Project 23: Ancient Egypt

We started the week with a home education workshop at the Puppet Theatre in Norwich. The theme was ancient worlds and Solomon decided to make a puppet of an Egyptian king, which decided the specific ancient world for the rest of the week's project.

It's the second Puppet Theatre workshop Solomon has attended (see also Project 10: Puppets and Theatre), and he's really enjoyed it both times.

Egyptian king puppet

We watched a selection of videos about Ancient Egypt on the BBC Teach YouTube channel, and the Prince of Egypt on Netflix. The Horrible Histories Awful Egyptians sticker activity book was one of the most popular sticker books Solomon has had, and he also liked Terry Deary's The Phantom of the Nile which he sped through in one sitting (although it's only 64 pages, so it didn't last long!) and we started the classic Horrible Histories Awesome Egyptians. 

All three kids made their own Egyptian headdresses, and had a go with some hieroglyphic stamps (bought on a previous trip to the British Museum).

Solomon's Egyptian headdress

Hieroglyphic stamps 

Finally, we finished the week with a trip to the British Museum to look at the Rosetta Stone and some actual mummies. We're lucky that the British Museum is only an hour away on the train, but you inevitably spend too much money in the museum shop and Solomon was disappointed that the mummies' bandages weren't generally as distinct as they tend to be in book illustrations.

Some mummies at the British Museum

As can be expected for a civilisation that lasted over 3,000 years - we will have to return to the topic in the future!

Next week's project: World Book Day and the Wizard of Oz