November 18th-22nd

This week, sixth graders are mostly focusing the development of law in Mesopotamian city-states.  Students will be reading a secondary source, a Jr. Scholastic article about Hammurabi and his code of law, and Hammurabi's Code, a primary source.  Students read about and discussed the difference between a primary and a secondary source in class today.  Students will be starting a project on Hammurabi's Code at the end of the week.

Students will also be building city-states this week!  On Wednesday, students will be working in small groups to build a Mesopotamian city-state.  Students will be using factual information about the typical Mesopotamian city-state to inform their design, and students will be participating in both a self-evaluation and a peer review post-construction.

Homework this week:

For Tuesday- Finish annotating "Laying Down the Law"

For Thursday- Finish annotating "Hammurabi's Code"

For Friday- Finish answering Hammurabi questions

**(Students have had class time to read and annotate both articles before it becoming homework.)

November 12th-15th

This week, students are continuing to work on ancient Mesopotamia.  We are wrapping up a discussion of the writing simulation we did in class last Friday, finish up some work analyzing an article on water, and beginning to build city-states in small groups!  On Friday, we will have a short quiz on Mesopotamia- students should be studying the study guide they received in class all week.

Home work this week:

Study Mesopotamia Study Guide

November 4th-8th

This week, sixth graders are continuing to focus on the early civilization of Mesopotamia.  Students finished short center activities today in class, they will be reading some articles tied to modern concerns over water usage and rights, and at the end of the week students will participate in a simulation that will help them explore why and how writing developed around 5,000 years ago.  Our major themes in our Mesopotamia unit are the rivers (Tigris and Euphrates), writing, the city-state, and the development of written law.

Homework this week:

None- students will be completing their work in class this week.  Some students may have some work to finish at home, but the majority of work should be done at school.