6th+Grade+Social+Studies

WELCOME! As you scroll down this page, you will see the entire Social Studies curriculum related to the integrated Science/Math/English/Social Studies game we play for about the first two trimesters, called The Human Story.

All assignments posted are for 6th grade Social Studies class with Mr. Kallage at the Forrest Bird Charter school.

=**What follows is a text reading of all directions for the Social Studies games. It can be used for reference or for a student who forgot to bring their instructions home.**=

Social Studies Game Part 1 Early Humankind- Hunters and Gatherers

State Standards:

6-9.WHC.1.6.1 Describe types of evidence used by anthropologists, archaeologists, and other scholars to reconstruct early human and cultural development. (462.01a)

6-9.WHC.1.7.1 Explain how man adapted the environment for civilization to develop. (462.04a)

6-9.WHC.1.9.1 Explain the relationship between religion and the peoples understanding of the natural world. (462.07c)

6-9.WHC.2.3.2 Explain how climate affects human migration and settlement. (463.03b

6-9.WHC.2.4.1 Compare and contrast physical features on the planet. (463.02a)

6-9.WHC.2.3.3 Describe how physical features such as mountain ranges, fertile plains, and rivers led to the development of cultural regions. (463.03c)

6-9.WHC.3.1.1 Explain how historically people have relied on their natural resources to meet their needs. (465.01b)

Purpose: To successfully complete this segment of the game, you (as a hunter-gatherer tribe), must:


 * Be able to describe accurately your region’s climate in all seasons
 * Paragraph construction: Develop a strategy for using the natural environment for your survival that includes:
 * What you will use for shelter
 * What you will eat and how much of that you will need to meet your calorie needs
 * Develop tools that will help you meet your daily needs

After you have created and edited paragraphs for your inventions (usually between 12-15), you are ready to write your creation myth.
 * Creation myth/story- 3 paragraph creative writing story inspired by studying the creation myths of at least 4 human cultures. **

Climate Study YOU WILL NEED TO STUDY AND BECOME VERY FAMILIAR WITH YOUR CLIMATE IN ORDER FOR YOUR TRIBE TO SURVIVE.

Here’s how to do it.

Step #1: Look up the type of climate you live in at

www.blueplanetbiomes.org/world_biomes

Step #2: Summarize the details for your climate here, in two paragraphs.

Step #3. Go to this website. Find a city with the same climate as your environment and copy the temperatures for month in the table below. Also, be sure to read all about that town. [|www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7v.html]

|| || Jan.


 * Feb || Mar || Apr. || May || Jun. || Jul. || Aug. || Sep. || Oct. || Nov. || Dec. || Year ||
 * Temp. ° C ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Precip. Mm ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||

Convert each degree Celsius to Farenheit at the website: [|www.wbuf.noaa.gov/tempfc.htm]

Step #4: Now, write each month out below and write its temperature in Farenheit.

Step #5

Average the temperature and precipitation for each season: (to average, add up the numbers for each group of months and divide by 3)

Summer (June, July, August)

Fall (September, October, November)

Winter (December, January, Febraury)

Winter/Spring (March, April, May)

Plants Research Page Starting at the website:

[], locate the climate you live in and click on it. On the right hand side there is a link to lists of plants and animals. Click on plants

Read about each plant in your biome.

Write down the name on the right side of this paper.

Determine what use a human could have for this plant in terms of food, shelter, clothing, or any other use.

Example:

Plant Name:BengalBamboo: Food: Cannot eat Shelter: Excellent for making houses and other structures Other uses: Spears for hunting

Research at least EIGHT (or less if your web page has less) plants and list their names and uses on this paper:

Plant Name: Food Shelter Other Uses Plant Name: Food Shelter Other Uses Plant Name: Food Shelter Other Uses Plant Name: Food Shelter Other Uses

Plant Name: Food Shelter Other Uses Plant Name: Food Shelter Other Uses

Plant Name: Food Shelter Other Uses Plant Name: Food Shelter Other Uses

Animals Research Page On this page, you will do your research about animals in your biome in the same way you did research on plants.

To research animals, click on the link and read about each animal.

You will need to research EIGHT animals in your biome and will need to evaluate their usefulness to you in terms of food, clothing, shelter, what you should do when you see one, and other interesting facts about that animal.

Example: Animal Name: Black Mamba Clothing: No Food: Maybe Shelter: No When you see one: Stay away from these Facts: This is a very poisonous snake.

