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MESOPOTAMIA | Educational Videos for Kids

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The students will fill an Open Mind with images of Mesopotamian civilization that they have covered in class. It is an excellent project to conclude a unit on Mesopotamia. The students will need to choose the six most important developments of this first civilization. In a Common Core approach, the students will have to write concisely on the importance of the aspects of civilization of Mesopotamia that they included in the Open Mind. The colorful approach will aid in retaining important information, and the sentences will prepare them for other aspects of early civilization as they progress through Egypt, India, and China. Examples included.

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Mesopotamia; A Colorful Common Core Review

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The students will fill an Open Mind with images of Mesopotamian civilization that they have covered in class. It is an excellent project to conclude a unit on Mesopotamia. The students will need to choose the six most important developments of this first civilization. In a Common Core approach, t...

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Right now I'm in the process of creating a series of STEM projects for students who are studying Ancient Civilizations.. First stop, Ancient Mesopotamia!

Ancient Civilizations has to be my favorite curriculum to teach. I find the ancient world fascinating, with all the different traditions, inventions, rituals, building structures, gods and goddesses. I could probably spend the whole year just focusing on Egypt alone, with its pyramids, their social hierarchy with pharaohs, and interesting process of mummification. I get excited knowing that the information about these civilizations that existed in 3000-1000 BC are still being uncovered by archaeologists today. I love sharing my excitement and enthusiasm about Ancient Civs!

Ziggurats were the most prominent buildings in the Sumerian cities. The Sumerians believed that the gods and goddesses were in charge of their cities. They built the Ziggurat structures because they wanted to place their temples on a high platform, closer to the heavens where the gods lived.

This resource is also part of the ​ Ancient Civilizations Complete Curriculum. The curriculum package contains Ancient Civilization STEM Challenges, Interactive Notebooks, PowerPoints, Google Classroom Projects, and Assessments. The units covered include Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Israel, Ancient India, Ancient China, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Rome! There are over 700 pages of interactive material.

Suzanne is a full time curriculum designer on Teachers Pay Teachers and the author of the blog TeachStudentSavvy.com. She is a California credentialed K-8 teacher and is committed to creating effective and engaging teaching resources for the elementary classroom. Suzanne lives in Northern California with her husband Matt and two dogs, Mochi and Mindy. As a curriculum designer, her goal is to provide educational tools that make teachers lives a bit easier and that students will love and enjoy using in the classroom. Be sure to visit her on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and at her TpT store!

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Ancient Mesopotamia STEM Ideas! - Student Savvy

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Right now I'm in the process of creating a series of STEM projects for students who are studying Ancient Civilizations.. First stop, Ancient Mesopotamia! Ancient Civilizations has to be my favorite curriculum to teach. I find the ancient world fascinating, with all the different traditions, inventions, rituals, building structures, gods and goddesses.

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Ancient Mesopotamia Activities and Projects for elementary and middle school Teachers - Mesopotamia for Kids

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Divide the kids into groups. Have them each create 1 or 2 "crimes." Have each group ask the rest of the class to fit a punishment to the crime in Hammurabi's time. Discussion after each group presents, and the class determines what Hammurabi might give as punishment could include: "Does this seem a fitting punishment?

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As I stated in a previous post about Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory, I recently finished my unit at school on ancient Mesopotamia. As part of my "post mortem" on the unit, I made a list of project ideas for possible implementation in the future. I classified the ideas based on MI and subject matter, and perhaps next year I'll do a differentiated, more immersive unit allowing students to choose different projects on different aspects of Mesopotamia and utilizing different intelligences. Naturally, many of the projects crossover from one intelligence to the other.

Some of these project ideas are what I would really call "mini-projects." That is, they might take a day or two rather than a week or more. Most of them aren't tested either, but I really think there are a few good ideas.

Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence Project Ideas

Geography of Mesopotamia

Write poem about the Tigris and Euphrates and their importance to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia.

Write a report comparing and contrasting the geography of ancient Mesopotamia with the geography of the area today.

Make travel brochure for a trip back to a city in ancient Mesopotamia.

Research and write reports about different aspects of the geography of Mesopotamia - the Tigris and/or Euphrates, the Zagros Mountains, the Taurus Mountains, the Persian Gulf, etc...

Write diary entries about an expedition from the headwaters to the delta of the Tigris or Euphrates.

Roles in Mesopotamian Society

Write and deliver a speech convincing the citizens of ancient Mesopotamia that they should pay taxes to support government projects such as city walls, irrigation canals, roads, etc...

Day in the life of a scribe journal entries - journal/diary entries that describe the daily tasks of a scribe or a scribe student.

Hall of Fame Mesopotamia - biographical descriptions of important Mesopotamians (Sargon, Hammurabi, Moses, Nebuchadnezzar, etc...). Maybe have the class or groups rank them based on importance and have a debate on who should be in and who should be out.

Mesopotamian Achievements

Write an extension story for one of the stories in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Write and perform a play retelling the Epic of Gilgamesh, or part of it, in a modern way.

Write a radio, TV, or print ad selling one of the many Mesopotamian inventions.

Write a proposal to King Hammurabi explaining why you like/dislike certain laws in his code.

Have a debate on whether or not Hammurabi's Code was a fair way to govern ancient Babylon.

Writing in cuneiform. Provide a cuneiform style alphabet (worksheets with these are available from various sites. You can also get a computer font that allows you to type in cuneiform.) Have students decode phrases you make up and have them write/translate back and forth.

Phoenician alphabet - Have students code phrases in the Phoenician alphabet (many textbooks have the alphabet printed in them). This is a bit easier that with the cuneiform assignment because they actually had an alphabet!

