Middle School Activities for Ancient Mesopotamia
The ancient Mesopotamia region of what is now known as the Middle East can be an exciting subject for middle school students. From geographical, artistic, cultural and humanitarian standpoints, there are many opportunities for activities to make learning about this ancient area enjoyable.
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Take a River Trip
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Plan a virtual excursion along the two rivers that bordered Mesopotamia, the Tigris and Euphrates. Using PowerPoint programs or videos, take the students on a trip down the rivers, viewing the animal and plant life they may see. Have them pay close attention to any human activities along the rivers. Complete the activity with question and answer sessions about how life was in ancient times compared with how it is now.
Make Posters
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Instruct students to make posters or draw pictures of items that may have been used to farm in ancient Mesopotamia. As they work through the history of the area, have them do additional posters and drawings of articles and ideas invented by ancient Mesopotamians that may have made their work easier. Treat these posters as parts of a time line that shows how civilization progressed.
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Study the Religion
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Do an entire section, if possible, on the religion of the ancient Mesopotamians. This section will hellp students learn how religion has played a part in history since ancient times. Have the students make "ziggurats," or temples, from clay, writing a small paragraph describing the various gods that the Mesopotamians worshipped.
Make a Mobile
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Help students construct, from colored papers and drawings, a virtual view of Mesopotamian in relief. Preparing this as a mobile will add dimension to the ideas of that time by surrounding the flat world with water and a heaven above. Make the paper mobile as a class activity, and make it large enough to hang from the ceiling.
Transform the Classroom
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Old cooking tools offer hints to how people lived in ancient Mesopotamia. Turn the classroom into an ancient Mesopotamia by having the students find items to bring in, draw items of that time to hang on walls and ceilings, or cut out pictures from various sources to place around the classroom. Artistic students may even be able to look at pictures and re-create, from clay or Play Dough, artifacts that existed in ancient Mesopotamia.
Take a Museum Field Trip
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Using imagination, you can bring ancient Mesopotamia to life through student hands-on activities, movies, books and pictures. Check out museums close to the school that may have some history on Mesopotamia. A good field trip to a museum is always of interest to children in the middle school age group.
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Resources
- Photo Credit pointing to middle east image by Pavel Bernshtam from Fotolia.com cooking pots and shovel image by Alexey Kuznetsov from Fotolia.com
