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: