Mesopotamia

This fall, the middle group of students studied Mesopotamia. They began their study by looking at the differences between settled and nomadic people. Outdoors, they participated in a role play scenario in which they were nomadic Sumerians hunting and gathering food, creating shelter, and making clothes, tools and weapons. In small groups they read “If You Lived with the Sioux” and “If You Lived with the Iroquis” to compare nomadic people to settled people. This led to a discussion about what agriculture and irrigation are and how they allowed people to become settled and create civilizations. They participated in a Jigsaw activity where small groups learned about the inventions of the shadoof, irrigation canals, aquaducts and the plow and then taught the other students about how their invention allowed for people to become settled and for civilizations to rise.

         During their focused study of the Mesopotamian civilization they participated in an “archeological dig” (a box full of sand) to find “artifacts.” They used this activity to think about “how do we know what we know” about Mesopotamia. They also traveled 5,000 years back in time during a timeline activity that compared what 100 years looks like compared to 5,000 years. They also spent time looking at the geographical location of Mesopotamia, studying and filling out maps, creating an irrigation canal at Jamesville Beach, making clay tablets and writing their names in cuneiform and watching a video on Mesopotamia. They culminated their unit on Mesopotamia by studying Hammurabi’s Laws and creating their own laws for their own civilization. Throughout this unit they were reading the Gilgamesh series during read aloud.