Ancient Egypt

Unit Plan for Grades 3-5

Unit Description
This unit is to learn all there is to know about Ancient Egypt’s society and culture. Students begin with an artifact study,
where we discuss how we know so much about ancient cultures. Students then move through learning about the geography
of the area, the importance of the Nile, Phaorohs, pyramids, social structure, and burial & death practices.

The reading focuses on nonfiction texts and the writing focuses on evidence based responses.
My Classroom Context
● I teach at The Roberts Field School, an independent
school in Park Slope serving grades K-5 in mixed
grade classrooms.
● My classroom is a blended 3rd-5th grade classroom
with 15 students (3 third graders, 7 fourth graders, and
5 fifth graders.) that I teach with my co-teacher.
● My students love cats and imaginative play where they
get to act like cats. They are artistic and love projects,
fantasy novels, and nature.
Purpose and Essential Questions
The purpose of this unit is for students to understand the beginnings of culture and civilization, the relationship between
environment and civilization, and to make comparisons between ancient civilizations and our modern one.

Through this unit students will investigate the Essential Questions:

● How do we learn about ancient civilizations in the modern day?
● How does the environment shape culture? How does culture shape the environment?
● What qualifies something as a civilization?
● How is culture formed? What are the requirements for something to be considered a culture?
Key Understandings
● We use artifacts and objects left behind in order to learn and draw conclusions about ancient civilizations.
● Environment dictates whether or not people can settle in a particular area. Once there, people might alter the
environment to fit their needs.
● A civilization is defined as a structured and advanced society usually with a government, social classes, language,
and cities. This can be subjective!
● Culture is defined as the arts, traditions, social structure, and achievements of a group of people. Also very
subjective!
● Learning about other cultures can also make us think more deeply about our own.
Visual Overview
Book and Website Lists
Books
● The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan
● History Alive! The Ancient World by Teachers’ Curriculum Institute
● Everything You Need To Ace World History In One Big Fat Notebook by Workman
Publishing

Websites
● The Met Museum - Images of artifacts from the Ancient Egypt collection
● Google Earth - Viewing the Fertile crescent and Nile River area.
● Digital Giza - Virtual tour of the inside of a pyramid
● BrainPop - Mummification
Lesson 1. Artifact Study
How do we learn about ancient civilizations in the modern
day?

Students are given pictures of Ancient Egyptian artifacts. They

make observation and draw conclusions - then make guesses
about which civilization we are going to learn about next
based on the artifacts.
Lesson 2. Geography and Mapmaking
Students study the geography of the Fertile Crescent and the Nile. Then, they build,
paint, and label salt dough maps.

Lesson 3. The Nile

Students read about the Nile River to understand and discuss a quote that describes the
Nile River as a, “Main Street, supermarket, and playground of ancient Egypt all in one.”
Lesson 4. Pharaohs
Students are given an overview about what it means to be a
Pharaohs and the responsibilities that come along with that
positions

Students then work in groups to read about a specific

pharaoh, their reign, and their most memorable
contributions to Egyptian society. Students create and
present a poster on this information.
Lesson 5. Pyramids
Students learn about and discuss how and why pyramids were
made. Then, we go on a virtual tour of a pyramid for students to
become familiar with their complex inside structure.

Students spend the rest of class designing their own pyramid

complexes.
Lesson 6. Daily Life
After learning about the social class structure in Ancient Egypt, students
participate in a job fair! They go from station to station reading “Help Wanted”
posters for various Ancient Egyptian jobs and taking notes. Then, they fill out a
job application which asks them to use text evidence to pick out the job they
would most like to do and why.

Lesson 7. Read Aloud

Students listen to the next section in The Red Pyramid read aloud. In this
section, the characters talk about the importance of hieroglyphics to Ancient
Egyptian society. Students discuss how this connects to what we learned last
lesson about the importance of Scribes in society.

Students make hieroglyphic art.

Lesson 8. Mummification
Students watch a Brainpop video about mummification. Then, they
look at a infographic from National Geographic to reinforce the
steps.

Students respond to a prompt asking them to name two important

steps of the mummification process and how they are important to
Ancient Egyptian death and burial beliefs. Students must use a
TIDE planner and specific text evidence.
Lesson 9. Egyptian Funeral pt.1
Yay! All students get hired for the jobs they applied for and it’s perfect timing
because Pharaoh Hatshepsut the Apple IV has died.

In order to explore the mummification process more deeply, we dehydrate an apple

in salt. Then, in their job groups students begin preparing what they would have
been responsible for in a real Ancient Egyptian funeral.

Lesson 10. Egyptian Funeral pt. 2

We take the apple out of the salt to observe how it has changed, then on with the
funeral!