Ancient Egypt: The Mummification Process

The Mummification Process is always fun to teach, as the kids get really excited about it.  While I find the whole thing rather creepy, they particularly love the part about the brain being pulled out the nose with a hook. In order to capitalize on their enthusiasm, I once took a class to a nearby museum to see a real mummy... which was fun until one of the kids promptly passed out, bashing his head on the glass mummy case on the way down.  Needless to say, I never took a class back to that museum...

Aside from the one pass out incident, I have found that the kids really enjoy learning about mummification.  Because they enjoy the mummy topic so much, I tend to spend quite a bit of time on it.  This year I taught the steps of the process, and had the kids make illustrated mummification wheels to show their learning.  

I really like seeing the visual version of the process.  When we were done, I mounted them on black construction paper and hung them on the bulletin board in our hallway.  After I took them down, I had the kids glue them into their Interactive Notebooks.  All of the resources needed to complete this assignment, including class notes, templates, examples, and instructions, can be found in my Ancient Egypt Interactive Notebook Package.