancient Egypt and invites the student to become an Egyptian artisan, scribe, and storyteller. Through three creative, hands-on activities, the student will apply knowledge of Egyptian culture, writing, and beliefs to create personalized artifacts. The focus is on critical thinking, creativity, and making personal connections to history.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to:

• Apply knowledge of hieroglyphics to design a personal cartouche.
• Analyze the purpose of canopic jars and create a modern, symbolic version representing their own important qualities.
• Synthesize information about daily life in Ancient Egypt to write a creative story from the perspective of an artisan.

Lesson Activities

Part 1: The Pharaoh's Scribe - Your Name in a Cartouche (45 minutes)

Concept: A cartouche is an oval frame used to surround the name of a pharaoh, protecting them from evil spirits. Today, you are the pharaoh of your own world, and you will create a cartouche for your name!

1. Introduction (5 min): Briefly discuss the role of a scribe in Ancient Egypt. They were highly respected because they could read and write using hieroglyphics, a complex system of picture-writing. Show a picture of a real cartouche (a quick internet search will provide many examples).
2. Research (10 min): Using a hieroglyphic alphabet chart (easily found online), find the symbols that correspond to the sounds in your name. Remember that hieroglyphs represented sounds, not letters directly, so you might need to be creative! For example, the name "Chris" might use the symbols for "K" "R" and "S".
3. Design your Cartouche (20 min):
   • On a piece of tan or yellow paper, draw a large, elongated oval with a flat line at one end. This is your cartouche shape.
   • Carefully draw your name inside the oval using the hieroglyphic symbols you found. Take your time to make the symbols look authentic.
   • Decorate the area around your cartouche. You could add famous Egyptian symbols like the Ankh (symbol of life) or the Eye of Horus (symbol of protection).
4. Share (10 min): Cut out your cartouche. Explain which symbols you chose for your name and why you added certain decorations. Hang it on a wall or on your bedroom door for protection!

Part 2: The Canopic Jar of Me (45 minutes)

Concept: Ancient Egyptians used canopic jars to store and protect the internal organs of a mummy for the afterlife. Each jar was protected by one of the four sons of Horus. We are going to adapt this idea to create a jar that holds the things that are important to *you*—not organs, but your essential qualities and favorite things!

1. Introduction (5 min): Explain that canopic jars were vital for the journey to the afterlife. Discuss what the Egyptians believed was important to preserve. Now, ask the student: "If you had to preserve your most important personality traits or memories for the future, what would they be?"
2. Brainstorm (5 min): On a piece of paper, brainstorm 4-5 key things that make you, YOU. Examples: "My sense of humor," "My creativity," "My love for animals," "My memories of a beach vacation."
3. Create Your Symbolic Items (15 min): For each quality you listed, write it down on a small slip of paper. Then, either draw a symbol for it or find a tiny object to represent it. For "creativity," you could draw a lightbulb or find a colorful bead. For "love of animals," you could draw a paw print. Fold up the slips and place them and any small objects into your jar.
4. Sculpt Your Lid (15 min):
   • Take your jar lid and place the small ball or foil ball in the center to create the "head" shape.
   • Using the air-dry clay or salt dough, cover the lid and sculpt it into the head of an animal or person that represents YOU. Are you clever like a fox? Loyal like a dog? A made-up creature? Be creative!
   • Let the lid air-dry (this may take 24 hours). You can paint it later once it's dry.
5. Present Your Jar: Explain what qualities you chose to "preserve" in your jar and why you chose that specific head for your lid.

Part 3: A Day in the Life - Story of an Egyptian Artisan (30 minutes)

Concept: Not everyone was a pharaoh. Most Egyptians were farmers, craftsmen, and artisans. Let's imagine what their life was like by writing a short story.

1. Set the Scene (5 min): Ask the student to choose a craft. Are they a potter making canopic jars? A jeweler creating necklaces for the queen? A stonemason carving hieroglyphs on a temple wall? A painter decorating a tomb?
2. Writing Time (20 min): In a notebook, write a short story (a few paragraphs) about one day in the life of your chosen artisan. Think about these questions to guide your story:
   • What is your name?
   • What are you creating today and for whom?
   • What tools do you use?
   • What do you see, hear, and smell in your workshop? (e.g., the dust from the stone, the heat of the kiln, the sounds of the Nile River nearby).
   • What do you hope for or worry about? (e.g., pleasing the pharaoh, making enough money to buy food).
3. Author's Chair (5 min): Read the story aloud. This brings the character to life and is a great way to share the creative work.

Wrap-Up & Assessment

Review the three creations: the cartouche, the canopic jar, and the story. The completion of these creative products serves as the primary assessment. For a deeper check of understanding, discuss the following questions:

• What was the most interesting thing you learned about how Egyptians thought about names and the afterlife?
• If you were an ancient Egyptian, which job would you have wanted and why?
• How did using your own name and personality in the projects help you understand their culture better?

Differentiation (Ways to Adapt the Lesson)

For Extra Support:

• Provide a pre-printed hieroglyph alphabet chart and a pre-drawn cartouche outline.
• For the canopic jar, simplify the "qualities" to be concrete favorites, like "my favorite food," "my favorite color," etc.
• Use story-starter sentences for the artisan story, such as "The sun was hot on my back as I picked up my chisel. Today, I had to carve..."

For an Extra Challenge:

• Research more complex hieroglyphic symbols, like determinatives (symbols that give clues to a word's meaning), and add them to the cartouche.
• Create a set of four smaller "Canopic Jars of Me," each with its own unique sculpted lid and theme (e.g., a jar for memories, a jar for skills, a jar for hopes, a jar for friendships).
• Expand the artisan story to include more historical details, such as mentioning specific gods, pharaohs, or locations (like Thebes or the Valley of the Kings).