Download Exploring Ancient Egypt Unit Summary

Exploring Ancient Egypt
Unit Summary
Students will fully immerse themselves in Ancient Egypt throughout this unit
plan. First, students will learn about the environment the Egyptians lived in, from
the Nile River, to the sandy desserts. They will explore how the Egyptians
survived and thrived understanding the lifestyle of the ancient Egyptians. Delving
into the workings of the government and Pharaohs, the economy, and the
hierarchy of citizens, students will get the opportunity to explore the life of an
Egyptian through their eyes. We will then explore the religious practices by
researching various Gods and what they represented. Students will then get the
chance to investigate how the pyramids were built and for what reason. They will
get to explore a pyramid using an interactive game and get the chance to build one
themselves. We will finish up the unit plan with the mummification process and
the afterlife. This unit can be used to link Roman and Greek lesson plans with this
one.
Curriculum Framing Questions
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At a Glance
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Grade Level: 9th
Subject: History, Geography
Topics: Ancient Egypt
Higher-Order Thinking Skills:
Critical analysis and
interpretation of religious
practices, questioning,
assessment and evaluation of
content
Key Learning: Egyptian
Religious Practices, Pyramid
Construction, Pharaoh
Hierarchy, Mummification
Time Needed: 2-3 weeks
Standards: SSWH1, SSWG3
ISTE Standards: Creativity
and Innovation, Research and
Information Fluency, and
Critical Thinking, Problem
Solving, and Decision Making
Essential Question:
What was the historical impact the ancient Egyptians left?
Unit Questions:
What were the geographical conditions of Egypt during the Egyptian
Things You Need
period?
 Assessments
How did the ancient Egyptians live?
 Objectives
Why did the ancient Egyptians have so many Gods?
 Resources
What is the mummification process?
Everything is located at the end of the
Content Questions:
Unit Plan.
Why was the Nile River so important to the Egyptians?
What are the government, economic, and socio-lifestyles of the ancient Egyptians?
How did the Egyptians perceive the Gods that they worshipped?
What are the beliefs of the Egyptians about the afterlife?
Assessment Process
We will be using a variety of different assessment tools to evaluate the students’ growth through the unit plan.
This will help the instructor set reasonable objectives so that the students have obtainable goals to work
towards. By using both formative and summative grades, the student will be able to grow academically with
thorough assessments that have feedback.
Prerequisite Skills
Students will need to have an understanding of basic geography and have already discussed Roman and Greek
history so that they can reflect of how those cultures impacted Egyptian culture.
Instructional Procedures
Prior to Instruction
Accumulate various books and Internet resources on Ancient Egypt (some are located below). Gather all
materials needed:
 Poster Board
 Markers / Colored Pencils
 Various Printable Activities
 Primary Sources
 Book Computer Room for 2 days
Getting Started
Start with a discussion at the beginning of class about the main question: What was the historical impact the
Ancient Egyptians left? Ask the students to predict what the Egyptians left behind that aided other societies.
Students should envisage what life was like for the ancient Egyptians and what their customs were. Using a
SmartBoard, have the students write their responses to these questions and provoke a discussion.
Introduction
Begin by discussing the timeline of ancient Egypt. Over 5,000 years ago, various tribes of people lived around
the Nile but were not a uniformed group. The land was only known as Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. Between
3000 and 2649 BC, Upper and Lower Egypt united together to form Egypt. The capital was located in
Memphis. Now discuss the different Kingdoms. First there was the Old Kingdom, which was form at the
beginning in 2649 BC to 2150 BC. The pyramids were constructed during the Old Kingdom. Next was the
Middle Kingdom which was when Egypt’s Pharaohs were at their most powerful. Lastly, we move into the New
Kingdom, which is when Egypt began to expand to other countries. Also, the capital was moved to Thebes.
Ancient Egypt ended when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and began to rule. When Queen Cleopatra VII
died, Egypt became part of the Roman Empire.
Discuss why there were 3 different Kingdoms and how Egypt fell in 30 BC.
The Geography of Egypt
Begin this lesson by showing students a map of Egypt and point out Upper Egypt, Lower Egypt,
the Nile River, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Red Sea. Discuss the climate and terrain of Egypt
and ask students why it is so important to live close to water. Discuss with students the
importance of the Nile River. The Nile River floods every year bringing a culmination of water
and mud to its banks. This mud helps fertilize the land making it possible to grow crops along
the shores. Discuss the deserts located on either side of the Nile and how this helped prevent
Egypt from being invaded. They also had many precious and semi-precious stones located
within these sands.
