Social Studies - 6th Grade (2024)
Lesson Plans

Strand 1: World Civilizations

Students will compare how the aspects of geography, culture, religion, government, technology, and systems in ancient civilizations met human needs and wants, as well as allowed and encouraged the growth and development of civilizations as humans migrated across the earth. They will compare early governments to the foundations of modern governments.

Compelling Questions:

• What characteristics or qualities must a group of people have to be considered a civilization?
• What role does religion play in the cultural expression of a civilization?
• How do cultures of different ancient civilizations compare? What influenced these similarities and differences?
• How do interactions between diverse groups of people influence the rise or fall of societies?
• How does appreciating and allowing for differences, while seeking out commonalities, contribute to the strength, resiliency, and sustainability of civilizations?

Standard 6.1.1

Discern characteristics needed for the transformation from simple societies to civilizations, and compare those characteristics in at least three different ancient civilizations found in different regions of the world (for example, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus River Valley, China, Inca, Aztec, Persia, Greece, Carthage, Gupta, Rome).

• Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology Puppet Show
  Essential Question: What role did entertainment play in the development of ancient civilizations?
• Building the Pyramids of Ancient Egypt
  This resource is a multimedia approach to the significance of the pyramids to Ancient Egypt. It includes videos, text, learning objectives, and opportunities for students to type answers to specific questions (requires a log in to save but you can continue as a guest).
• Egypt's Golden Empire: Lesson 7: Touring Ancient Egypt
  This is a detailed lesson plans with embedded links. In this lesson, students explore how Egypt's abundance of natural resources allowed it to become a world superpower.
• Egyptian Pyramids
  In this BYU arts integraion lesson plan, students will identify several Egyptian pyramid structures and explain how they evolved over time.
  They will represent various shapes and facts about the pyramids through dance.
• How did Nature Impact the Development of Ancient Societies? Comparing Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia
  This is an extensive lesson plan that allows students to compare Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamia in terms of geography, religion, and government. Inquiry based.
• I'm Going on an Immigration
  Students learn about the experience of being an immigrant, which requires the traveler to plan for the journey, to pack, and to make difficult decisions. People from many cultures have created trunks or others containers to hold their belongings while they travel. The size of the carrying device limits the number of personal possessions, mementos, and material goods brought from home to begin a new life.
• Text Structures-Informational Writing/Mesopotamia Unit
  This 18 day unit explicitly teaches text structures, summary, text features, reading informational text about Mesopotamia, and writing a book about Mesopotamia. Instruction moves from high scaffolding to moderate scaffolding to independent practice as students become familiar with the various text structures, how to identify them, what graphic organizer will work with each text structure, how to use notes recorded in graphic organizers to write summaries, and how to compile an informational book. Mesopotamia is the content used as an anchor.

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http://www.uen.org - in partnership with Utah State Board of Education (USBE) and Utah System of Higher Education (USHE).  Send questions or comments to USBE Specialist - Robert  Austin and see the Social Studies website. For general questions about Utah's Core Standards contact the Director - Jennifer  Throndsen.

These materials have been produced by and for the teachers of the State of Utah. Copies of these materials may be freely reproduced for teacher and classroom use. When distributing these materials, credit should be given to Utah State Board of Education. These materials may not be published, in whole or part, or in any other format, without the written permission of the Utah State Board of Education, 250 East 500 South, PO Box 144200, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-4200.