Teaching History with Children’s Literature: You Are in Ancient Egypt

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Introduction
You Are in Ancient Egypt, written by Ivan Minnis, is a wonderful interactive resource for young children learning about Ancient Egypt and it’s contributions. The book is packed with important vocabulary, illustrations, photographs, charts, graphs, statistics, etc. The language of the book is simple and jam packed with information for children.

Summary
The book tells essential important information for young kids when learning about the early civilization of Egypt. Information such as religious beliefs, Egyptian technology, art, pharoahs and law, are included, amongst many other things. Throughout the story important anecdotal information and pictures are included, giving students an extra perspective on life in Ancient Egypt:

“People use a shaduf, a long pole used to raise or lower a bucket into a well, to take water from the Nile” (21)

“Even at the time of Ramses II, pyramides were more than 1,000 years old. Some were built around 2500B.C.E” (20)

Throughout the story highlighted vocabulary are offered for the students, focusing the students attention on the main ideas about the civilization. Such important vocabulary includes afterlife, scribes, pharoahs etc. The end of the book offers important facts for Ancient Egypt, summing up important information for students. These facts included information about Time, Money, Dates, and Numbers. A glossary is also offered defining the key terms from the book, as well as other resources to find out more about Ancient Egypt.

Curriculum Connections
This book is a wonderful resource for children learning about Ancient Egypt and can be used to help explain to children how the contributions of this civilization has influenced the present world in terms of architecture, inventions, calendar, and written language (SOL History 2.1)

Additional Resources

  1. This website allows children to create an interactive Ancient Egyptian postcard. Students can create a postcard to sent to a friend by email, filled with important ancient Egyptian pictures, such as the Sphinx, King Tut, and Pyramids.
  2. King Tut online allows students to color five beautiful images of Ancient Egypt. The pictures may be printed and hung in the classroom to help students identify with Ancient Egypt.
  3. This website offers easy to read information on Ancient Egypt and Egyptians to help kids learn about this topic to help with specific projects and homework assignments.

Book: You Are in Ancient Egypt
Author
: Ivan Minnis, Victoria Parker
Publisher
: Raintree
Publication Date
: 2005
Pages
: 32
Grade Range
: 1-3
ISBN
: 978-1410906168

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