Read the story located on the British Museum website at
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/geography/story/main.html and have the students interact with the story as it
goes along. The students get to choose where the boy goes and what he does with the terrain of ancient Egypt.
Egyptian Lifestyles
Discuss the roles of the ancient Egyptians and the importance they played on the
development of Egypt. Create a PowerPoint for the students that show the
hierarchy of the people.
Pharoah &
Queen
Viceroy of Kush, Royal
Nurse, Vizier of Lower Egypt,
Scribe, Vizier of Upper Egypt,
High Priest, High Court Lady,
Gerneal
Merchants, Musicisan, Local Priestesses,
Potters, Local Priest, Skilled Artisan,
Merchants
Peasant woman and children, Farmers selling produce, beer
sellers, foot soldier, archer
Servants, Quarriers, Manual Workers, Slaves
Discuss the various farming seasons. They were the Akhet, which was when the Nile flooded, Early Peret,
which was when the crops were planted, and Late Peret, which was the harvest. Most Egyptians were farmers.
Homes were similar to Roman homes being mostly villas within the cities. Discuss how trading produce and
jewels were the basis of the economy and the Egyptians were known to be a very rich country. If time permits,
have students play an ancient Egyptian board game called Senat located on
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/life/activity/main.html.
The Pharaohs
Discuss with students the importance of having a leader to govern the country. Talking to
the students about the Egyptian rulers, called Pharaohs. Egyptians believed that the Gods chose
the Pharaohs and could bestow greatness on Egypt or take everything away if displeased. The
Pharaohs believed in primogeniture, which is the process in which the eldest son will become
Pharaoh when their father dies. Most pharaohs believed in polygamy and have multiple wives,
but the first wife was the only Queen, all others were of lesser value. Those wives did not live
with the Pharaoh but in villas located in other cities. The Queen equally helped the Pharaoh rule
the country. There have only been 4 female pharaohs. The most famous Pharaoh is Tutankhamen, who was 8
years old when he first ruled. Archeologists know that he was very well liked because of the treasure found
within his tomb when Howard Carter discovered him in 1922.
Computer Room Day: Divide students into 6 groups and ask them to look up a famous Pharaoh. Have each
group write a short biography on the Pharaoh of their choice and draw a picture of them. The biography should
be one page long. It needs to contain basic information about the Pharaoh, any major developments in Egypt
during his reign, and an interesting fact about the Pharaoh. Grade this using a checklist as a formative grade. It
is due at the end of class.
Checklist:
1.) Colorful Pharaoh Picture
2.) Basic Information: Name, Birth and Death Year, Wife’s name, Precessor and Successor.
3.) Major Egyptian Developments
4.) Interesting Fact
5.) At least 1 page long
The Gods
Egyptians worshipped many Gods and Goddesses. Many believed that the Gods picked the
Pharaohs and those were the divine chosen ones to rule Egypt. Create a PowerPoint discussing the
various Gods and Goddesses. Each God or Goddess had a role to play and if Egyptians didn’t
worship them then a plague would descend Egypt from the Heavens causing Egypt to fall.
Students will use the activity located below to name the God or Goddess and what they were
worshipped for. This can either be an in class activity or a homework assignment and will be
graded for completion.
The Pyramids
Discuss the need for pyramids. Ask the students to predict why they think the
Egyptians would construct massive pyramids. Give some background information
on the pyramids. Pyramids were created as a tomb for the Pharaoh. There were
many rooms and passageways inside the pyramid that housed various items.
Egyptians believed that you could bring your worldly goods with you to the
afterlife so they would house a room, called the Main Room, where the body was
located as well as all the treasures they would need in the afterlife. Other rooms
would have the bodies of slaves, food and drink, transportations such as carts, the Pharaoh’s favorite pets
mummified, and worshipped animals such as beetles.
Pyramids were made by an extensive system and took normally 20 years to make! A roadway of beams would
be placed down and donkeys would carry water that was poured onto the roadways to make them slick.
Workers would attach rope to giant square rocks and more than 30 men would pull them along to the
foundation. It is estimated that one rock weighed as much as a giant elephant. From there, they created a pulley
system that hoisted the rocks up to create the pyramid.
Computer Day Room: Students will go to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/games/pyramid_challenge/index.shtml and build their own pyramid.
Have them print out their finished pyramid at the end of the class for an in-class activity to grade for
completion.
Mummification
Ask students why they think Egyptians choose to mummify their dead. Discuss the afterlife with students and
the process of mummification. Egyptians wrote on walls about the afterlife and archeologists later compiled it
and called it the Book of the Dead. They believed that they would go to the Field of Reeds, as they called the
afterlife. Death was seen as a journey in which they would live forever in the Field of Reeds. The Gods and
Goddesses would become their rulers and all had to bow down to them, even the Pharaohs.