Animal Name: Clothing: Food: Shelter: When you see one: Facts:

Animal Name: Clothing: Food: Shelter: When you see one: Facts:

Animal Name: Clothing: Food: Shelter: When you see one: Facts:

Animal Name: Clothing: Food: Shelter: When you see one: Facts:

Animal Name: Clothing: Food: Shelter: When you see one: Facts:

Animal Name: Clothing: Food: Shelter: When you see one: Facts:

Animal Name: Clothing: Food: Shelter: When you see one: Facts:

Animal Name: Clothing: Food: Shelter: When you see one: Facts:

Social Studies Game Scene 2

Survival of the Fittest/Early Hunter-Gatherers


 * Goal: ** The goal of this scene is to use your knowledge of the climate, plants, and animals of your biome, as well as your ingenuity, to survive as a tribe.


 * Time period: ** Each hour in class playing the game will be the equivalent of 6 years in pre-historic time. In each 6-year period, your tribe must:


 * Develop your strategy for survival, including:
 * How/what are you going to eat?
 * The health of your tribe depends on getting good nutrition from a variety of sources, and lots of it.
 * How much energy do you spend to get the food versus how much energy do you get from the food?
 * How do these needs change according to the season?


 * Shelter needs
 * What are your peoples’ needs for shelter in each season?
 * Where are good places to build your shelter
 * Will your tribe live in one spot, or will they need to live in different places?

To make it interesting (and life-like), circumstances such as weather, animal populations, disease, access to water, and other conditions will change. Your tribe will have to develop a strategy to adapt to each.

Each tribe can have up to 180 points to use. Points keep your people alive and successful. You have to divide your points according to your people’s needs. You cannot use more than 180 points; if you don’t have enough points to meet your peoples’ needs, you lose people. Here is how the points work:

Points:

1 food point per turn to keep one healthy adult alive

2 points per turn to keep one child alive

Game of Chance (roll 3 dice to see which you get; roll 2 times; you cannot have the same situation twice in one turn)

3. Child is born and lives to age 6

4. New water source able to accommodate all members of tribe for 6 years

5. Your primary staple animal food is in high numbers for 6 years

6. Your primary staple animal is in low population for 6 years

7. You have overhunted one animal to the point of near extinction in your area (25 years to recooperate)

8. Your tribe remains free of all lethal disease for 5 years.

9. 3 members of your tribe die of disease in 5 years.

10. Natural disaster ruins all shelter

11. Birth of 3 healthy children to age 6

12. Infant mortality for the next 12 years.

13. Loss of water source

14. Warm climate all but kills winter for 6 years

15. Cold, cold, cold 6 years ahead. You will need to find extra supplies to deal with this

Your points depend on your knowledge. You get more dice for more knowledge and less for less knowledge. Each turn you can earn up to 5 dice (up to 30 total dice) for 5 worthwhile, factual pieces of knowledge that you can use. Each piece of information that is deemed invaluable or if you do not research enough, you will get less dice. Here are the categories:

Climate knowledge

Plants knowledge

Animal knowledge

Years 1-6 7-12 13-18 19-24 25-30

Names of all tribe members, with ages at beginning and end of turn:

Name Age Points Social Studies Game part 3

Early Civilizations

This part of the game will challenge you to create your own early ancient civilization. Early civilizations in human history have almost always started next to a major river. Early civilizations are also characterized by the invention of picture-based writing, religion, and social hierarchy. You will create all of these for your civilization, as well as study some examples from real early ancient civilizations.

The GOAL OF THE GAME is to become a Classic civilization. A Classic civilization is accomplished by earning more than 100,000 people. Each task completed will give your early civilizations more rights, options, and powers. Complete the following tasks to earn them.

The following tasks need to be completed to become a fully viable early civilization. To earn your civilization and move on to the next step, you must complete every step of every task, and have the task corrected, edited, and signed off by the teacher:


 * 1) Choose a lowland river valley along a major river from the Goode’s World Atlas. This will be the center of your civilization. The place you choose must be in the same biome that you began in as a hunter gatherer tribe. Find that same place on the floor map, and place your sticker on the floor map. +1,000 people
 * 2) Create a map of your territory. Your map will be created on graph paper. Each square will equal one square mile. Your map will contain 20 important landmarks such as towns, physical features, lakes, rivers, and your capital city. Using the x and y coordinate plane method, each landmark will be assigned an appropriate x and y coordinate. Write the landmark’s name and coordinates on the back of the map. +3,000 people
 * 3) Create a //hierarchical structure// for your society. To do this, create a colored pyramid graph of **four levels of society**. Those at the top of the pyramid will have the most power and rights; those at the bottom will the least power and rights. Each group will have its own role in your society, and **each group will have** **one descriptive paragraph written** about its role in your early civilization. Things to address:
 * 4) Where will you rank the farmers and those who attend to domesticated animals? Describe in details their lives. Use the following websites to gather ideas and insight into the lives of early farmers:

i. []


