egypt

The Geronimo Stilton Book Fourth Journey Fun Egypt Game

September 27, 2022 | Leave a Comment
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Today in the Geronimo Stilton The Fourth Journey Through Time in the Geronimo Stilton Books, we’re making a fun DIY Egypt Senet Game.

So, I’m combining a love for Geronimo Stilton, Ancient Egypt, and board games into one fun and educational activity.

The Geronimo Stilton Book Fourth Journey Fun Egypt Game

Flipping through the Geronimo Stilton The Fourth Journey Through Time, particularly the first adventure which is Cleopatra’s Reign in 48 BC we decided to learn about games.

So, we created the oldest known board game in the world which is Senet.

Many Egyptians were found buried with a Senet (or Game of Passing) game to represent passing to the afterlife.

Geronimo Stilton Book Pictures

This Geronimo Stilton book is just like the others.

The pages highlight great vocabulary words for the theme and show fashions of the time period.

And beautiful architecture like Cleopatra’s Palace.

This is a great way to introduce your child to ancient Egypt, the symbols, customs, and one of the ways they passed their time.

While this Geronimo Stilton story didn’t mention Senet, I love to think that Cleopatra sat around on a lazy afternoon playing a game of Senet.

And sipping on a favorite beverage while obviously being fanned and hand fed her favorite foods.

The oldest evidence of Senet we have are pieces found as far back as 3100 BCE.

And the hieroglyphics resembling Senet in the tomb of Merknera.

The rules were lost, but they have been put together using context clues, paintings, and the rules of similar games.

We checked out as much information on the internet as we could.

And we put together what we think is roughly the rules for the game.

Rather than dice they used colored sticks to determine how many moves to make.

The object is to move all your pieces off the board. It feels similar to backgammon or a very primitive chess game.

How to Make a Kid’s Egyptian Senet Game

Now, let’s make our own version of Senet.

You will need:

stiff cardboard
4 wood craft sticks
A ruler
Colored sharpies or other markers
White and black clay

Then, here are the directions for creating the game.

Paint or color 4 sticks black on one side and a bright color or you can draw patterns on the other side.

Cut a piece of cardboard to roughly 5” x 12”.

You could make it smaller or larger.

I used the carboard back from a pack of cardstock.

You could upcycle a cereal box or whatever type of cardboard you have on hand.

Mark of 3 rows of equal width with your ruler and draw the lines with a pencil.

Next, draw 10 vertical lines so that you have 3 rows of 10 squares. These squares represent “houses”.

Trace over all the lines with a black marker.

The original game does not have numbered squares, but you will want to mark yours at least lightly in the corner to track it easier.

The numbers snake back and forth.

Instead of starting at the first square in the 2nd row you will drop down from 10 to 11. Then, move toward the left and drop down from 20 to 21 and move right.

On each of the following squares draw the symbols for each:

Square 15-House of Rebirth, Ankh
Square 26- House of Happiness, bird
Square 27-House of Water, three squiggly lines
Square 28- House of the Three Truths, three dots forming a triangle
Square 29- House of the Re-Atoum, Eye of Horus

Finally, you want to create tokens to move.

You can use pawns from another game, glass gems (flat marbles) or create your own by using air dry or oven bake clay.

We tried to make ours to look similar, but simpler version of the original tokens.

And we formed the black ones into drops and flattened out the white ones like this. Bake or air dry according to package directions.

Then, create rules for your game.

Creating Rules for Ancient Egypt DIY SENET Game

Look at some of these rules.

Place pawns along the top row, alternating colors.

Player 1 takes first, third, fifth, seventh, and ninth houses. Player 2 takes second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth houses

Toss your “dice” and make your move according to what side lands upright:
4 colored side up- move 5 spaces and throw again
3 colored side up- move 3 spaces
2 colored side up- move 2 spaces
1 colored side up- move 1 space

Two tokens cannot occupy the same square. So, if you land on a square with someone else’s pawn you move theirs back to where you were.

But if they have two or more pieces next to each other the house is protected and you will not be able to move their pawn or finish your turn.

