Ancient Egypt Books and Unit

Ancient Egypt Unit and lapbook
I'm in the middle of teaching this at the moment, so it will be updated soon.

CORE BOOKS
Landmark - Landmark book of Ancient Egypt. This is a fabulous read and the spine for this unit. Read-aloud for 6 up.
RSM - The Real Story of Mankind (free ebook - http://www.puritans.net/curriculum/Real%20Story%20of%20Mankind.pdf
Usborne - Usborne Guide to Ancient Egypt. Fits in really well with illustrations for the Landmark.
HPAC ebook - Evan Moor history pockets Ancient Civilizations. I blow hot and cold over these - too simple, but provide lots of nice things to put in a lapbook, so use it a lot.

OTHER USEFUL BOOKS - not worth getting for this unit alone
How children lived (DK) - pp10-11 (Egypt)


FICTION/READ-ALOUDS
Temple Cat - Andrew Clements. Pre K/K. Thin on text; borrow, don't buy.
Casting the gods adrift - Geraldine McCaughrean. E/UE (Akhenaten) - excellent! - see review
A Place in the Sun - Jill Rubalcaba. E/UE (Ramses II) Excellent! - See review.
Tirzah - Lucille UE+ (Passover, exodus, desert); see review.
Cleopatra - Adele Geras E/UE. (Cleopatra) - visually interesting; diary ok and full of historical facts.

Books for older readers, or not managed to source:-
Egyptian Diary - Richard Platt. If it's like Castle Diary, probably very good.
Mara, Daughter of the Nile
The Golden Goblet - Mcgraw...
The Cat of Bubastes - G. A. Henty. I've started the unabridged version and it's a bit slow - maybe (gulp) get an abridged one! There's an audio one out there.
Cleopatra - Diane Stanley

ACTIVITY BOOKS AND OTHER THINGS:-
Punch out Egyptian masks (including Tutankhamen and Nefertiti)
DK Egypt sticker book (excellent)
Bellerophon Egypt colouring book (has Tutankhamen's mask etc)

CD-ROM
History Explorer - bit on Egypt
CD
Egyptian Treasures - Jim Weiss - good; mixture of history and myths. Especially good on discovery of the Valley of the Kings etc.
DVD
BBC Egypt series.
Joseph ('Bible' series - Ben Kingsley) - excellent! About 3 hours long.
The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille). Again, about 3 hours long: split into sessions. Amazing Exodus crowd scenes. It's slow but satisfying and reverent.
Moses, Prince of Egypt.

Here are the bones of what we are doing. For each 'unit', I've included one historical figure etc and one more vague topic, as dd can't abide studying the latter unless they're slipped under the wire...

1. How do we know about Egypt? - the Rosetta Stone; education and writing

Landmark: 'The Rediscovery of Ancient Egypt'
Usborne for rosetta stone and education/ writing.
DVD - BBC: the mystery of the Rosetta Stone (good reinforcement).
- Key facts: Rosetta stone was in hieroglyphics, demotic and Greek; scholars understood Greek, so could begin to translate. Champollion used cartouches to crack the code
- Make Rosetta stone-shaped accordion book

2. Early history - unification of Egypt under Menes: geography, daily life (nuts and bolts of civilization)

MENES
Landmark - 'Menes' chapter
Usborne pp16-17: Early Egypt
- Key facts: Menes the Unifier united Upper and Lower Egypt in about 3200BC. The red and white crown of Egypt united the white crown of Upper Egypt and the red crown of Lower Egypt.
Childhood, toys, pets
How Children lived pp10-11
- Lapbook: make 'Menes the Unifier' card with the crown depicted.

DAILY LIFE
Geography facts
- use a globe and atlas.
- Lapbook: complete HPAC Eypt words to know; colour fertile areas on map

THE NILE
Usborne pp92-3 (travel)
- Lapbook: make the HPAC Nile booklet

HOUSES ETC
Usborne pp74-83
- build lego Eyptian home: compare with Greek one.