 * 1) Use the following website to discover which method of ancient farming your people will use, and how it is applied:

i. []

ii. Once you choose your method has been chosen, you will research the type of soil your biome has. How well you do this will determine your population’s growth rate (1% -yellow sticker, 2% -Green sticker, 3% -Blue sticker, 4% -Red Sticker. To do this well, you must complete the following:


 * 1) Use the map at [] to determine what kind of soil you have
 * 2) Run a Google search of your soil type and list 3 AUTHORITATIVE WEBSITES that can help you discover information about the soil type.
 * 3) 5 facts = 1%
 * 4) 10 facts =2%
 * 5) 15 facts + a paragraph description of how to plant and harvest a staple crop from you type of soil =3%
 * 6) 15 facts + 2 paragraph descriptions of how to plant and harvest 2 staple crops =4%
 * 7) Write a complex message in your language to another player. If the other player is an early civilization such as yours, you may establish a trade relationship, which will bring many benefits. If the other player has not yet turned into a civilization, you may deliver the message as an offering of goodwill and will help that player earn 5 permanent people for their tribe. Each message establishes a trade relationship, usable later in the game. In order to complete the trade relationship, you will need to document the player’s biome, distance from your civilization, and difficulty of reach (1 point for every 100 miles, 2 points over any mountain range, 5 points for every 100 miles of sea or ocean) (use the wall map) +1,000 per message.


 * // Player’s name // || // Biome // || // Distance // || // Difficulty rating // ||

// NOW THAT YOU HAVE COMPLETED THESE 5 TASKS, YOU WILL NEED TO: //


 * 1) // DEVELOP IRRIGATION FOR CROPS +10,000 people-Get blue Irrigation sticker from teacher when complete- Using Google Earth with the topographical feature turned on (depending on computer availability) or Goode’s World Atlas physical map, create an irrigation scheme for your civilization’s crops. Your main river will be the major source of water for crops. Knowing that water can only flow downhill, you will need use the topographical map to determine not only where the best soils are, but also to where water can be channeled. //

// The finished product will have: //


 * 1) // A COLORED and NEATLY DESIGNED graph paper map showing the physical landscape of the area, including different colors for different elevations (at least 4 different elevations/colors). //
 * 2) // Each square will equal 1 square mile. For each square mile you can CONVINCINGLY irrigate, you can increase your population 1,000 people. Limit 10,000. //


 * 1) // Read the book ‘Science in Mesopotamia’. Answers the questions on the separate piece of paper. //

** Population Tracking **

// Use population growth chart and worksheets to determine your population at the beginning of each turn. //


 * // Population // || // 8. // || // 16. // ||
 * // 1. // || // 9. // || // 17. // ||
 * // 2. // || // 10. // || // 18. // ||
 * // 3. // || // 11. // || // 19. // ||
 * // 4. // || // 12. // || // 20. // ||
 * // 5. // || // 13. // || // 21. // ||
 * // 6. // || // 14. // || // 22. // ||
 * // 7. // || // 15. // || // 23. // ||

// Game Part 4 //

// After you have completed these tasks, you have several methods by which you can get your early civilization to 100,000 people. Each completed task will improve your civilization’s growth rate by 1%. You lose .5% growth rate each turn, so you have to work very hard to keep your population growing. //

// Method #1: As a peaceable trade-based civilization. A trade civilization adds to its value through learning to trade with other civilizations, as well as learning about other cultures. //

// Method #2: As a war-like, conquest-based civilization. A war-based civilization adds to its value through conquering other civilizations. //

// Method #3: As a combination of both. //

// EVERY PLAYER GETS UP TO 100 POINTS PER COMPLETED ASSIGNMENT. THERE IS NO LIMIT TO POINTS YOU CAN GET. YOU NEED TO KEEP TRACK OF YOUR POINTS ON THIS CHART. ALL POINT ADDITIONS MUST BE SIGNED OFF BY MR. K. //


 * // Culture points- // || // Military Points/units // || // Infrastructure Points/dice // || // Science points // ||





RULES FOR WAR/Defense:

For every 100 points of military, you earn 1 die (1 military unit) to roll against an opponent. If you choose to attack an opponent, you will need to roll a 6 to succeed in destroying one die of your opponent. You lose one die for every 1000 miles you travel to battle (round up for over 500 miles- example- 1500 miles= lose two die).

