The Battle of the Ancient Civilizations

Lesson Plan for: Battle of the Ancient Civilizations
Grade Level: Sixth grade Social Studies
Content standard: India, Egypt, China, and Mesopotamia with unique government, economic systems, social structures, religions, technologies, agricultural practices, and products flourished as a result of favorable geographic characteristics. The cultural practices and products of these early civilizations can be useful to help understand the Eastern Hemisphere today.
Learning Objectives:
1. Students will research an Ancient Civilization online to find important facts.
2. Students will collaborate with one another and create a movie maker presentation.
3. Students will interview a community member to gain another perspective.
4. Students will use a digital camera and a microphone on their project.
Materials & Technology: paper, pencils, computers, digital camera, tripod, microphone, internet
Timeline: 2 weeks
Assessment: A pretest & post- test will be given to each student on their specific civilization to show mastery of their civilization.
Lesson 1.1
Students will be divided into groups of four or five. Each group will be given an Ancient Civilization to research online. They will have one week to complete their research, find pictures online, and gather photos of everyday objects.
1. Students will have to answer the essential question of How did this civilization make an impact on the Eastern Hemisphere today?
2. Students will be given a worksheet to find facts and information on the government formed, economic system, religions, technologies and, agricultural products that flourished.
3. Students must watch a You Tube video on copyrights before they gather photos for their slides making sure to give them credit at the end of their presentation.
4. Students gather pictures online related to their Ancient Civilization and place them in their school folder.
5. Students will use higher order skills to locate objects in real life that needed their civilizations invention to make possible. For example: a car is not possible without the invention of the wheel. They must justify all of their objects on the movie maker. Students will upload these pictures in their movie maker.
6. Students will create an outline for their movie maker on Microsoft.
Lesson 1.2
Students will interview a community member to help endorse their civilization in their movie maker.
1. Students will choose a member of the community that they know personally to interview them how their civilization has impacted them over the years. They need to know who to choose based on likes and interests.
2. Students will need a list of questions to ask based on their civilization to propose to their civilization.
3. Students will use their digital cameras to make a video of this interview an upload on their computer to place it in their movie.
Lesson 1.3
Students will create a movie maker on the information they researched and present them to others.
1. Students will learn how to do a movie maker when the teacher gives them a quick lesson on the basics of movie maker.
2. Students will take their research and pictures to create a movie that captures their Ancient Civilization.
3. Students will use the microphone to narrate the slides.
4. Students will publish these movies and save them in the teacher’s folder.
5. The teacher will present the movies to the eighth grader with a rubric and the eighth graders will choose their favorites.
6. The teachers will show these movies at the end of the year Ice Cream Social at School for the community.
Cross curricular activities:
Language Arts: Students could use the information to conduct a debate among the civilizations in class against one another.
Math: Students could make up story problems based on their research on crops and agriculture.
Arts: Students could recreate some art techniques used in their time period or use the same mediums like chalk or clay.
Music: Find or make instruments used during their civilization.