Teaching about Ancient Egypt?

Ancient Egypt is a very popular topic in primary schools, especially at Key Stage 2. And, here at Busy Things, we’ve some incredibly comprehensive and well-researched activities to help your pupils learn about the era.

Discover what life was like in Ancient Egyptian times through our interactive activities and understand how the dynasties developed geographically, as well as in historic terms via our maps.

It truly is an amazing topic area, worthy of its popularity. So come and explore the people, its gods and goddesses, its pyramids and gory burial traditions!

Where to start?

Our introductory jigsaws, Ancient Egyptian timelines, maps and Ancient Egyptian vocabulary activities are great places to start as they set the scene and give pupils a taster of what is to come.

We have two timelines and three maps for you to present to your pupils:

• Ancient Egyptian timeline (version 1) concerns itself with naming the different eras within the period. You will see the empire was at its most powerful during the new, middle and new kingdoms, and that there were weaker periods in between.
• Ancient Egyptian timeline (version 2) focuses on key events between 3150 B.C. and 30 B.C.
• The Map of the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt looks at Egypt as it was in 2500 B.C., with the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom maps focusing on how it was in 1900 B.C. and 430 B.C. respectively. It grew substantially over time as you will see. Can your pupils work out which countries these are today?

Life in Ancient Egypt

From there, you can look at what life was like in those early times. Temples were an important part of the ancient Egyptians’ way of life. What were they like? How did the poor, rich and royalty differ in what they wore? How were hieroglyphics used (and can you decipher them)?

The following activities will give your pupils a good insight into these areas and what the society was like:

Headdresses and hieroglyphics in particular often featured in paintings and carvings, so your pupils may spot some in other activities of ours, such as “Write about an Egyptian artwork”.

Their beliefs

Another important element of life in Ancient Egypt, which differs from our own, are the gods and goddesses that the ancient Egyptians honoured. You will discover facts about:
• the most prominent of these through time,
• how the importance of some, such as Amun, strengthened whilst others, like Ra, lessened
• what each governed.

The interactive worksheets, writing projects and jigsaws below cover these areas:

Egyptian gods and goddesses
Gods and goddesses of the Egyptian Old Kingdom
Gods and goddesses of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom
Gods and goddesses of the Egyptian New Kingdom

Ancient Egypt introductory jigsaw 3

Famous Pharaohs

From the work already completed, your pupils will undoubtedly have uncovered some details about the pharaohs from the different kingdoms. Whether you want them to find out more about one of those or focus on the most famous like Tutankhamun or Cleopatra is up to you. Our ‘Famous Egyptian pharaohs and queens’ writing project templates will most definitely help your pupils collate and present their findings though.

The Pyramids

Last but not least, we can’t call a blog about Ancient Egypt complete without mentioning the pyramids and all the gory rituals associated with them (that children just love!) With Busy Things’ Pyramids writing project, you can explore the pyramids as a whole or focus on a particular one.

Don’t forget the Mummification activity though. Your pupils will love to know where each body part goes and the purpose of canopic jars!

Want to see the Busy Things activities we’ve mentioned?

If you already have a trial with Busy Things, or subscribe, you will be able to find all the Busy Things activities mentioned above (plus many more!) when you log in. Simply type either the title of the activity or ‘Ancient Egypt’ into the Search area within the welcome page.

If you’re new to Busy Things, why not take out a 28-day free trial with us and see what we offer for yourself?

Simply click here and we’ll organise it for you. There is no obligation to subscribe afterwards.
The selection here really is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of activities for Ancient Egypt, so we’d fully recommend delving deeper if history resources are what you’re searching for!