Many steps went in to preparing the mummy. Egyptians believed that for a
person’s soul to live forever, their body must not rot. A priest would attend the
ceremony of taking care of the body and this could take several weeks! First, the
organs are removed and preserved. The liver, stomach, and lungs were the only
organs removed. They would salt them, dry them out, and return them to the body
or to Canopic jars. Then the doctor would remove the brain with a hook through
the nose to pull it out. The brain would be thrown away as it was deemed useless. Third, the wrapping would
begin. Multiple wraps would be put on with layers of jewelry and charms within each wrap. The body would
then be placed in a small painted coffin and usually 3 more coffins would cover the smaller one. A death mask
would be put on at the end. If you were rich, it would be made of precious stones and gold.
For this activity, students will be asked to create a mummy as a class using the site http://oiarchive.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/mummy.html. Discuss each step with the students.
Final Assessment
Each student will complete a 4 square. This will be a summative grade. Teachers will grade this using a
checklist for each item. 4 square worksheet is located below.
Wrapping Up
Ask students to discuss the essential question again and write their findings on the board. Compare it to the
beginning of the unit.
Differentiated Instruction
Resource Student:
 Modify activities based on the students IEP information
 Create Fill-in-the-Blank notes for each lesson and highlight words on PowerPoint of importance.
 Set up heterogeneous groups
 Assist students with activities
Gifted Student:
 Have the students read exerts from Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff and write short journals about their
findings in lui of activity.
 Have students complete more squares on final assessment.
Assessments
Gods Activity
Picture of God
Name
Significance
4 Square Assessment
Instructions: Pick 4 out of the 6 squares.
Write a 2-page paper about the geography in Egypt.
Include information about the Nile River, the desert,
the Mediterranean Sea, and the Red Sea. Discuss the
various climates and crops that could have grown
there. Use at least 1 source and cite it with MLA
citations.
Pretend you are an Egyptian and you want to tell
your sister, who lives in Rome, all about Egypt.
Write 2 postcards detailing your life and the sights
you see everyday. Create a colorful picture on the
front of the postcards.
Guess what?! You just became the new pharaoh of
Egypt. Write a one page paper detailing your plans
on how you want to expand Egypt. Plan out if you
want to build new buildings, conquer new lands, or
how you want to help Egypt profit more with trade
routes.
Draw a new God and explain the significance of he
or she. Include colorful pictures, a new name, and
the significance of the God or Goddess.
Create a 3D pyramid with pictures of the inside
rooms. Make this colorful and creative.
Create a poster about the mummification process.
Put lots of details up about the process and colorful
pictures.
4 Square Checklist
Rubric:
4 – Has 2 pages, detailed information, perfect
citations, and has 0 grammatical/spelling errors.
3 – Has 2 pages, some detailed information, good
citations, and very few grammatical/spelling errors
2 – Has 1 to 1½ pages, some detailed information,
good citations, and some grammatical/spelling errors
1 – Has 1 page, little detailed information, no
citations, and many grammatical/spelling errors
Checklist:
 2 postcards
 Colorful picture
 Details about Egypt
Rubric:
4 – Detailed information and has 0
grammatical/spelling errors.
3 – Some detailed information and very few
grammatical/spelling errors
2 – Some detailed information and some
grammatical/spelling errors
1 – Little detailed information and many
grammatical/spelling errors
Checklist:
 Colorful picture
 Significance
 New Name
Checklist:
 3D pyramid
 Multiple rooms inside
 Use of colors
 Creativity
Checklist:
 Has the correct process
 Colorful Pictures
 Lots of description
Objectives
Students will be able to:
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Describe the geographic terrain of Egypt and what crops would have been produced there.
Answer how the Egyptians survived in the desert and why they prospered for so long.
Understand the lifestyle of an ancient Egyptian and how they worked together to form a community.
Explain the importance of the Pharaohs and how they worked with their citizens to create a stable
community.
Comprehend how important religion was in the daily lives of Egyptians and how they functioned around
the religious rules that were set in place.
Recognize the building process of the pyramids and their significance.
Grasp the process of mummification and how it was a vital necessity to their religious practices.
Resources
Internet:
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/geography/story/main.html
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/life/activity/main.html.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/games/pyramid_challenge/index.shtml
http://oi-archive.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/mummy.html.
http://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/studying-ancient-egypt-9-12.html
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/menu.html
http://www.ancient-egypt.org
Book:
Tyldesley, Joyce. The Mummy. Barnes & Noble (New York, 2006).