Meaning of Special Places in DIY Senet Game

If you land on space 27 you go to Space 15 (House of Rebirth).

Every piece must stop on Space 26.

In some versions you must throw a certain number to leave the space (you can make this a house rule if you like).

For example, if you are on 25 and do not throw exactly one move you must stay there until your next turn and continue throwing until you can move the exact number of places to land there.

Space 27( House of Water)- if you land here, you are sent back to the House of Rebirth. If you fail to throw the correct number on space 28 or 29 you are sent here.

Space 28 (House of Three Truths)- You must throw a three to leave here, otherwise you are sent back to House of Water (27).

Space 29 (House of the Re-Atoum) You must throw a two to leave, if not you are sent back to the House of Water.

When you land on the last house you must toss your sticks each turn until on 1 colored stick is facing up and then you may remove your piece from the board.

Other Geronimo Stilton Book Activities

Then, add some ancient Egyptian activities.

Ancient Egyptian Hands-on Activities

Finally, because you’ll already have The Fourth Journey Through Time to use as a literature, add some of other Ancient Egypt homeschool hands-on activities.

Learning homeschool history should be just as much about doing as reading living history books.

Geronimo Stilton The Curse of The Cheese Pyramid Barbie Mummy

July 25, 2022 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Geronimo Stilton The Curse of The Cheese Pyramid is another fun book in the series of Geronimo Stilton books. It is the second book in the series.

Elementary students will love taking their favorite Geronimo Stilton book and turning it into a mini unit study with a few hands-on activities.

The Curse of the Cheese Pyramid is another adventure for Geronimo Stilton. He is off to Egypt to the Great Cheese Pyramid.

Geronimo Stilton The Curse of The Cheese Pyramid Barbie Mummy

So, this hands-on activity I am sharing with you today, mummifying a Barbie gives kids a little bit more understanding of the mummification process.

And you can easily tie in science and history perfectly with the fun book The Curse of the Cheese Pyramid. Matter of fact most of the books highlight some kind of geography or history.

Even if your kids are older like middle or high school the same activity can be altered to make it a bit more challenging so that the whole family can join in.

Books Of Geronimo Stilton

If you don’t know about Geronimo Stilton books let me give you a quick little overview. The fun series is aimed at early readers or ages 7 to 10 years old

And they follow the many and varied adventures of Geronimo Stilton editor and publisher at The Rodent’s Gazette.

Too, they read similar to a graphic novel.

Geronimo Stilton Four Cheese Box Set (Books 1-4)

For instance, the words are highlighted in different fonts, sizes, and colors. The series make it an engaging read for kids.

They are silly and outlandish which makes it especially great for reluctant readers.

Another point about the different fonts and colors of words are that some are for emphasis.

However, quite a few make great lessons for vocabulary, spelling words, and introduction to the eight parts of speech.

So be sure to make note of the words for several chapters.

And have your child look up the words and make flashcards to round out this mini lesson.

You certainly can use this fun book as a spine for language arts. Too, you can use this spine as independent reading or for a read aloud.

Ancient Egypt Mummifying a Barbie Craft

However, one of the best parts of each book is that you can add hands-on activity as Stilton is always on a globe-trotting adventure.

Today, since Stilton is off to Egypt, we learned about mummies in Ancient Egypt

Look at this short list of supplies to make a Barbie mummy.

A Barbie or similar doll (we grabbed a cheap one from Dollar Tree)
Gauze
Cooking oil
Salt (we used Epsom since we had that)
large dish big enough for the body to lay in
Essential oils
Scissors and construction paper

First, we made a death mask from construction paper and laid it aside.

Your kids can get elaborate with this part or keep it simple.

Then we made simple canopic jars by drawing them on paper.

After drawing the jars, we cut them out and taped them into a tube shape.

A quick google search will show you what each of the four gods, Hapy, Imsety, Duamutef and Qebhsenef looked like and which housed which organs.

We also used our TOOB Organs to examine the organs closely,

Then, we laid them out and talked about each function as the kids pretended to extract the organ and place it in the canopic jars.

Barbie Mummy

Next, this portion of the activity can be done or finished while you read aloud.

