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Ancient World - Agriculture, Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, and Ancient Egypt


Printable plan available HERE

About this Plan:

We use video's by Crash Course and other online resources, the videos cover many topics and are about 10 minutes in length. You can learn a lot from these videos. My kids are young, but truly enjoy them. **WARNING - not all the videos are appropriate. They are meant for older teens and adults. I suggest you watch the videos first. I have added other resources to replace the videos that may not be appropriate.

Materials Needed: 1. Internet access 2. Computer/laptop 3. Worksheets - included 4. Quizzes - included 5. Minecraft (optional, but highly recommended) 6. Clay – oven bake 7. Beads 8. String or wire 9. Scissors 10. Clasps for jewelry 11. Gauze 12. Glue – Elmer’s white glue 13. Strong White Cardboard Egyptian Sarcophagus Pencil Boxes for Children to Paint, Decorate & Personalize – from Amazon or you can make your own.

Videos: ** Warning videos have some inappropriate content. Please watch before showing students. I recommend videos for Upper Middle School and High School students. You can skip the videos and only do the reading.

Videos located here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yocja_N5s1I&list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9&index=1

1. The Agricultural Revolution – “In which John Green investigates the dawn of human civilization. John looks into how people gave up hunting and gathering to become agriculturalists, and how that change has influenced the world we live in today. Also, there are some jokes about cheeseburgers.

2. Indus Valley Civilization – “In which John Green teaches you about the Indus Valley Civilization, one of the largest of the ancient civilizations. John teaches you the who, how, when, where and why of the Indus Valley Civilization.”

3. Mesopotamia – “In which John presents Mesopotamia, and the early civilizations that arose around the Fertile Crescent. Topics covered include the birth of territorial kingdoms, empires, Neo-Assyrian torture tactics, sacred marriages, ancient labor practices, the world's first law code.” some inappropriate talk related to sex. You can skip this video and read about Mesopotamia.

4. Ancient Egypt – “In which John covers the long, long history of ancient Egypt, including the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms, and even a couple of intermediate periods. Learn about mummies, pharaohs, pyramids and the Nile with John Green.”

Reading: Reading is appropriate for Elementary and Early Middle School students. The readings cover many topics, I have only listed a few.

1. Development of Agriculture – National Geographic 2. Indus Valley Civilization – using resources from Mr. Donn and/or BBC.

  • Archaeologists discover the Ancient Indus Valley Civilization!

  • Daily Life in the Ancient Indus Valley

3. Mesopotamia - using resources from Mr. Donn

  • Geography

  • Agriculture

  • Government

  • Sumer

  • Babylon

  • Assyria

  • Trade & Commerce

  • Cuneiform

  • Ziggurats

  • Hammurabi’s Code

4. Ancient Egypt – using resources from Mr. Donn.

  • Geography

  • The Nile River

  • The Two Lands and King Menes

  • The Three Kingdoms

  • Daily Life

  • Sequence Chain: Mummification

  • The Sphinx

  • Pyramids

  • King Tut’s Tomb

Activities: For all activities, you can build the ancient villages in Minecraft. You can view our videos linked below. You can also purchase texture packs HERE. Note: If you do not have Minecraft or if Minecraft is not an option for your students I recommend the following:

  • Draw out the cities

  • Make a diorama

  • Teaching through objects: The British Museum has a curriculum where you teach through objects. The objects and curriculum can be found HERE.

At the end of the lesson take the Quiz. There are two quizzes. One based on the videos and one based on the reading.

Agriculture: 1. How to create farmland in Minecraft:

a. Clear out an area near water b. Plant crops; we read and used this Tutorial c. Build pens and find animals to hold in pen d. Build shelter e. Harvest plant f. Protect animals against predators g. Add villagers to harvest the crop


Indus Valley:

1. How to create the Indus Valley:

a. We used creative mode

b. Clear out an area to build

c. Build a bathhouse

d. Build shelter

e. Build toilets

f. Add villagers


2. Online Activities: Learn more about the Indus Valley, play games, and do some activities created by BBC Primary History page, link HERE.

3. Play a board game with dice. People in the Indus Valley loved to play board games. You can take this activity further by making your own board game.

4. Make jewelry. The people of the Indus Valley made beautiful jewelry. They used gold, jade, hard stones, and beads.

For our bracelets, we used:

I. Beads (we chose tan beads) II. Necklace wire or thread III. Clasp or just tie it at the ends (if using thread) IV. Scissors or something to cut wire V. Flat surface to layout beads before threading


Mesopotamia 1. How to create Mesopotamia

a. We used creative mode b. Clear out an area or use previously built cities (Indus Valley) and make appropriate changes. c. Build a Ziggurat or the hanging gardens. d. Build shelter/village


2. Learn More: The British Museum has a cool interactive guide to Mesopotamia. You can access the guide HERE. 3. Write in Cuneiform with clay. a. Translate what you want to write using a translator. b. you will need the following: c. Oven bake clay – we purchased the “Scupley Oven Bake Clay, Terra Cotta” from Amazon. d. Stick or pencil to carve into the clay e. Flatten the clay f. Carve in your translation g. Follow directions to harden clay.

Egypt: 1. Build Egypt in Minecraft. We skipped the Minecraft build for Egypt. 2. Make a pyramid using our Pyramid (Ancient Egypt) - available for purchase 3. Mummification process


a. Watch a short clip on the mummification process. b. Watch our video (link in picture above) i. Remove the brain through the nose. ii. Remove organs and place into jars, add natron iii. Put heart back iv. Stuff body with natron v. Put in bed of natron vi. Pour tree resin on mummy/body vii. Place in coffin or sarcophagus c. Organs – we downloaded ours from freepik.com d. Gauze e. Glue – Elmer’s white glue f. Strong Egyptian Sarcophagus– we purchased ours from Amazon (Craft-it. Egyptian Sarcophagus Pencil Case) g. A doll or make a paper/aluminum foil doll

 

Quiz on Kahoot

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