FOOD

3. Cheops (Khufu) and the Great Pyramid at Giza; Mummies

CHEOPS
Landmark p40f
Usborne pp18-19 (pyramids, Cheops, Sphinx) and pp66-67 (Giza)
- Make up 'shanty' about what hard work it was to build the Great Pyramid.
- make the little HPAC pyramid.
- Lapbook: make Cheops and Great Pyramid fact card

MUMMIES
Usborne pp60-64

4. Invasion and deliverance; Egyptian religion



5. Queen Hatshepsut, 'His Majesty, Herself'; the role of Pharaoh.

6. Akhnaten; temples and everyday religion; art in Egypt.
Read Landmark; 'The Criminal of Akhetaten'

- Key facts. Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhnaten to reflect is belief in one god rather than the traditional group of gods - the Aten, or the physical disk of the Sun. He moved the court away from Thebes (and the temple of Amun) to the new 'City of the Horizons' he had built in the desert - Akhetaten. The art produced during his reign was very different from the highly stylized forms which had dominated Eghptian art for a thousand years; for example, Akhenaten commissioned pictures of his family in situations from daily life.

7. Tutankhamen
Read Tut's Mummy: Lost and Found
Read Landmark; Tutankhamen half of Akhenaten chapter.
Watch BBC Egypt: Tutankhamen episodes.

- Key facts. Pharaoh Tutankhamen (perhaps the half-brother of Akhenaten) died at 18. His tomb was discovered in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter, supported financially by Lord Carnarvon. The importance of the discovery was immense, as every other royal tomb had been robbed. Tutankhamen's tomb was covered by some old huts, which had helped it avoid detection.

8. Ramses II; court life.

- Key Facts. The most famous event of Ramses II's reign was his 'victory' of Kadesh against the Hittites. As the Pharaoh told it, he single-handedly fought off 250 Hittite warriors. More wall-space on Egyptian temples is taken up with this battle than anything else. The battle was not in fact decisive and hostilities against the Hittites only ended with a treaty and Ramses II marrying a daughter of the Hittite king.
By the end of Ramses II's reign, Egypt was on the decline. The Sea Peoples eventually overwhelmed Egypt, then Alexander the Great. The Ptolemies were the last dynasty; the last Pharaoh was Cleopatra.

9. Moses, the Passover, the Exodus.

10. The last Pharaoh - Cleopatra; the fall of Egypt; A Christian perspective.

Read Cleopatra (Geras).
Read The Real Story of Mankind; Egypt section.

LAYOUT OF THE LAPBOOK

Cover - nice colouring page

Centre left page:-
Nile pull-down
Rich and poor minibook

Centre page:- FAMOUS PEOPLE
History fact card pockets
Great Pyramid booklet
Hatshepsut booklet
Akhenaten booklet

Centre left page:- WRITING AND ART
Words to know (ACHP)
Rosetta Stone concertina
Names in hieroglyphics - L, Cleopatra
Akhenaten's art booklet (comparing traditional and Akhenaten's art)

Back of left page:- ARCHAEOLOGY
Mummies
Myth of Isis and Osiris
Discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb booklet

Back pocket for other work

read aloud booklist: stage 4

What reading stage?:-
Stage 1: Evocative text with pictures that enable a parent to talk to the child about what is happening.
Stage 2: Stories of children and their worlds. Appeal to toddlers and very young children. Simple stories but rich text.
Stage 3: Simple chapter books and other books with lots to think about.
Stage 4: Books that are technically for any age but where we found the themes and emotional level suitable for younger children.

I'm aiming to keep this list updated. The books are listed roughly in order of difficulty.