For every 100 points of infrastructure or culture, you earn 1 die to roll against an attacker. You must roll a 1 or 2 to destroy their unit. Once an attacker’s unit is destroyed, it cannot be returned. Infrastructure cannot be destroyed, and is returned to its original owner.

Science points can be used to do any of the following: increase military efficiency (one more die for every 200 points earned); OR increase travel efficiency (minus 10 difficulty points to ONE other civilization for every 100 points earned. Science points can also be given to another player with an established trading relationship to help their civilization.

Rules for Trade:

YOU MAY BUY AND SELL ANY DEVELOPMENTS ANOTHER CIVILIZATION HAS MADE **AS LONG AS YOU HAVE A TRADE RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM** (See TRADE rules below). YOU WILL DETERMINE THE PRICE (points) WITH THEM INDIVIDUALLY. THE PRICE GOES UP WITH THE DIFFICULTY RATING.

EXAMPLE: TWO PLAYERS AGREE ON A PRICE FOR A PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY. THE PRICE WAS 9 POINTS. IF THE DIFFICULTY RATING IS 5, THE TOTAL PRICE WILL BE 14 POINTS. THE PLAYERS CAN MAKE ARRANGEMENTS TO SHARE THE COST OF THE DIFFICULTY TAX IN THEIR DEAL.

EACH DEVELOPMENT CAN TAKE THE FOLLOWING FORM. THESE ARE THE TYPES OF ASSIGNMENTS YOU CAN MAKE:

ONE PAGE REPORT- 4 full paragraphs, with a short introductory paragraph, 12 pt. font, done in Microsoft Word

POWERPOINT PRESENTATION- 15 slides, including transitions, clip art, no more than 7 lines per slide, all copyrighted material is cited. Presented in front of class on presentations days.

WORK OF ART – can be painting, drawing, or replica of the art or architecture of an ancient civilization. Each work of art will have a detailed explanation, typed, describing the time period, style, and purpose of the artwork, as well as how it was created (in ancient times)

ARCHITECTURAL ANALYSIS – create a colored, scaled drawing, on an unlined sheet of paper, using rulers and other drawing aids, and include at numbered notes with an index of prominent features on the back of the page

3-D MONUMENT- create a Google Sketch-up 3-D replica of a famous ancient monument, complete with a two-paragraph description of the history and purpose of the monument

EXCEL SPREADSHEET CHART- find a creative way to display information and research about your civilization using various excel graphs. See Mr. K for tutorial after you have compiled your research.

EXTREME GEEK OUT- Go nuts with your exploration of an interesting ancient civilization and create something unique. Run your idea by the teacher for approval.


 * All interactions with another player must be recorded on an INSPIRATION CHART ** - Using the Inspiration program you learned about in Computer Apps, you will create this chart to keep track of alliances, and all interactions with other players.

** Matrix of Topics/Actions/Assignments **


 * ** Civilization ** || ** Architecture of ** || ** Culture of ** || ** Famous rulers of ** || ** Inventions of ** || ** Wars ** || ** Curious/interesting facts of ** ||
 * Ancient Greece -Corinth ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Ancient Greece - Macedonia ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Ancient Greece -Athens ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Early Ancient Rome ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Ancient Rome Republic ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Ancient Imperial Rome ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||

RESEARCH TIP: USE GOOGLE AND TYPE IN THE TERMS IN THE BOX- EXAMPLE: CULTURE OF ANCIENT GREECE CORINTH


 * Ancient Egypt Old Kingdom ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Ancient Egypt Middle Kingdom ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Ancient Egypt New Kingdom ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Ancient Egypt Late Kingdom ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Ancient India- Early Hinduism ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Indus Valley civilization ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Ancient India- The Buddha ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||

TRADE Rules

In order to trade, you must have established a trade relationship though writing a letter in your language, and having another player translate that letter. To complete the trade relationship, that player must write a letter back to you, and you must translate that. You may only trade with someone who is within 3200 (2 feet on the map) miles of your sticker. TRADE RELATIONSHIPS MUST ALSO SHOW A CLEAR, NOT-MESSY ROAD BETWEEN THE TWO STICKERS ON THE MAP! LETTERS must be at least 20 characters in length and must make sense!

Trade Relationships


 * Player’s name || What they have to offer || What you trade in return || Distance ||