How We Know the Past & Mesopotamia
Essential Question
How do we know what happened before us, and why did civilization first arise between two rivers?
This first week opens the whole journey. The student learns what history actually is, how historians and archaeologists recover the past from clues, and then meets the world's first civilization in the land between the Tigris and Euphrates. Sumer gives us cities, writing, law, and the wheel; it also gives us a chance to begin our notebook, our map drawing, and the habits of careful thinking that the rest of the year depends on.
Liturgical note: Ordinary Time (early autumn). The Feast of Sts. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Archangels, falls on September 29, and St. Michael is our saint of the week.
Threads at a Glance
What Each Thread Covers This Week
What history is; archaeology and primary sources; Sumer and Mesopotamia — cuneiform, ziggurats, city-states, the wheel, the first laws
First Americans: peopling the continent and culture regions
Hammurabi and his Code of Law
The Fertile Crescent; draw the Tigris-Euphrates river system and the Middle East landmass
Prehistoric and Mesopotamian art — Lascaux cave paintings, the Standard of Ur, the Ziggurat of Ur
The origins of music; oldest instruments; the Hurrian Hymn (oldest notated melody, c.1400 BC)
St. Michael the Archangel
Prudence (the charioteer of the virtues)
YOUCAT Part One intro — the human longing for God; why we can believe (Q1-Q4)
The sentence and the eight parts of speech (overview); nouns
The strong, complete sentence — clarity and sentence craft (diagnostic)
Weekly Writing Assignment
Strong Sentences About the First Cities
Write 8-10 complete sentences about life in a Sumerian city. Include at least one sentence of each of the four kinds you will meet later (statement, question, command, exclamation), and try to vary your sentence openings. This is a diagnostic, so write naturally and carefully; your parent will use it to see where to focus this year.
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- Every sentence is complete (has a subject and a verb and expresses a full thought).
- Sentences are clear and say something true and specific about Sumer.
- Sentence openings and lengths are varied, not all the same.
- Spelling, capitalization, and end punctuation are correct.
- Handwriting or typing is neat and the page is well organized.
The Week
Four Days of Learning
- St. Michael the Archangel — Introduction10m
- What Is History? Archaeology, Sources, and the First Cities of Sumer30m
- YOUCAT Part One — The Human Longing for God15m
- Notebook Wrap — Setting Up the Year5m
- Prudence — The Charioteer of the Virtues10m
- The First Americans: A Continent Already Full20m
- Prehistoric to Mesopotamian Art — Lascaux, the Standard of Ur, the Ziggurat of Ur25m
- Notebook Wrap — Culture Day5m
- Catechism Review & Prayer5m
- The Sentence, the Eight Parts of Speech, and Nouns20m
- The Fertile Crescent — Drawing the Tigris-Euphrates30m
- Notebook Wrap — Skills Day5m
- Hammurabi and His Code of Law15m
- The Origins of Music & the Hurrian Hymn20m
- Writing Workshop — The Strong, Complete Sentence (Diagnostic)20m
- St. Michael — Reflection & Week Synthesis5m