Carol Here:

My amazing teaching partner, Meghan Lake, is always on the hunt for the best projects and curriculum for our kids.  She found this lesson on TeachersPayTeachers so we both bought it.  If you’re interested in purchasing this lesson go to Miss Middle School Teacher at TPT.

We are doing a social studies thematic unit on “Ancient Civilizations- Egypt” and we studied how they mummified bodies with this awesome lesson using potatoes.  This was a great activity that incorporated both history and science together. Students were asked to answer a question about what would happen and then had to follow instructions in order to mummify their dead “potato”.

Materials are laid out – materials needed: 2 potato pieces, 2 cups, a spoon, and a sharpie marker for each group.

The idea of the project is to show how the ancient Egyptians prepared their dead for the afterlife and how important that was.

We had our students decorate The “sarcophagus” with hieroglyphics prior to burial – each group had two cups: one for mummification and one for “commoners” that wasn’t decorated at all.

In order to “mummify” the dead salt and baking soda is also needed.

This is another way they decorated their sarcophagus – it’s designed to wrap around the cup.

Students then were asked to make some predictions and answer some open ended questions about Egyptians, the mummification process and how mummification related to their customs and beliefs. My students really enjoyed this activity and I want to thank Miss Middle School Teacher  for this project, please check out her store on TPT. Thanks for looking!

Carol