Ancient Egyptian Collars

We are finally past Ancient Egypt in our history book (Story of the World), but before we move on we decided to make some Egyptian Collars. The Ancient Egyptian's cloths were pretty simple, linen skirts or dresses, but they did have a flair for accessories and jewelry. The children had commented  on the collars in some of the books we read and I thought it be a fun way to end our unit. 

Supplies: felt, chalk, scissors, tacky glue, paint brush, acrylic gemstones, and if desired large & small circles for tracing. 

Step 1: use chalk to trace a large circle on to the felt about the size of the child's shoulders. Also use chalk to trace a small circle for the child's neck with an opening in the back.

Step 2: cut out circles. Since cutting felt can be a little tricky I did this part.

Step 3: spread tacky glue on the back of jewels and then lay them on felt to create your own design. Since tacky glue can be a little tricky to get out of the bottle I put some in small cups and had the children use paint brushes. 

best faces! 

Step 4: let glue dry. Since the necklaces are heavy they will stay put on there own, but for more active play you may want to add a piece of adheisve hook to the back of the collar which will allow you to fasten the ends together. 

The kids had a lot of fun making these and have enjoyed playing dress up with them. If I were to do this  activity again, though, I would have encouraged the children to be more intentional with there design and create some sort of pattern. 

I never got around to posting instruction but last week we also made pharaoh hats.  We simple cut construction paper in to an arched shape, then decorated them with glue/glitter. We also added snakes cut out of gold scrapbook paper. I punched holes in the back (using packing tape to reenforce the paper) and then tied the ends together with a bit of elastic cord. 

mini man's face in this picture just kills me!

Our Egyptian bracelets didn't make it into this picture but you can view them here.

P.S. Looking for more homeschool ideas? Be sure to check out our homeschool page. 

Lots more great kid friendly ideas can also be found at these link parties: Link and Learn, Weekly Kid Co-op, Montessori Monday, After School, Hip Homeschool Hop, Preschool Corner, For the Kids Fridays, and Show and Share Saturday.