Ancient Mesopotamia activities to do for Students

In Egypt and Mesopotamia, the oldest writing systems developed independently and roughly at the same time. Around 3500 BCE, the Sumerians brought their writing system to Mesopotamia. A bull might be represented by an image of a bull, while the word barley would be denoted by a pictograph of barley at first. Despite the fact that writing began as pictures, this system was inconvenient for communicating anything other than straightforward nouns. As writing progressed to include more abstract concepts, it became increasingly abstract and eventually took the form of the oldest writing known to humankind: cuneiform.

Interesting writing activity for students

Ancient mesopotamia student activity

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The kids can be forced to write their names in cuneiform with the solidifying clay. To hang the tablet in their bedrooms, kids must drill hole in the clay and then string yarn through it.

Another thing that could be done is to have the students draw/color an artifact( ie: Gilgamesh statue, ziggurat, statue of a person in their traditional clothing, etc.)  As an important and interesting activity for students teachers can give construction activities to the students like clay work making paintings of the pictographic script learning the symbols the teachers can also make the students through PowerPoint presentations and hold interactive sessions or seminars on Mesopotamian art culture economy life and polity.
The students can be made instructed to meet clay works or make DIY projects on the art forms like making the sculptures imitating the scripts or even trying pottery. They can also imitate the jewelry making procedures. The most effective of these as I feel would be organising a museum visit and do a PowerPoint presentation or a virtual museum tour organised for the students to give them a better idea of the society culture policy state structure of the earliest civilization of Mesopotamia. Teachers can also organise quizzes on various topics under the area of study. And students can also be made to write essays or prepare charm paper projects on Mesopotamia where it student can be assigned with different topics or sub topics like some can be given to work on jewelry while the other can be given on city states or social hierarchy. This can be an individual project or a group work. Debates is also a great idea to work upon the units.

Finish the assignment by having each student show their diorama to the class and explain what they built.

In addition, to conclude their study and critical thinking, have students prepare a one-page paper answering the following questions:

How did ancient Mesopotamian life differ from and resemble modern existence?

What made Mesopotamians’ life easier than those of their forefathers? What made their lives more difficult than ours?

What was the most important item you discovered while investigating Mesopotamian daily life?

It is important to note that this project should take 2-3 class periods to complete and prepare, but it will also require some time for actual presentations. Each presentation should last no more than one minute.

Computer materials, Computer access; shoebox criteria and written explanations; shoebox; colored and plain paper, scissors, markers/crayons; assorted materials to construct objects (think straws, Play-Doh, chenille stems, etc.)

Discuss and act

There may be Mesopotamian religious activities. Student can perform skits on them , They can also be made to work in  cooperative groups to come up with an example of anything that happens in nature, such as the changing of seasons or river flooding. Students can write tale based on at least one Mesopotamian deity to explain natural occurrence. They can perform their skits in front of the class. Make chart with the main gods and goddesses of Mesopotamia and their territories.Students should explore the daily lives of Mesopotamian people and design a diorama within a shoebox to depict what they discover for this project. Students’ research should inform what they make, but they should also be allowed to be creative in their depictions.

To confirm kids’ understanding, have them write explanations for their various representations and attach them to the shoebox. Show pupils a museum placard that outlines what is displayed in an exhibit as an example. Allow students to decide how to compile and post this with their shoebox museum – for example, they could put everything on one sheet and glue it to the bottom of the diorama, or they could make a lot of tiny thinking bubbles.

Assignment about geography

Ancient mesopotamia geography

Students might also be assigned geography tasks on Mesopotamia. What are Mesopotamia’s latitude and longitude? Find and name locations throughout the world that have similar latitude or longitude. How would you define the Mesopotamian landscape in geographical terms (i.e. mountains, rivers, etc.)? What do you imagine the modes of transportation were like in Mesopotamia?

What are some of the topographic distinctions between ancient Mesopotamia and modern-day Iraq? WATER WATER ALL OVER – The Tigris and Euphrates rivers would flood Mesopotamia on a regular basis. Students should conduct study on the good and negative repercussions of these floods.

MUD AND CLAY – Have students research how significant mud and clay were to the inhabitants of Mesopotamia. – You could want to have pupils construct model dwellings out of mud and straw. Also the students can do map pointings on the city states , based on their political cultural and economic importance.

 

Design a mesopotamia style garden as a project

Student project about mesopotamia gardens

Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence Project Ideas

Mesopotamian Geography

  • Write a poem about the Tigris and Euphrates and their significance to Mesopotamian civilizations.
  • Write a report comparing and contrasting ancient Mesopotamia’s geography with the topography of the region today.
  • Create a travel brochure for a journey to an ancient Mesopotamian city.
  • Research and write reports on various features of Mesopotamian geography, such as the Tigris and/or Euphrates, the Zagros Mountains, the Taurus Mountains, the Persian Gulf, and so on.
  • Write a diary entry detailing an expedition from the Tigris or Euphrates headwaters to the delta.

Mesopotamian Society’s Roles
Write and deliver a speech persuading ancient Mesopotamian inhabitants to pay taxes to fund government projects such as city walls, irrigation canals, highways, and so on.Journal entries from a scribe’s day in the life – journal/diary entries describing the everyday responsibilities of a scribe or scribe pupil.Mesopotamian Hall of Fame – biographical accounts of famous Mesopotamians (Sargon, Hammurabi, Moses, Nebuchadnezzar, etc. Perhaps have the class or groups rank them in order of significance and discuss who should be in and who should be out.

Culminating Projects

  • Mesopotamia Collage – Have students use the computer to find photos (or magazines, if available) to make a collage showing different aspects of Mesopotamian civilization.
  • Make a picture book of Mesopotamian life to include everything from its geography to the rule of Babylon, etc…Making a PowerPoint of this might be fun too.

Logical/Mathematical Project Ideas

  • Use Excel to make graphs like climographs, population density graphs, harvest record graphs, or whatever other statistical data you can find on Mesopotamia.
  • Use a mapping program to create maps using similar data
  • Create a game in which players have to travel through Mesopotamia, facing various geographical hazards, challenges, etc

National anthems can be a fun way to integrate music into the curriculum. Just have the students write national anthems for each civilization (or even city-states) of ancient Mesopotamia. This reinforces the important characteristics while providing an avenue to explore musical interests. Of course, this could also go with verbal/linguistic.