Have your child finish the death mask. And let your child draw them with whatever art medium they choose. We used markers.

First, the brain was pulled out through the nose, but considered unimportant in ancient Egyptian times, it was just tossed out.

Then, the stomach, intestines, lungs, and liver were extracted and placed in the correct jar.

The heart stayed in place in the body. Use tweezers for this part and let them pretend they are extracting each part.

Next, Egyptians would cover the body in salt to remove all moisture, this would take weeks but for the sake of time we waited just a few minutes.

We used Epsom salt as we had a ton on hand already.

And then we placed our prepared body in a large tupperware container and covered it in salt as well as we could.

Finally, the body would be anointed with oils and wrapped,.

If you have some on hand add essential oils to a little bit of cooking oil to add to the sensory experience, pour over the entire body.

We tightly wrapped our Barbie head to toe and then affixed her death mask with a bit of tape.

Obviously, you know your child best and can include the parts that you would choose and gloss over those that might be too much for a younger child.

For example, for older children you can add ideas like labeling the organs, give them spelling and vocabulary words like sarcophagus, hieroglyphic, and etc.

Too, you can extend the lesson by having them give a presentation in front of the whole family on the mummification process.

Geronimo Stilton The Curse of The Cheese Pyramid covers everything from mummies to pyramids as well as mentions of camels, pharaohs, and the eye of RA, giving you a large base for a unit study.

I can’t wait to dig in a little deeper and share more hands on activities with you! What do you think? Are you going to add this to your list of hands-on activities?

Other Resources You’ll Love

11 Easy Hands-On Ancient Egypt Projects for Middle School

April 22, 2022 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have gathered 11 easy hands-on Ancient Egypt project ideas for middle school. Also, look at my page homeschool middle school for more fun tips.

Learning about Ancient Egypt should be both fun and interactive during the middle school ages.

It’s not time to give up the fun at any age of learning.

11 Easy Hands-On Ancient Egypt Projects for Middle School

1. Make Mud Bricks.

Look at this fun Hands-on Ancient Egypt: Israelite Mud Bricks for Kids. With minimal material, most of which you have around the house, your middle school child will love making these mud bricks.

Ancient Egypt Projects for Middle School

2. Build a LEGO Math Calculator.

Next, look at this math slant project while studying about Ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptian Mathematics: Build a LEGO Math Calculator is a fun middle school project.

Studying about jewelry from Ancient Egypt doesn’t have to be hard. Look at this Fun Hands-On History: Ancient Egyptian Collar Craft.

3. Create an Ancient Egyptian Collar

One of the most famous forms of jewelry worn by the ancient Egyptians was the Usekh collar. Rich Egyptians often wore these broad necklaces on a daily basis and this collar craft is a fun way to understand about Egyptian necklaces.

Then to add a bit of art and drawing, your middle school child will love Ancient Egypt Civilization (Hands-on History): King Narmer Crown.

4. Mold a painting of the Ancient Egypt Double Crown

After all studying about the double crown and the significance to Ancient Egypt can be hard to understand. This easy hands-on project helps learning facts stick.

Projects for Middle School About Ancient Egypt

5. Play the Snake Game

In addition, I created this fun and Free Ancient Egypt Mehen Printable Board Game (Hands-on History) based on the popular snake game played by the Egyptians.

However, we really loved doing the Project Passport: Ancient Egypt from Home School in the Woods .

Not only did we enjoy many hands-on learning activities, but love learning about Upper and Lower Egypt, the maps and the printable activities. My post Ancient Egypt Homeschool Unit Study – Hands-on and FUN! has numerous activities in Project Passport.

6. Travel Egypt Without Leaving Your Home

Also, add in a few more hands-on fun ideas like this Birdcage Ancient Egypt Go Fish game.

7. Prepare cardboard Egyptian Pillars

And another Ancient Egypt project for middle school is to have your child prepare these beautiful smokin’ hot Egyptian cardboard pillars.

Hands-on Ancient Egypt Middle School Activities

At the end of our unit study co-op our group made these cardboard pillars; your crafty middle school kid will love doing them for a prop or drama your group has.

