Ancient Egypt: Time Travel Scrapbook

At the end of each unit I teach, I really like to have some sort of project where students can demonstrate what they have learned.  As I have my students complete Interactive Notebooks for each unit I teach, I encourage them to look back through what they have learned to help them complete the project.

Our culminating project for our Ancient Egypt unit this year was a Time Travel Scrapbook.  I had the kids imagine they were returning back from a time machine trip to Ancient Egypt, and had to create a scrapbook of their adventures.  I loved this project because it was so open ended - as long as they completed the list of requirements, they were allowed to present their projects in any creative way they wanted.  

I never cease to be amazed by the wide variety of things the kids come up with; the projects end up way more amazing and creative than if I were to give them specific guidelines.  This year, I had one student glue the pieces of his scrapbook on a 3D tabletop pyramid he had built.  Another student made a "scrapbook in a bag", where each individual part of the project could be pulled out and examined.  A student skilled at computers managed to photoshop himself into several Egyptian images.  Some kids made their own scrapbooks out of construction paper, and others decorated ones they had purchased.  Below are some of my favorites.

This assignment fully integrates Social Studies, Language Arts, and Art; students are required to show their knowledge of Ancient Egyptian history, write first person journal entries, and illustrate their adventures.  All of the resources needed to complete this final project, including detailed instructions, student examples, word bank, and rubric, can be found in my Ancient Egypt Interactive Notebook Package.