Ancient Civilizations Continued

Today we continued the same lesson from Tuesday due to a snow day and testing.

AIM: I will map four ancient civilizations and determine the origins of our new students by using coordinate grids accurately.

Standard: Using Longitude and Latitude; Determine settlement patterns of ancient civilizations.

Do Now:
1) Vocabulary term: Land between two rivers.
2) Vocabulary term: Tool used for cutting grass.
3) Vocabulary term: Tool for digging a trench for planting crops.
4) How many years ago was 1989 BCE?

Lesson Steps: We started by reviewing yesterday's homework and talking about the new students who just joined our class. We reviewed the connections that each student made to the new students and talked about the land, clothing, food and appearance of each new classmate. We then moved into our first activity which was to hypothesize where each new classmate came from. We then looked at the textbook and located four civilizations using a coordinate grid. Once students located the Nile Valley, Indus Valley, Huang He Valley and Mesopotamia civilizations, they hypothesized as to where each classmate is from. We reflected on this activity by discussing why every civilization started in a river valley. We spoke of the importance of fresh water for irrigation and drinking, cleaning and bathing and also to make it easier to travel. We then went over the first problem in the homework. Students highlighted the Mississippi River on both maps on the back of the handout. We then located city #1 (which is New Orleans). Students also noted that New Orleans is near the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. They then located it using longitude and latitude. Students are to finish this for homework.

Homework: Finish locating 10 cities on the back of today's handout. Use the same handout from Tuesday.