8. Tie in Ancient Egypt with Astronomy Notebooking Page

Furthermore, some middle school children will love a science tie in with Ancient Egypt like learning about ancient astronomy. Look at my post Exploring Space and Astronomy Free Unit Study for Multiple Ages.

Exploring Space and Astronomy Free Unit Study for Multiple Ages

These notebooking pages are subscriber freebies.

That means when you sign up to follow me, you get access to my Exclusive Subscriber’s Only Library which has these notebooking pages in the library.

This is how you get access to these pages quickly.
► 1) Sign up on my list.
► 2) Go to your inbox and confirm your email from the automatic reply I sent you.
►3) Look for the automatic reply giving you the password to the private subscriber’s area. You should have it soon.

IF you are already a follower/subscriber, PLEASE do NOT email me asking how to find it. You may not want to wait on me replying since I get bombarded with emails.

Find the MOST RECENT email from me and the password and link to the Subscribers Area are ALWAYS at the bottom of every email. Look for the most current email since I change the password frequently.

9. Study Ancient Egypt Alongside Other Ancient Empires.

This next Ancient Egypt project for middle school is to make an in depth study of Ancient Empires. We used Great Empires Activity Study by Home School in the Wood.

Some children need to see the key players or empires of history at one time and need a longer project to retain focus.

Moving too fast studying ancient history and a child may not understand key time periods. It’s important for key history hooks to be made so that all other learning can be tied to history makers.

Great Empires Activity Study by Home School in the Woods covers fourteen empires:

Ancient China
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome
Arab-Muslims,
English Empire
French Empire

Mongols
Russian Empire
Spanish Empire
United States and
Viking.
German Empire
Japanese Empire

Another easy activity Hands-On History: The Rosetta Stone and Breaking The Code is really a fun introduction to learning about ancient history.

10. Break the Code of the Rosetta Stone.

If you find that your child doesn’t really know anything about why we know some about ancient history, begin with learning about the Rosetta Stone. Your code breakers will love to learn about breaking the code.

As well including your young kids can be tough. So, if you want to include your younger kids or if your middle school child loves to still color, you’ll love this set of Ancient color pages to go along with your studies.

20 Ancient Civilization History Coloring Pages at Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus. You'll love adding these to your unit studies or notebooking.

We have used various museum quality history coloring books through the years that have made a big difference in how my boys understood history in the early years.

I think clip art should be as real as possible and based on real events in history.

Learning Ancient History Through Coloring

Instead of me adding titles on pages or naming the coloring pages, this allows you to use the clip art/coloring pages any way you want to.

Whether it is a cover page, notebooking page, journal page or just to enrich a topic, you have the flexibility.

Here is what the 20 page download contains. I put a few key words to explain each picture on the page. This way you can use the coloring pages as title pages too on your lapbooks.

Page 3: Ancient Egypt Court,
Page 4: Ancient Egypt Spinning,
Page 5: Ancient Egypt Life of the Royals,
Page 6: Ancient Egypt Battles,
Page 7: Ancient Egypt The Nile,
Page 8: Life Along the River – The Nile,
Page 9: Metal Workers & Crafts of Ancient Egypt,
Page 10: Egyptian Hieroglyphics,
Page 11: Egyptian Queen Cleopatra,

Page 12: Aztecs Floating Gardens
Page 13: Aztecs,
Page 14: Aztec Life,
Page 15: Mayans,
Page 16: Ancient Greece Wedding,
Page 17: Ancient Greek Galley,
Page 18: Ancient Greece Crafts,
Page 19: Ancient Greece Bank,
Page 20: Athens,
Page 21: Spartan Warrior and
Page 22: The Vikings.

Grab your fun copy below!

00. Ancient Civilization History 20 Coloring Pages
$3.50 Add to cart

Finally, you know my love for hands-on tools like lapbooks. No, they’re not just for younger children.

Middle school children really benefit from them as well. And the best part is that the lapbook can be as crafty or not as your child wants it to be.

11. Craft a Pharaohs and Queens Ancient Egypt lapbook.

And I really make it easy here for you because I have this free Famous Pharaohs and Queens of Egypt lapbook.

