In 6th grade the curriculum is based on the Ancient Civilizations like Sumer, Egypt, India, etc...
First I started off with PREHISTORY. For this unit I created slideshows and to wrap it up, I came up with an activity.
The activity consisted of making Cave Art painting and Cuneiform writing in "clay tablets".
The materials we used were:
-5 mts. of Kraft paper
- brown, yellow, orange and black acrylic paint.
- 2 clay bars (yellow, or orange)
- 1 wooden sticks (pencil like)
I divided the class in 2 groups, Each group worked with a specific activity.
1.-The first activity was Cave art painting. So I basically gave them an example of a cave art painting and told them to create a drawing using their fingers and hands ( no paint brushes).
2.- The second activity was Cuneiform writing.
Students used their clay bars and shaped them into a square or rectangle figure, then they pressed their wooden stick (with the sharp end) to write their own names using the cuneiform alphabet!
At the end I used their paintings to decorate my so lonely bulletin board!!!!!
I found this activities engaging, since they had fun and used their previous knowledge for this session.
Please comment and feel free to use this ideas with your classroom!
Cheers,
Gina
