Ancient Egypt: Pyramids primary resource

This primary resource investigates some of the secrets of the Great Pyramids of Ancient Egypt. Discover what materials were used to construct the pyramids. What is the largest pyramid known as? How many years did it take to build? What did some people believe the pyramids were in the 1960s?

Pupils will learn about the famous tombs and how they were designed (both inside and out) in our National Geographic Kids’ Ancient Egyptians primary resource sheet.

The teaching resource can be used in study group tasks for learning more about the ancient pyramids and what they represent. They could be used as a printed handout for each pupil to review and highlight key information, or for display on the interactive whiteboard for class discussion. The resource can be used in conjunction with our Ancient Egyptians primary resource and our Ancient Egyptian Life resource.

Activity: Ask the children to copy the diagram showing the different chambers and areas inside the Great Pyramid of Giza onto a large piece of paper and colour it in. They could use the information provided to label their diagrams. Pupils could use the resource as a starting point for their own research, to make their own comic strip about the Ancient Egyptians.

N.B. The following information for mapping the resource documents to the school curriculum is specifically tailored to the English National Curriculum and Scottish Curriculum for Excellence. We are currently working to bring specifically tailored curriculum resource links for our other territories; including South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. If you have any queries about our upcoming curriculum resource links, please email: schools@ngkids.co.uk

This History primary resource assists with teaching the following History objectives from the National Curriculum:

• Know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind.

National Curriculum Key Stage 2 History objective:

• Pupils should be taught about: the achievements of the earliest civilizations – an overview of where and when the first civilizations appeared and a depth study of one of the following: Ancient Sumer; The Indus Valley; Ancient Egypt; The Shang Dynasty of Ancient China

This History primary resource assists with teaching the following Social Studies First level objective from the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence:

• Having selected a significant individual from the past, I can contribute to a discussion on the influence of their actions, then and since

Scottish Curriculum for Excellence Second level Social Studies objective:

• I can discuss why people and events from a particular time in the past were important, placing them within a historical sequence.

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