Mesopotamia: The Cradle of Civilization

We have begun our second major unit of this school year in Social Studies: Mesopotamia. This first civilization is one that many people don't know much about. It is not as common as the pyramids of Egypt, Zeus of Greek Mythology or the Great Wall of China of, well, China. However, this first great civilization invented things and developed things that helped people and the world itself progress. Mesopotamia witnessed the development of many things we use every day in 2010, things that we might take for granted. Just think, how hard would it be to drive a car without wheels? Thank you Mesopotamia for the wheel. Just think, how hard would it be to buy a box of Gushers without money? Thank you Mesopotamia for money. So, you can see that Mesopotamia is to thanks for many very important things. The name Mesopotamia comes from where this civlization is located. It is located between the Tigris and Euphrates river. The word Mesopotamia literally means "land between the rivers." As we begin this unit, we are going to spend sometime looking at one specific websites about Mesopotamia. In this website, you will find information, stories, interactive pages, and games. This website is called "The British Museum" and we will focus on the Mesopotamia section, of course. While we explore this site, we will be writing a few things down as far as what we have found out about three certain places in Mesopotamia: Assyria, Babylonia, and Sumer.

Task: Go to "The British Museum: Mesopotamia" and fill out your sheet by exploring Assyria, Babylonia, and Sumer. To 'enter' each section, click on the name and then choose one of the options.

Points: 30 points.

DUE: October 6th, 2010.

Johnny Rawten Goes to the Stone Age

Catch the latest adventure of Johnny Rawten as he makes his way through the Stone Age. Can you figure out what he sees and does as he explores this uncivilized place?

Read Chapter 2: Johnny Rawten Goes to the Stone Age.

"Teach Timmers"

Water for Sixth Grade is glad you have returned. This is the very first post of its kind in the history of Water for Sixth Grade. At no other time in its 3 year history has there been a post this monumental. I would like to introduce you to our newest character that will be going along with us in our ancient civlization adventure: "Timmers." Today, for this post, you will be reviewing material we have learned about thus far in our Stone Age unit by "Teaching Timmers" all about the Stone Age and the wonder that it is. Timmers is a real person who would like to learn more about ancient civilization. From time to time, he may also be able to add some interesting tidbits of information. Who is Timmers exactly? That will remain a mystery at this point. Perhaps in the future, the identity of "Timmers" will be revealed. Just know this, he is a real person and he will be logged on to Water for Sixth Grade the same time you are today and will possibly blog back to what you are teaching him. Let's show "Timmers" how smart we are and how much we know about the Stone Age. Good Luck.

Task: Post a comment that teaches Timmers something about the Stone Age. Possible topics to teach him about: Cave Art, hunting methods, Otiz the Iceman, Vocabulary words, Neanderthal Vs. Cro-Magnon, and anything else you can think of. When you are teaching him, you must use complete sentences.
Teach him about 5 topics. You do not have to include everything we learned about from each topic. For each topic, you need to teach him AT LEAST 3 things about that topic. If I were you, I would focus on the five topics I listed above. You may do more than 5 if you would like.
**Check back to see if "Timmers" has responded to your knowledge, or asked you a follow up question.

In-Class Blogging.

Enter the Stone Age

The Stone Age has come to Water for Sixth Grade. We will be exploring many fascinating aspects of this time period. Much of what we learn about is in theory only, that means it hasn't actually been proven, it's just what some scientists and historians THINK. Nontheless, I will try to introduce you to various things and let you decide for yourself what you think is true and what is not. The discovery of fire, hunting methods, behavior and appearance of 'caveman', cave painting, and way of life will all be explored. I don't want to limit you to learning about the Stone Age just in social studies class. Therefore, Water for Sixth Grade is providing you with an opportunity to discover things on your own about this amazing unit. You will be using the Internet to "Enter the Stone Age." Good Luck!

Task: Using the websites I have found for you about the Stone Age, post a comment telling me 2 things you learned while looking at the websites. That's it. Pretty simple, huh?

Once again, all you have to do is check out the Stone Age websites on the right of this page under the section titled "Stone Age Websites" and post a comment telling me 2 things you learned.

Points: 10 Points.

DUE: Wednesday, September 15th, 2010. Midnight.

Hello, Johnny Rawten

Water for Sixth Grade would like to introduce Johnny Rawten, Ancient Traveler. Throughout the year, we will be reading about Johnny Rawten and the adventures he goes on. As a sixth grader, Johnny discovers he can time warp. He goes into the past and discovers all sorts of ancient worlds. Your task, as the reader, is to figure out where Johnny is and what he is seeing. It all starts now.
Chapter 1: Hello, Johnny Rawten

Chapter 1 Questions for Students

They both have a LEGEND

They Both have a legend.

Geography Mini-Unit: Open Note Test: August 27th (Friday)

Sixth graders, you have a test on friday, August 27th, 2010 over our short Geography unit. This is an open note test so make sure you have your notes. If you do not have all the notes, or you lost them, use the Geography Mini-Unit gadget located on the right side of this blog and get what you need or just use it to review. This is not one of our major units of the school year, but I feel that it is importnat to "brush up" on our geography skills, our maps skills, and our thinking skills. While we navigate our way through the ancient world, we will encounter maps that will help us learn and discover. A map is simply a picture unless we know how to read it and use it as a tool. Throughout our mini-geography unit week, we are only going to touch on a few items: where we live/our surroundings, map elements, different types of maps, and geographical physical features. It is important that you pay attention and use the Geography Mini-unit gadget located on the right side of this blog. Use those links to learn, review, or if you lost something. You do not have an assignment on this blog, though it is open ended. If you have something about geography you would like to say to us, simply post a comment. If you have a question about something pertaining to geography, post a comment and I will answer it or one of your splendid students will answer it.

Task: If you would like to say something about geography, post a comment.

Task: If you have a question about something we are going over, post a comment and an answer will come quickly.

Good Luck!

Welcome to Water for Sixth Grade.

Welcome to Water for Sixth Grade. Thank you for coming. This site is the single most important thing in your social studies life. The name of this blog means something: water is the most essential part of life. Without it, a person can not live. For your 6th grade social studies life, this blog is the single most important thing. Water for Sixth Grade will allow every advantage to you in helping you have a successful social studies year. On this site, you will find many different things, all of which will help you become a better student, a better person, and a better blogger. This is essentially a welcome post, which we will use to practice blogging. Trust me, you will be blogger experts in a very short time. To practice and get you thinking, we are going to start with some basic writing prompts.

For each task, you must have at least 5 sentenses. (Essentially a paragraph)
Task #1: Tell me about 5th grade. Include anything you want about your 5th grade year.
Task #2: Tell me about your summer. What did you do? Anything fun? Tell me anything you want about your summer.

**Remember, at least 5 sentenses for EACH task. Thank you.

Good Luck on your first of many Water for Sixth Grade posts.

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