The Unlikely Homeschool: Ancient Egypt Unit Study: Map of Egypt

Ancient Egypt Unit Study: Map of Egypt - The Unlikely Homeschool

It's been a few weeks since we wrapped up our look at Ancient Egypt. We ended with a few great books and a simple geography project.

Although I had originally planned to make a salt dough map, I decided that a 2-dimensional version would make it easier for my children to label all of the parts clearly. Turns out, recreating a map is a FANTASTIC way to review the landscape of a particular region. Because this project had to be completed in stages in order to let each section of paint dry, my kids got to focus on the geographical details for over a week. I think it is permanently etched in their brains!

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Leading up to our end-of-unit map project, we focused on the New Kingdom period of Ancient Egypt and read the following books:

Zekmet, the Stone Carver: A Tale of Ancient Egypt
Egyptian Boats
Master of the Royal Cats
Tut's Mummy: Lost...And Found
Cleopatra
Joseph the Forgiven by Jester Summers
Moses in the Bulrushes
Moses by Maude and Miska Petersham
Look What Came from Egypt

To Make 2-Dimensional Map of Egypt

You will need:

a large piece of blank cardboard (I had a used science project-style display board collecting dust in the basement. Since it was a crisp white, it made for the perfect "blank slate.")
acrylic paints in earthen tones
pencil, paintbrush, and permanent marker

Display a map of Ancient Egypt for your children to reproduce. Draw a large box on the cardboard and instruct your child to use that box as a perimeter for their map. (My children have a tendency to draw very small pictures on even the largest of canvases. By drawing them a "starter box", I am ensuring that they make their EGYPT outline large enough to fill the page.) Discuss any particular geographic "oddities" that need to be included on the map such as dips and curves in the land or eater formations.

If your children would rather not free-hand draw the perimeter, print out a large copy of the map for your child to cut out and trace around. They can then free-hand ONLY the details.

Using acrylic paints, paint Egypt one color. Let it dry completely. Paint all the surrounding land in a lighter or darker hue. Dry. Then paint each major and minor body of water...including the two main rivers. (Before painting the Nile River, you might also consider using GREEN to paint the fertile river valley.)

Once all the paint is completely dry, use a permanent marker to outline and label the land and water formations, the major cities, and any man-made landmarks.