Take Your Kids on a Trip to Ancient Egypt With These 8 Hands-on Activities and Worksheets

Ancient Egypt is fascinating, a period of history that kids of all ages love to learn about. Lessons and activities about the Ancient Egyptians, their traditions, and customs will get any student excited about history.

This article will help you introduce your kids to the subject in a fun and engaging way, with hands-on activities and worksheets.

Why kids love learning about Egypt

It might be tempting to skip over ancient history in favor of modern historical subjects, which had a direct impact on our current world. But ancient civilizations, like the Egyptians, gives kids context for the progress of the human race, and how history has unfolded over thousands of years. The Ancient Egyptians had a huge influence on the early fields of medicine, mathematics, construction, agriculture, politics, architecture, and art. They even invented paper!

Ancient Egypt was a powerhouse for over 3000 years – that’s a long time. To put it in perspective, Cleopatra, born in 70BCE, lived closer to the invention of the iPhone than she did to the construction of the pyramids!

Plus, let’s face it: Ancient Egypt is cool.

Things like mythical gods, mummification, kings and queens, incredible architecture, the worship of cats, and hieroglyphs make it an endlessly fascinating subject to learn about. Kids won’t be bored as they might be with other historical periods, learning about dates and facts in an abstract way. An education in Ancient Egypt is full of things your kids will actually be excited to learn about.

4 hands-on Ancient Egypt activities for kids

Mummify an apple

Ancient Egyptians used mummification to preserve bodies after death. They used a substance called natron, but for this experiment, you can use baking soda and salt.

Mummify one slice of apple, and leave it out for a week alongside a normal slice. Then compare the two and see how well the mummy apple has been preserved! This is because salt and baking soda act as a desiccant, removing water from the apple and preventing bacteria growth.

Build your own pyramid

The pyramids are an incredible feat of architecture, mostly built as tombs for pharaohs. Some of the pyramids are still the largest structures ever built – we’re still unsure exactly how such a feat was accomplished over 3000 years ago.

You can introduce your kids to the pyramids by making your own out of sugar cubes. Have them imagine the Egyptians doing the same thing, but with giant blocks of stone that weighed thousands of tons.

Learn hieroglyphs

Ancient Egyptians had a written language made entirely out of pictures, called hieroglyphs. Each image represented a different sound, and the characters were of animals, everyday objects, or abstract symbols.

It’s hard to match up hieroglyphs with English, because the two languages have very different sounds, but scientists have come up with rough translations for each English letter. For example, A is a bird, and D is a hand. Check out the alphabet and see if your kids can write out their name in hieroglyphs!

Invent some new gods

The Ancient Egyptians worshipped over 2,000 deities, most of whom represented a certain aspect of society or the natural world. One of the best-known is the sun god Ra, a man with a hawk’s head.

The Egyptians had colorful stories for all their gods: Every night Ra would be swallowed by Nut, the goddess of the sky who wore a dress covered by stars, and would be reborn each morning as the sun rose.

After learning about some of the Egyptian gods, encourage your kids to invent their own, getting as creative as possible. Brainstorm some ideas of what these new gods could “represent”, like school, friendship, sports, etc., and what animals each could be based on.

4 fun Ancient Egypt worksheets

Ancient Egypt Overview

This worksheet bundle is an excellent place to start. It gives a good overview of the geography, culture, and people of Ancient Egypt, and will really get your kids curious to learn more.

It has a couple of great sheets about the pharaohs that ruled the civilization, including King Tut who became the leader at age nine! The worksheets are full of fun hands-on activities, including a head-scratching “crack the code” hieroglyph game.

Ancient Egyptian Gods & Goddesses

Egyptian deities are so fascinating that they deserve their own worksheet bundle. This lesson teaches all about the religious system and the mythology of Ancient Egypt – they had many gods and goddesses who all watched over different aspects of life and nature.

They were described as having golden flesh, silver bones, and hair made of semi-precious stones. Very cool stuff! This worksheet pack introduces the main deities and their backstories, with interactive activities like matching games and family trees.

Ancient Mummies

Ancient Egyptians believed that when kings and queens died, they would ascend to the afterlife and become a god. They used a process of mummification to preserve bodies after death and stop them from decomposing.

Over time, mummies have evolved to become the stuff of scary stories, evil monsters that rise from the dead. But mummies are just a cool scientific method that has been adapted by many civilizations across history.

Our worksheet bundle teaches kids all about mummies, both in ancient and in modern societies. It’s got activities like a word search, along with color diagrams and pictures.

Ancient Pyramids

There are over 130 ancient pyramids in Egypt alone, mostly built as tombs for pharaohs and their close associates. The Great Pyramid of Giza is by far the most famous, and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Giza pyramids were built to align perfectly with the Orion constellation, though scientists and historians are unsure why.

In fact, a lot of the pyramids still remain a mystery to us, with some people even claiming they were built by aliens! This worksheet bundle dives into the fascinating history of the Ancient Egyptian pyramids, and even introduces some other similar structures found elsewhere in the world.

These worksheets are just the beginning! We’ve got dozens of bundles for kids who are interested in Ancient Egypt, all full of fun activities and amazing facts. Check them out!