The Great Pyramid

When my daughter was young I loved doing what I called "Construction" Birthday parties. Each year was a theme and for this one it was Ancient Egypt. Let's go!

1. A lot of large cardboard boxes. I used a couple of refrigerator boxes and I think a dryer box. Call around to local warehouses. When they get their shipments they send all the cardboard for recycling so I was able to get my cardboard free of charge.

2. Acrylic paints and brushes. I had this lying around the house so really the project cost me time only and it was well worth it for the look on the kids faces when they walked into the house to see a 7 foot tall pyramid!

3. Google some tomb wall art and print some out as a reference. You can also find Hieroglyphic alphabets and use them to write a mummy's curse on one wall of the tomb.

4. Packing tape for attaching the walls together.

5. Roll of craft paper to wrap the finished tomb in.

You basically need four triangles of the same size. I wanted it to be large enough for the kids to stand up in so I made them 7 feet from tip to bottom. I used packing tape to make large enough pieces for each wall. You will also need a rather large piece for the floor. The measurement for that comes after the four walls are up and taped together.

I drew all the pictures with a pencil first and then painted over them. For the Mummy's curse I drew the hieroglyphs in pencil first, then traced over them in a black sharpie. I erased any pencil marks to neaten it up. It reads "Beware the Mummy's Curse".

I just have the finished assembly here, hard to hold it up and tape AND take pics at the same time. My fearless Egyptian Princess helped a bit here, as someone had to stand inside the tomb to hold the wall from the inside while I taped.

I added a floor by sliding the finished tomb over a large piece of cardboard underneath and then cutting around it. I didn't get a shot of that (sorry) but I think you get the idea. Adding the floor and taping it to the structure adds stability to the tomb so that when the kids are inside it doesn't move around on them.

I also cut a door in the front that closed easily so the kids could crawl in as if they just discovered the tomb.

I used a roll of foot high craft paper to create the stone look, making sure to slightly overlap each row. Start from the bottom and slowly add until you get to the top, taping where needed. You could also use a marker to draw in stones at intervals on the paper and even do some shading to create a worn look. Get creative!

I made a long low table from leftover cardboard and covered it in a black plastic DollarStore table cloth. On it are a collection of books about Egypt for the kids to look at.

I made artifacts out of Fimo clay and the colors really popped after it was dry. We buried them in a sandbox outside for the guests to dig for.

I bought yellow take-out boxes on sale at Michael's for about $2 for 6 of them. I then printed out King tut's photo and glued it to the front of each box. Inside the boxes were mini archaeology kits which included excavation brushes, a pencil and notebook. In the front cover of the notebook I glued the Hieroglyphic alphabet key that the kids would need later to decode the message inside the tomb.