Egypt
We had so much fun learning about Ancient Egypt! Afterwards, we took a week to learn about Egypt in the modern day: the capital, the main religion, the language, and historical events. This included FOOD and a book club party centered around Ra the Mighty: Cat Detective!
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Book Club Party with Ra the Mighty
My friend made baked Egyptian pita bread for our snack and we drizzled them with honey. (Don’t snacks just make the world go round for these homeschooled kids?) We also ate goldfish crackers and fig bars to go along with the theme.
We picked out questions to ask each other from this lengthy teacher’s guide that accompanies Ra the Mighty. Page 6 of this guide contains additional background information. We were so interested to examine the Gayer-Anderson Cat sculpture that inspired Greenfield. The British Museum’s website also contains a 3D model, scientific analysis of the sculpture and a section about “Cats in Egypt.”
Egyptian Food
We also made some of our favorite foods: pan-fried pita bread, lentil soup and baked falafels! There are a few other food and activity ideas for book parties in the picture book list below.
Picture Books
We’re Sailing Down the Nile: A Journey Through Egypt
This is a series of “we’re sailing down” books. Take a journey down the Nile (from south to north, in the direction of the current). Every spread has the symbol and name of one of the Ancient Egyptian gods, which was good review for us. There is a map in the back of the book to follow along as you read about each location.
Egyptian Lullaby and Sahlab Recipe
Auntie Fatma visits California from Egypt and sings a repetitive verse about Cairo and the Nile. There are illustrations of the city, river, and pyramids. The book features sahlab, a sweet milk pudding served as a warm drink. There is a glossary in the back and both author and illustrator are from Egypt.
We made sahlab with this recipe from Fufu’s Kitchen and topped it with crushed pistachios, crushed walnuts, and shredded, sweetened coconut.
In this book, there is a highlight about 9-year-old Mohammed, who lives in Cairo, Egypt. The book shows his name in Arabic as well as the main mosque in Cairo.
Learn about Egypt: Religion
Both of these stories describe Muslim practices of prayer and fasting in Egypt and in America.
A Child’s Day in an Egyptian City
Photographs and text bring you through a typical day for 7-year old Boushra who lives in Cairo, Egypt. It describes the preparation for prayer, how Muslims pray, how she attends school, and prays at the mosque. The end notes contain more information about Egypt, religion, the five pillars of Islam, hieroglyphs, and some Arabic words and phrases.
The Night Before Eid: A Muslim Family Story and Ka’ak Recipe
Teita (grandma) visits from Egypt. It is the end of Ramadan and time to celebrate. They make ka’ak together to celebrate. The kids share them with their classmates at school. There are endnotes about Eid, how Ka’ak is as old as Ancient Egypt (so cool!!!!!), the author’s personal story of growing up Muslim in America, and a recipe for ka’ak.
We followed the ka’ak recipe in the back of the book. I substituted melted butter for ghee in the recipe… I think it messed up my dough to mix in the butter in after combining the dry and wet ingredients. But we made the biscuits anyway and they tasted great!
Learn about Egypt: Historical Events
This book is about how Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered hieroglyphs in 1822. I’ve mentioned this book in my blog post Old Kingdom of Egypt, but I’ll repeat it here: we had fun with a hieroglyph decoding activity at the end of Secrets of the Pyramids.
Zarafa: The Giraffe Who Walked to the King, by Judith St. George
This is the true story of the travels of a baby giraffe. It was to be a gift to King Charles X of France from Muhammad Ali, the viceroy of Egypt. The giraffe was captured in 1824. I’m not sure when it made it’s trip to France. The giraffe took a felucca (boat) down the Nile, then a brigantine across the Mediterranean. At that point, the giraffe walked 550 miles from Marseille to Paris!
Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt’s Treasured Books
I felt this book could have presented more information about why the library needed protection. I had to look it up and found that there were protests in 2011 calling for the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. During the protests, people joined hands with the library director to physically protect the Alexandria Library from vandals during the protests. The illustrations are done in fun collage and I think they represent actual people. There is an author’s note about the Alexandria Library in ancient and modern days. We watched a video about it.
Learn about Egypt: Language
We looked up our names in Arabic using this translation website. I wrote them down for the kids to trace in marker.
Follow Ahmed around Cairo as he works after school and carries a secret with him. (It is that he can write his name in Arabic!) There are beautiful watercolor illustrations of the city by Ted Lewin.
The Arabic Quilt: An Immigrant Story
This book is about appreciating different cultures and languages in America. Kanzi is Egyptian-American and sometimes feels different in public school. Her teacher has the idea to create a beautiful quilt of all the kids names in Arabic. Will it help kids to appreciate other cultures?
Chapter Books to learn about Egypt
Some of the chapter books that we read are set in modern-day Egypt among the sites of Ancient Egypt. Check under the “Fun and Fantastical Chapter Books” section of this blog post for more details. Here are the titles:
- Ra the Mighty series, recommended for ages 7 to 10
- Ra the Mighty: Cat Detective
- Book 2: Ra the Mighty: The Great Tomb Robbery
- Book 3: Ra the MIghty: The Crocodile Caper
- City Spies: The City of the Dead, recommended for ages 8 to 12
- The Kane Chronicles, recommended for ages 9 to 12
- The Red Pyramid
- The Throne of Fire
- The Serpent’s Shadow