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Learning about Ancient Egyptians was one of my favorite topics as a child, so I wanted to share my love and enthusiasm for this period in history with my five-year-old son. This gave me the idea to incorporate our love of CONNETIX and bring STEAM learning into this fantastic topic, by creating ancient Egyptian-themed homeschool activities.
What do you think of when you hear ancient Egyptians? Click in the menu below to learn more on each of these topics:
Did you know the first kind of ‘pyramid’ was rectangular and not pyramid shaped? They were called mastabas – a type of tomb that was rectangular in structure with inward sloping sides and a flat-roof, constructed out of mudbricks or limestone. These tombs marked the burial sites of many Egyptian pharaohs or nobles before the pyramids.
The mastabas structure then evolved to develop the step pyramid, where each row of blocks of the pyramid creates a ‘step’. The first pyramid was a type of step pyramid, constructed by stacking one mastaba directly on top of another slightly larger one. Repeating this process many times to create the pyramid.
Early attempts to make a smooth-faced version resulted in a bent pyramid.
The bent pyramid rises from the desert with an incline of 54-degrees, but the top section was built at the shallower angle of 43 degrees, resulting in the appearance of a “bent” pyramid.
Early attempts to make a smooth-faced version resulted in a bent pyramid.
The bent pyramid rises from the desert with an incline of 54-degrees, but the top section was built at the shallower angle of 43 degrees, resulting in the appearance of a “bent” pyramid.
The first true smooth-sided pyramid was called the red pyramid, named after its appearance, as it was made of red limestone.
There are around 100 pyramids in Egypt, with the Great Pyramids of Giza being some of the most magnificent man-made structures in history. They are around 4,600 years old and were the tallest human-made structure for 3,800 years.
All but one of the known ancient Egyptian pyramids have four sides to them, therefore were square-based pyramids. A pyramid is a three-dimensional (3D) shape with a polygon base and flat triangular sides that join at a common point (called the apex).
Though the Egyptian pyramids are square-based pyramids, there were several other types of pyramids, each with a different polygon as its base such as triangular, pentagonal, hexagonal and octagonal-based pyramids.
Use CONNETIX to determine the nets of these shapes and build different pyramids. Extend this activity by counting how many sides or vertices the pyramids each have. You could also calculate the volume of a pyramid using this formula: Volume of a pyramid = 1/3 × [Base Area] × height
The ancient Egyptians were first immerging in 2925 BC with the very first Pharaoh of Egypt called Menes. The civilization lasted 3000 years with the last Pharoh, Cleopatra VII.
Pharaohs were the powerful rulers and often declared themselves as descendants of the gods. The ancient Egyptians believed in many gods and goddesses, who were used to explain natural events and were often called upon during rituals to help them. Kehepri was the god of creation, movement of the sun and rebirth. The god was represented by a scarab beetle, they believed that the god pushes the sun around like a scarab beetle pushes a ball of dung.
The god of the Sun, Ra, was very important to the ancient Egyptians. Open air temples or solar temples were built to honor Ra with a tower instead of a statue, as Ra was represented by sunlight itself.
The goddess Bastet was known as the daughter of Ra and was represented by a cat. They often wore jewelry to ward off evil spirits.
Activity idea: Make a Protective Amulet by decorating a tile and attaching it to a piece of string as a necklace.
A wonderful way to explore ancient Egypt is looking at hieroglyphics.
The Ancient Egyptians called hieroglyphics the words of the gods. Around 700 hieroglyphic characters have been discovered. These characters paved the way for the alphabet we have today. The hieroglyphic signs may be read either as pictures, as symbols for objects, or as symbols for sounds.
Can they make their name? They could crack a code once they are familiar with the designs.
The earliest known maze puzzles date back to the ancient Egyptian period, found carved inside the walls of tombs. These mazes were to serve a spiritual purpose and were believed to represent the journey through the underworld, and were supposed to help guide the dead through the afterlife.
The ancient Egyptians believed in the afterlife and to ensure this was a pleasant one they used to make grand coffins and burial tombs, and preserve the bodies forever as mummies. The mummification process took about 70 days. Starting with washing, then organ removal, then drying using salt and baking soda. Next, stuffing with linen or sand to keep the shape, then make-up and jewelry were added. Herbs and oils were added before they were wrapped in bandages while spells and rituals took place. They then added a death mask painted like the deceased, placed them in a sarcophagus and then in the tomb with their possessions.
It was believed that death masks aided the soul’s search of its human body after death. Working alongside the mummification, the two rituals show the belief of life and death as two connected processes that are forever linked. The best-known example is Tutankhamun’s death mask, made of gold.
Activity idea: Â create a death mask and even include a symmetry activity to match.
The ancient Egyptians were an amazing civilization – they were the first to introduce mummification, medicine, agriculture, fermentation, engineering and architecture. They were also pioneers in astronomy. They are incredibly fascinating as we know so much about them and their everyday lives, which makes them more relatable.
We hope this blog has inspired you to incorporate these activities linking the ancient Egyptians to CONNETIX play. Remember to tag @connetix_tiles in your play ideas. I would also love to hear your thoughts and any additional ideas for this topic. Check us out @mylittlebrightsparks on Instagram.
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