Objective: To become familiar with the basic 25 sounds in the Egyptian alphabet and transcribe your name in hieroglyphics.
Materials: Individual copies of the hieroglyphic chart found on page 29 of Conway’s Ancient Egypt, large index cards, pencils, colored pencils and playdough.
Procedure:
-
1. Begin by examining the hieroglyphic chart and reviewing the sounds represented by each of the 25 hieroglyphs. Ask the students to try to locate the sounds found in their name.
-
2. Point out that the Egyptians mostly did without the vowels a, e, i, o, u in their writing system. Transcribe the names Peter (PTR) and Helen (HLN) into hieroglyphic writing to show as examples. Asterisks could be placed where vowels would normally go to cause less confusion (i. e., H*L*N).
-
3. Distribute large index cards to the students and ask them to use the chart to find the sounds in their first name. Demonstrate with your own first name on the board. Ask them to draw them on the index card from left to right using enlarged versions of each hieroglyph. Transcribe your first name on the board for all to see.
-
4. After checking for correctness, the teacher will ask the students to copy this transcription again on a new index card but this time they may choose one of three directions in which to write their name: left to right, right to left, or in a vertical fashion. They are then to color each hieroglyph using colored pencils and to encircle it in a cartouche (a long oval) to make it look authentic.
-
5. Before these name cards are displayed in the room, each child will be given one (not his own) to try to decode back into English using his chart and to return it to its owner.
-
6. Finally, students will be asked to transcribe their names into hieroglyphics once again, only this time using a different medium –– playdough. Following teacher demonstration, students will practice carving their names into flattened pieces of playdough using the sharpened point of their pencil.
-
7. Both samples of hieroglyphic writing will them be displayed in the room for everyone to see.