What do you think? Are you ready to tackle these 11 Easy Hands-On Ancient Egypt Projects for Middle School?

And be sure you visit these middle school activities:

Day 1. Ancient Egypt Civilization (Hands-on History): King Narmer Crown

March 31, 2017 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Learning homeschool history should be just as much about doing as reading living history books. So today, I’m starting a new series of hands-on history and the first one is Day 1. Ancient Egypt Civilization (Hands-on History): Narmer Crown.

My goal in this series is to focus on the ancient civilizations. It seems like plenty of hands-on history ideas abound for early American life or American history, but it can be a bit more difficult to find ideas for a study of the ancients.

Day 1. Ancient Egypt Civilization (Hands-on History): Narmer Crown

Some of these ideas in this series come from books, but many do not. They come from my experience teaching this several times over. I hope your kids, any age, will enjoy these ideas or they will help you to take a spinoff idea from mine.

Learning About Ancient Egypt Through Hands-on Art

For example, this idea for the ancient Egypt civilization of King Narmer’s double crown could easily be substituted for a picture of Cleopatra from the Cleopatra: Queen of Egypt book that we love.

Her side profile would make an excellent hands-on history idea and a fun way to learn about the time period.

Look at the easy ingredients we already had at the house for this salt dough project.

2 cups flour
1 cup of salt
1 cup warm water
paints/paint brushes. We had a combination of tempera and poster paints. Just grab what you have.
cookie tray
aluminum foil
wooden skewer and even a few toothpicks to use for drawing
big mixing bowl, dry measuring cup and liquid measuring cup
spatula or big spoon for stirring
preheat oven to 170 degrees Fahrenheit

It couldn’t be any easier or quicker to measure and mix the flour, salt, and warm water.

Stir to combine and then get your kid to use his hands to mix well.

Ancient Egypt Civilization (Hands-on History): Narmer Crown is a fun and easy history activity. Hands-on activities can make learning stick and your kid will love to make this King Narmer crown when doing an Ancient Civilization study! An easy salt dough recipe and you have a fun history activity. CLICK here to learn how to make this fun history craft!

Then line the cookie tray with foil and roll the dough out onto the platter. And start pressing down and shaping.

Try to get the same width all the way around. Tiny shaped it into looking like an ancient tablet.

Then, look for a picture your child wants to sketch or draw. Also, this could easily be turned into a cartouche.

Tiny found a sketch of King Narmer (also known as Menes) that he liked at the art factory and printed it to use for drawing.

Then using the wooden skewer and toothpick, he began sketching and drawing the design.

The beauty of working with salt dough is that until it dries your kid can erase and shape and form the picture until he gets it to look like he wants it to.

Then another advantage of salt dough is that you can take a break and let it dry overnight before painting or bake in the oven until dry. We baked it about 30 minutes and checked every 10 minutes or so.

We could tell it was dry because it was hard and there were no soft spots and of course the cracks gave it away too that it was dry.

Then Tiny mixed a few colors until he got the right color combination he wanted for the background and he painted that first. It dried pretty quickly.

Then he added a few other colors and overall this was such a fun and easy project to do while learning about Ancient Civilizations.

Also, I love, love, using Home School in the Woods hands-on ideas and projects. You will too!

I have several other ideas to go with this Ancient Egypt Civilization project.

Look at these other posts you’ll love:

Hands-on Ancient Egypt: Israelite Mud Bricks for Kids
Fun Hands-On History: Ancient Egyptian Collar Craft
Ancient Egyptian Mathematics: Build a LEGO Math Calculator
Go to my Ancient Civilization page for a free lapbook on Ancient Egypt,
look at Ancient Civilization II which has Ancient Egypt minibooks and
Free Ancient Egypt Printable Board Game (Hands-on History).

Hugs and love ya,

Make learning about Ancient Egypt come alive with this hands-on history project in this hands-on history ancient civilization series. Using salt dough, create a picture of King Narmer (also known as Menes) who wore the double crown. A kid of any age will love doing this. Click here how to do this with easy things you have around your house! | Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus

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