Experiencing the 10 Plagues of Egypt

Experiencing the 10 Plagues of EgyptWe are studying the ancient Hebrews in history right now and we just experienced the ten plagues of Egypt.  We came through unscathed, but the activities will hopefully help my children remember the plagues.  Someone had listed activities to do for each plague here.  I used some as written and adapted some to better suit us.  For each plague we read the passage in the Bible about the plague and then we began our activity.

1st Plague – Water turned to blood

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For this one we put a stopper in the tub and a couple sinks and I poured in water with red food coloring in it.

2nd Plague – Frogs

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For this one we made simple origami frogs and scattered them around the house.  They are drawing eyes on each frog.

3rd Plague – Mosquitoes (biting flies)

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For this one they taped red hole-punched dots on their skin to demonstrate mosquito bites.

4th Plague – Swarms of bloodsucking gadflies

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For this one we attempted to put black hole punches between two long strips of tape.  It was a little difficult.  They then ran through the long strips.  The strips were a little sticky so it stuck to them a little as they went through the swarm.

5th Plague – Animals dying

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Goshen

This one was rather simple.  We just took out toy animals and set up some in Egypt and some in Goshen.  The ones in Goshen remained standing while the ones in Egypt died.  These animals were not intended to be authentic for the biome, but this activity was more to help my children remember the plagues.

6th Plague – Boils

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My poor kids all came down with boils at the same time.  For this one we just wadded up some white paper and taped it on.

7th Plague – Hail

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This was a fun one.  I told them to watch out for hail and I went upstairs and started to throw down ice cubes.

8th Plague – Locusts

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This was a favorite.  I found a bunch of old cereal and dumped it on the floor.  They were to walk on them to help them think about what it must have been like to have the ground covered with locusts – crunch, crunch, crunch.  Then a great wind came and blew them all away (the vacuum).

9th Plague – Darkness

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We tried turning out the lights, but it didn’t come close to being dark and putting something dark in front of all the windows would have been a major task so each child covered his/her head with something.  It worked well and bumping into each other promptly began.

10th Plague – Death of the firstborn and start of Passover

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We talked about this one a little while and explained the significance of the blood on the doorpost and Passover.  We just cut strips of red construction paper and taped it around a door.

We followed this up with Cecil B. DeMille’s Ten Commandments movie.  It gave a little insight into the life and times of Moses.  Plus they were able to watch the Nile turn to blood and the Red Sea parted.

11 thoughts on “Experiencing the 10 Plagues of Egypt

  1. This is excellent! My daughter just did this chapter in MOH and we watched Prince of Egypt (she remembers stuff better with good music!) I never thought of throwing ice cubes at her…I may do it just for the heck of it lol

    She did point out the Little House on the Prairie had a locust invasion as well, actually grasshoppers, but an excellent description of having to walk on them (so nasty). It is in On the Banks of Plum Creek right after the family moves into their house.

  2. This is hysterical! But also such a great example of hands on learning. I’m going to have to remember this one when we get to the Torah. Right now my son is still reading the Ramayana.

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