Narnia books - C. S. Lewis
Charlotte's Web - E. B. White
Stig of the Dump - Clive King (but watch the last chapter - looks like child sacrifice for those old enough to understand - it just means missing out a sentence). Otherwise excellent.
Little House series - Laura Ingalls Wilder
101 Dalmatians - Dodie Smith (but NOT The Starlight Barking, which is drivel)
Mr Popper's Penguins - Richard Attwater
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl. I know it's hard to get away from them, but I don't like the others very much...
Mrs Frisbe and the rats of NIMH - Robert O'Brien
The Borrowers - Mary Norton
The Dolls House - Rumer Godden. Captures tension well, but could be unsettling for a soft-hearted child (though I haven't met many of those...)
The Secret Garden, A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild
The Sign of the Beaver - Elizabeth George Speare

And here are the ones that didn't work for us (sorry if they're your favourites...)

My Father's Dragon - R. S. Gannett. A sort of modern fairy tale that was just too knowing for me - but L loves it.
Because of Winn-Dixie - Kate DiCamillo. Don't get me started. If you want a book reflecting the sense of victory that we have in Christ, don't read this. The small world is made a little better by some self help.
Pinocchio - I stopped reading at the point where Pinocchio was being hung from a tree and was half dead, while a witch with blue hair watched from a nearby house. It's also badly written.

Bible resources from birth up

These have been the most useful Bible resources for us:-

BIBLES
Adam, Adam, what do you see? - Bill Martin
Beginners' Bible
One Year Bible for Kids, Challenge edition - Tyndale

CATECHISM
Right Choices - Kenneth Taylor
Everything a child should know about God - Kenneth Taylor
A faith to grow on - John MacArthur

HOLY LIVING
Storytime with the Millers, Wisdom and the Millers, Prudence and the Millers, Schooldays and the Millers - Mildred Martin
Little Pilgrim's Progress - Helen Talyor

MUSIC
Hide 'em in your heart - Steve Green

Booklist: stage 3

What reading stage?:-
Stage 1: Evocative text with pictures that enable a parent to talk to the child about what is happening.
Stage 2: Stories of children and their worlds. Appeal to toddlers and very young children. Simple stories but rich text.
Stage 3: Simple chapter books and other books with lots to think about.
Stage 4: Books that are technically for any age but where we found the themes and emotional level suitable for younger children.

I'm aiming to keep this list updated. These are some of our favourite books, listed roughly in order of difficulty.

The Julian Stories and others by Ann Cameron
Henry Huggins, Henry and Ribsy and others - Beverly Cleary
Ramona series - Beverly Cleary
Flat Stanley - Jeff Brown
Milly Molly Mandy series - Joyce Lankester Brisley
Church Mouse series - Graham Oakley
Boxcar Children and as many of the series as you can take - Gertrude Warner
Famous children series - artists and musicians
Paddle to the Sea, The Tree in the Trail and others by Holling C Holling

Booklist: Stage 2

What reading stage?:-
Stage 1: Evocative text with pictures that enable a parent to talk to the child about what is happening.
Stage 2: Stories of children and their worlds. Appeal to toddlers and very young children. Simple stories but rich text.
Stage 3: Simple chapter books and other books with lots to think about.
Stage 4: Books that are technically for any age but where we found the themes and emotional level suitable for younger children.

I'm aiming to keep this list updated. These are some of our favourite books, listed roughly in order of difficulty.

Goodnight, Moon - Margaret Wise Brown (also Stage 1)
Floss, First Snow and other Kim Lewis books.
Whistle for Willie and The Snowy Day - Ezra Jack Keats
The Tiger who came to tea - Judith Kerr
Farmer Duck - Martin Waddell
The Alfie series - Shirley Hughes (the odd Bible reference)
Lucy and Tom series - Shirley Hughes
The Mog series - Judith Kerr (but not 'Goodbye, Mog') - cats
No Roses for Harry - Gene Zion
Dogger - Shirley Hughes
A Squash and a Squeeze, The Smartest Giant in Town, the Gruffalo and others by Julia Donaldson
The Little House and others by Virginia Lee Burton
Hairy Maclary series - Lynley Dodd
Tim series - Edward Ardizzone
Angelina Ballerina series - Katherine Holabird