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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Egyptian symbols and figures: Hieroglyphs

http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=348

A lesson plan for grades K–2 Visual Arts Education, English Language Arts, and Social Studies

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This lesson plan from EDSITEment introduces students to the writing, art, and religious beliefs of ancient Egypt through hieroglyphs, one of the oldest writing systems in the world. The lesson plan is in two parts. In this first lesson, the class creates a pictorial alphabet of its own and then learns and uses the symbols of the Egyptian hieroglyphic alphabet. In the second lesson, “Egyptian Symbols and Figures: Scroll Painting,” students identify and represent in their own drawings figures from the Book of the Dead, a funeral text written on papyrus and carved on the walls of tombs to help guide the deceased through the afterlife.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 1

  • Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
    • Objective 4.06: Compose a variety of products (e.g., stories, journal entries, letters, response logs, simple poems, oral retellings).

Social Studies (2003)

Grade 1

  • Goal 4: The learner will explain different celebrated holidays and special days in communities.
    • Objective 4.04: Trace the historical foundations of traditions of various neighborhoods and communities.

Grade 2

  • Goal 3: The learner will analyze how individuals, families, and communities are alike and different.
    • Objective 3.03: Compare similarities and differences among cultures in various communities.

Visual Arts Education (2001)

Grade 1

  • Goal 4: The learner will choose and evaluate a range of subject matter and ideas to communicate intended meaning in artworks.
    • Objective 4.02: Create, discuss and/or write simple stories about one's own artwork.
  • Goal 5: The learner will understand the visual arts in relation to history and cultures.
    • Objective 5.01: Recognize that art from other times and cultures does not look the same.

Grade 2

  • Goal 5: The learner will understand the visual arts in relation to history and cultures.
    • Objective 5.02: Identify selected characteristics of art from a particular culture.
    • Objective 5.04: Become aware of the ideas of time and history (what came before and after).
    • Objective 5.05: Begin to realize that there have been diverse cultures in the world and each culture has produced art.

Kindergarten

  • Goal 4: The learner will choose and evaluate a range of subject matter and ideas to communicate intended meaning in artworks.
    • Objective 4.02: Demonstrate the use of life surroundings and personal experiences to express ideas and feelings.
    • Objective 4.04: Find inspiration in the work of other artists from many cultures.
  • Goal 5: The learner will understand the visual arts in relation to history and cultures.
    • Objective 5.01: Recognize that people in many times and places have made art.
    • Objective 5.02: Recognize that art is created to fulfill personal and/or societal needs or purposes.
    • Objective 5.05: Recognize that human beings create art to tell a story about their ideas and lives without words.