Class of 2015-2016 6th gradeLanguage Arts/Social Studies and 8th grade AVID

Mummifying a Royal Family

Ancient Egypt Unit: How to Mummify a Chicken

Homeless Bird Research Presentations using Padlet

Homeless Bird Group Research SlideShows
The students worked in small groups to gather information regarding a topic discussed in the novel, Homeless Bird, by Gloria Whelan. Although the book is a fairly easy read, the content is not always that easy to comprehend. Topics such as dowries, Hindu Weddings, Widows of India, Varanasi, Tuberculosis, Saris, and Women's Role in India are discussed in this novel. Before reading the novel, students conduct the research, then create a presentation of information using Google Slides in real time with classmates.
Using Google Slides in real time allows students to work from home at separate times, yet contribute to one slide show.
Students presented information before reading a chapter that discusses their given topic. This provides background information so students can better comprehend the novel.

Teaching Ancient Egyptian Trade

Teaching economy can be boring. After all, it's hard enough to understand who the ancient Egyptians were and where Egypt is located in the world, but now to learn about Egypt's trade partners and what natural resources they imported and exported? Who cares, right?

(In all honesty, I find it all exciting, but I know that I am in the minority when it comes to a love for ancient history haha)

So I came up with a way that would appeal to my kinesthetic learners, which are basically all my students. After all, who wants to sit in a class all day?! Ummm...nobody!

After teaching a 5 minute lesson explaining what are natural resources, imports and exports, I divided the class up into groups of 5-6 students each. I labeled the groups by giving them names of cities in Egypt. I explained to the class that they are now ancient Egyptian merchants who will be heading out on an expedition to collect natural resources from Egypt's trading partners. I gave them a map of the school where I labeled different parts of the school countries that traded with Egypt. My classroom was Egypt.

The students had to stay in (or around) their boats, which were made out of brown butcher paper. They could not break off and go in different directions. If their boats tore, they had supplies to take with them on their voyage to repair the damages. They could not come back to Egypt with a broken boat, otherwise they drowned and are obviously disqualified.

On their expedition, they were to locate the hidden packages located around the 7 countries labeled throughout the school. In the packages, they found various natural resources. They had to work together, using helpful resource sheet to determine which natural resource came from each country.

The first group to find all 7 correct natural resources and make it back to the land of Egypt to present the imports to Pharaoh Hatshepsut (Queen of trade and the most awesome Math teacher,  Mrs. Mobley by the way) won the competition and earned an In-N-Out Lunch with the Principal!

Ancient Mesopotamia Museum

Ancient Mesopotamia Museum

As a culminating project, students selected a project to create from my pre-approved list to better understand one element of daily life in Mesopotamia. In the 6th grade students are to examine and analyze the geographical, political, religious, social, economical, and cultural structures of 7 ancient civilizations. Mesopotamia is the first civilization we cover in my class. Because it can be overwhelming for students at this age to fully grasp what all these structures entail, I decided to have them become "experts" in one of the structures only. The project they had to construct had to represent one of the 6 structures we cover which included a writing assignment as well.  They had to construct these projects based on what they researched and interpreted. 

The students displayed their constructive models of Mesopotamia at our Museum. Typically what happens in school is students spend hours on a project that simply gets a letter grade. I believe in sharing hard work. It is so important for students to feel validated. I want their efforts to be acknowledged. So, administrators, teachers, staff members, students, and parents from our school were all welcomed to the museum. The visitors were given stickers. They were to quiz my students on their knowledge and overall project. If a student impressed them, the visitor gave the student a sticker. The student with the most stickers won a prize.  One parent brought in coffee for the visitors. Parents sipped on coffee as they walked around the museum, checking out the various exhibits. :)

It was such a great experience for all! The visitors learned a lot of interesting facts about Mesopotamia and my students were up for the challenge. 

Some projects included: making the lyre instrument, ziggurat, functioning irrigation systems, cuneiform, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, chariots and boats, model of a city state, bazaar,  a children's book on the Epic of Gilgamesh, mural of the creation myth story/and gods, and much more! 

Here are a few pictures from the museum:  

If you are interested in the various project assignments,  you may view here: