Curious about how to put together a unit study? Join me as I take you through my process for putting together a unit study for Ancient Egypt. Much of the process is the same for all my history units, and only varies slightly for other units. I use a Waldorf curriculum as a default curriculum but often stray from the curriculum and come up with my own lesson plans. Here’s what I do:
First: Decide on a topic (usually pretty broad like Middle Ages, Math, Ancient Rome, but you can be specific)
Second: Gather material (I can check my curriculum, my home library, or begin a wishlist of materials needed)
Third: Put together a Wishlist (this includes all the material I want for the unit)
Fourth: Shop & receive (since we are with a charter school, I usually buy online with school funding, otherwise, check libraries and ask friends for material)
Fifth: Sort through material and figure out how long each book/project will take
Sixth: Make a lesson plan
Optional: Add field trips as needed
What I look for in a History Unit are books on the following:
History (actual historical events like wars, rulers and other events)
Culture (how people lived, dressed, where they lived, what they ate, etc.)
Mythology or religion
Biographies
Historical Fiction
Activity Book
I also look for kits, projects and hands-on activities. I like buying them as kits, but also love to make projects on my own, too.
I get most of my supplies from Rainbow Resource.
Here’s what I have for Week 1 of our unit:
Our lesson plans include our daily lessons and our Main Lesson. Our Main Lesson is scheduled for 7 weeks, with the last week being a light load to account for any work that isn’t completed.
The books we have for Week 1 are the following (all these are books I read aloud to my kids except where noted, some books take several weeks to complete):
Ancient Egypt by Mysteries of History (AZBooks)
You Wouldn’t want to be an Egyptian Mummy! By David Stewart (Scholastic Books)
Tales of Ancient Egypt by Roger Green (Puffin Classics)
The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt by Elizabeth Payne ( Landmark Books)
Mummies Made in Egypt by Aliki (Harper Collins)
Ancient Egypt (DK Eyewitness)
Mummy Mazes By Don Oliver Matthies
Project: Our Amazing Mummies by Scientific Explorer
Week 2:
Complete Lesson Plan for Week 2 of our unit.
The 5,000-Year-Old Puzzle by Claudia Logan
You Wouldn’t want to be a Pyramid Builder by Jacqueline Morley (Scholastic Books)
Tales of Ancient Egypt
The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt
The Ancient Egyptians by Rosemary Rees
Ancient Egypt
Project: Egyptian Mummy Excavation Kit
Project: Ancient Coins Excavation Kit
Week 3:
Lesson Plan for week 3
Egyptology by Candlewick Press
You Wouldn’t want to be Cleopatra! by Jim Pipe (Scholastic Books)
Tales of Ancient Egypt
The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt
The Ancient Egyptians By Rosemary Rees
Painting Kit by Arts in History
Kit: Papyrus Making Kit
Week 4:
Week 4 Lesson Plan
Food and Cooking in Ancient Egypt by Clive Gifford
The Ancient Egyptians by History Opens Windows
Tales of Ancient Egypt
The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egyptians and their Neighbors by Marian Broida
DK Eyewitness Ancient Egypt
Project: Egyptian Relics Excavation Kit
Week 5:
Week 5 Lesson Plan
Fun with Hieroglyphs by Catherine Roehrig
Science in Ancient Egypt By Geraldine Woods
Who Was King Tut? By Roberta Edwards
Eyewitness Pyramid
Ancient Egyptians and their Neighbors by Marian Broida
DK Eyewitness Ancient Egypt
Hieroglyphic Symbols of Ancient Egypt
Project: Archaeology Pyramid Dig by National Geographic and Thames & Kosmos
Stamp Set Fun With Hieroglyphs by Catherine Roehrig
Week 6:
Week 6 Lesson Plan
Fun with Hieroglyphs
Science in Ancient Egypt
Who Was King Tut?
Eyewitness Pyramid
Ancient Civilizations Reproducible workbook by McDonald
DK Eyewitness Ancient Egypt
Paint Your Own Papyrus by Egyptian Imports
Make Your Own Papyrus (Unknown maker)
Mummy Mazes
Week 7:
Week 7 Lesson Plan
Who Was King Tut?
Time of the Pharaohs By Great Story & Cool Facts
Ancient Egyptian Costumes by History of Costume Series
Ancient Egypt by Ralph Masiello
DK Eyewitness Ancient Egypt
Awesome books ideas! Were doing ancient egypt so these ideas will come in handy in shā’ Allāh! 🙂
I was just wondering since you do this unit study for kids of different ages, is it something you will do again when the younger child is older? I’m just curious if the comprehension and what is retained is the same, and also how you go about deciding what unit studies to do…I’m very interested in doing unit studies but at the same time feel very overwhelmed by the planning of them.