Ancient Civilization Festival Was A Success!

Four hundred of our our Canyon Lake Middle School’s 6th grade students just held their first Social Studies Festival. The academic standards for Social Studies in 6th grade focus on the geographical, political, social, economical, cultural, and religious structures of ancient civilizations.   We, the 6th grade Social Studies teachers, at CLMS each selected one of the civilizations to represent at our end-of-the-year Festival. The civilizations that were represented at the Festival included: ancient India, Rome, China, and Greece. The vision for this Festival was to not only culminate an end-of-the year celebration, but to provide students with a multicultural simulation, where students would infuse ancient and modern customs and traditions of these civilizations to experience and participate in a full functioning marketplace/bazaar.

In each class, students created items to sell at the market that reflected the culture and religion of their assigned civilization. In addition to the individual items they each had to make, they were also assigned group projects that would contribute to the Festival. For instance, some students were bankers. For their Festival contribution, they had to researched ancient and modern currency from these countries, and calculated the exchange ratios. Then,  they created a simulated exchange ratio for the Festival.


Other students, called the performers provided some entertainment for their peers when they  choreographed and danced to their own Indian, Chinese, and Greek dance, acted out in a  Roman play, and provided us with some comedy relief in a short Chinese comedy skit, all inspired by the culture.

Watching the dance at the Festival by my "Indian"  performers was absolutely priceless. My students choreographed an Indian-inspired dance that was not an easy task.  The audience would have ever thought the group had problems with collaborating while watching them move in-sync and grace on the stage.  The truth is the kids had a difficult time listening and compromising with one another. It took several talks from me. I told them that this is a real world problem. "You may not be in agreement, but you have a task to complete, and a leader to respect.”  I told the leader to listen to her group members, but to stay firm with her decision-making as long as it benefited the whole group. Witnessing these kids initially struggle, then learn how to compromise and collaborate resulting in not only an outstanding performance, but sense of empowerment and friendships has been one of the greatest highlights in my teaching career.

In addition, other students in each of our classes had  researched and created crafts that replicated ancient artifacts and customs from their civilization, such as Henna designs on hands, pottery, dragons, Pandoras’s box, Greek art, Indian bangles, and lanterns. The students known as the crafters instructed  students from other classes to create the craft.  They had to be assertive to teach, project their voice, and explain each step of the process to construct their craft which is not an easy task for an 11 years old. Thankfully they had the help of parents and teachers to guide and assist them.

The entertainers had to research ancient games played in their civilization. They then created a modern version of these games, supervised, and instructed students on how to play the games at the Festival.

The servers worked hard on creating seating charts, table décor,  and center pieces. They also served food to their classmates at the Festival. Last but not least, none of this could have been assembled without the decorating committee. Their job was to collaborate with us, teachers, to create a vision of our market stand. Here is where the artistic students came into play. They painted murals, gathered artifacts to place on the stands, and constructed other elements that promoted the civilization.

Because this was our first Festival at CLMS, there really were no high expectations or predictions that could be made in regards to how successful the event would be. However,  the looks on the students’ faces said it all! It was an absolute success! It truly could not have happened without our Math and Science Teachers though. The whole 6th grade team of teachers at CLMS worked very hard to make this happen. At the end of the Festival, one of my students told me, “This is something every 6th grader needs to experience. I really hope you continue to do it next year.” I think we just created a tradition at CLMS. :)