Phoenician trade log - students make a log of imports/exports to Phoenicia including where they came from or went.

Culminating Mesopotamia Projects

Mesopotamia Times Newspaper - write articles, want ads, classifieds, editorials, etc and create a newspaper. Maybe require that the articles each cover a news story dealing with a different aspect of Mesopotamian life - government, music, art, religion, etc...
Visual/Spatial Intelligence Project Ideas
Geography
Roles in Mesopotamian Society

Social classes of Mesopotamia Art/Diagram - have students make a graphic organizer showing the various social classes of ancient Mesopotamia. Allow them to get "out there" if they choose and get really creative, metaphorical, and expressive in how they make their diagrams/organizers.

Mesopotamian Achievements

Analysis of the Standard of Ur - have students look at a photo, diagram, drawing, or other representation of the Standard of Ur and have them try to figure out what is says/means. Then discuss what archaeologists/historians/etc think it means.

Have students draw a Standard of Y (Y being whatever you want - your school, state, country, the students' lives, etc..) The standard shows different important events, people, etc., just like the Standard of Ur.

Epic of Gilgamesh Comic Book - students tell the story in comic book form including comic-style drawings, dialogue, and/or captions.

Hammurabi's Code Art - Students pick various laws from Hammurabi's Code and depict them in visual form. As an extension/alternative to the Social Classes Diagram, they could make pictures to show how different social classes would be treated under the law according to Hammurabi.

Visual Almanac of Mesopotamian Achievements - students draw pictures and write brief informational captions about some of the many achievements/inventions of the Mesopotamians.

Draw a picture/diagram of a Phoenician marketplace.

Culminating Projects

Mesopotamia Collage - Have students use the computer to find photos (or magazines, if available) to make a collage showing different aspects of Mesopotamian civilization.

Make a picture book of Mesopotamian life to include everything from its geography to the rule of Babylon, etc...Making a PowerPoint of this might be fun too.

Bodily/Kinesthetic Project Ideas
Geography
Roles in Mesopotamian Society

Write and perform a skit showing interaction between the Mesopotamian social classes.

A scribe school skit

Dance of the Mesopotamian Farmers - showing what must have been the daily routine of Mesopotamian farmer

Create and perform a mime showing....Mesopotamian farming, scribing/writing, a priest-king ruling his people, the role of priests/priestesses

Mesopotamian Achievements

Build a model or make a diorama of a ziggurat.

Build a replica of the Standard of Ur.

Make a Mesopotamian-style sculpture.

Create a mode/diorama of Mesopotamian farm. A real growing farm with flowing water and a irrigation system would be..HOLY COW, so cool!

Build models/dioramas of Mesopotamian inventions (the wheel, chariot, etc...)

Make a usable clay tablet and stylus.

Reenact a Mesopotamian battle using figurines or make a fixed, frozen battle scene.

Make a model/diorama of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Make a sculpture of Gilgamesh.

Mesopotamian religion skit

Hammurabi's Code mock trial

skit depicting Phoenician trade domination

Create and perform an interpretative dance (with/without music) showing a Mesopotamian myth.

dance depicting the events shown on either panel of the Standard of Ur

Mime a Mesopotamian myth or parts of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Try to make a trade without saying anything (somewhat simulates trading with someone that speaks a different language).

Logical/Mathematical Project Ideas
Geography
Achievements

Mesopotamian Math - The Mesopotamians based their math on 60. Here's some "stuff" including a Mesopotamian math worksheet.

Playing with cuneiform and/or the Phoenician alphabet is quite logical/mathematical. Kids tend to really like writing in and/or translating language to and from the ancient languages.

Culminating Projects

Play Empires! - This game from Interact has a lot of math (keeping records) and logic/strategy in it. This game is better if you have a blocked style class with more than just a 50 minute period. 50 minutes is pretty short to do the lessons without rushing and stressing yourself and the students out. Having said that, it does cover most of the content of my Mesopotamia unit in a fun and engaging way.

Design and play a Mesopotamia game - I had some students do this a few years ago in another class and on another subject. It was great! They came up with really fun (ingenious, in some cases) games to play with classmates.

Design Mesopotamian puzzles - make word searches, crossword puzzles, vocabulary scrambles, etc...Or get pictures from the web, magazines, or other source and actually make a jigsaw puzzle!

Make a timeline of Mesopotamian history - you can make these fairly easily on the computer with the right software, such as Inspiration 8.0

Musical Project Ideas
Culminating Projects
Naturalist Project Ideas

Research the deserts of Mesopotamia and write a report, make a diorama, etc...

Research the marshlands of Mesopotamia and write a report, make a diorama, etc...

Find out what plant and/or insect species your area and Mesopotamia have in common and collect specimens.

Examine how the Persian Gulf has receded and land reclaimed by the desert since the time of ancient Mesopotamia. Make a model, write a paper, make a poster, etc...

Research how nature fit into the religion of the ancient Mesopotamians. Make a booklet, brochure, report, etc...

Make a monster index of animals/monsters encountered in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Draw pictures and make a little booklet out of it. (or PowerPoint, poster, etc...)

Make a boy/girl scout handbook of ancient Mesopotamia showing how to survive in that environment.

Interpersonal Project Ideas
Intrapersonal Project Ideas

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Teaching Ancient Mesopotamia - Project Ideas

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As I stated in a previous post about Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory, I recently finished my unit at school on ancient Mesopotamia. As part of my "post mortem" on the unit, I made a list of project ideas for possible implementation in the future.