Hieroglyphic Alphabet Magnets

Did you know that King Tut Day is November 4th? Here’s a great opportunity to not only teach your kids a little bit about ancient Egyptian culture, but also to help boost their memory skills! This fun game can be played with any child that’s old enough to recognize letters and spell short words. Create these fun and colorful hieroglyphic magnets and enjoy an ongoing word game on your fridge!

To make these hieroglyphic magnets you will need:

Hieroglyphic alphabet printable
Magnetic adhesive sheet – 5″ x 8″ (Available at craft stores and at Walmart in the craft department)
Colored pencils
Scissors

You will need a minimum of two sheets of the printable. One will serve as the “key” to help family members decode the hieroglyphics, and the other to create the magnets. If you want to create longer words or even sentences, you will probably need more than just one of each letter. Print as many sheets as you think you will need. For simple words, one sheet should be sufficient.

Use colored pencil to color the hieroglyphic symbols on each sheet. Because some of the symbols are identical or almost identical, you will want to keep the symbols the same colors for each sheet. For example, if you color the background of the letter U with blue and the bird symbol orange, be sure to do the same thing on the second print out so that they coordinate. This will make it easier to decipher the letters.

When all of the symbols have been colored, cut them into strips, trimming along the border of the squares as shown.

Peel the adhesive backing off of the magnet sheet.

Attach each strip to the magnet sheet, you should be able to fit all of the symbols from the print out on one sheet.

Cut each square symbol out of the magnet sheet.

To Play the Game:

Keep the sheet that will serve as a key on the fridge for decoding purposes. One person creates a word using the hieroglyphic magnets and the next person decodes it. A sheet can be kept for filling out the answers. Make it more fun by creating a story with each person adding a word once the last one has been solved!

Project created by Amanda Formaro for Kix Cereal. Amanda is a well-known craft expert and has been writing and crafting on the Internet for over fifteen years. Find out more on her blog, Crafts by Amanda, where she shares tutorials with step-by-step photos for adults and kids alike.