Putting Historical Thinking into Practice – Sample Activities

6th Grade

Chronological and Spatial Thinking

  1. Draw three political maps reflecting three distinct eras in Roman history.
  2. Participate in a chronological quiz game based on events in Egyptian history.
  3. Make a class time line that includes major events from all the different periods covered in the sixth grade (for example, Early Humankind, Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, Hebrews, Ancient Greece and Rome).
  4. Make a map of the different civilizations taught in sixth grade, including major rivers in order to understand the relationship between rivers and the development of civilization.

Examining Evidence

  1. Read excerpts of the United States Constitution and in conjunction with a lecture, identify political constructures and concepts that might be connected to Roman ideas of government; create a wall chart.
  2. Look at a picture of the Rosetta Stone and speculate about why it was so important.
  3. Look at pictures of art in Mesopotamia and Egypt and make inferences about daily life in the ancient world.
  4. Read Greek mythology and make inferences on what life was like for people living in ancient Greece.

Diversity / Multiple Perspectives

  1. Participate in a simulation activity about the fall of Rome and the fragility of military expansion.
  2. With a partner, write and dramatize a fictional meeting between a sixthgrader oftoday and a tenyear old from ancient India, emphasizing what would amazeand/or dismay the other person.
  3. Debate Confucian beliefs about a child's obligations to parents. Debrief all thedifferent opinions in the class.
  4. Act out a play on the trial of Socrates and reach a verdict.
  5. Make a wall chart comparing the values and beliefs of Hindus and Greeks inancient times.
  6. Read two myths from two different cultures to compare similarities and differences

.

Interpretation

  1. Write a short piece of historical fiction based on a particular character, from adistinct social class; include details about food, clothing, housing, daily routine,and social relationships.
  2. Read Boy of the Painted Cave and chart which information is known about earlyhumankind and which information is speculation by the author.
  3. Write a report on a day in the life of a child in ancient China.
  4. Read two different accounts of how human life developed and spread to comparedifferent interpretations.

Determining Historical / Geographical Significance

  1. Analyze political cartoons about social problems (TCI) and write a speculativeessay entitled, "Is Our Society About to Fall?"
  2. Write a eulogy to the Roman Empire emphasizing its achievements and legacy inthe arts, architecture, religion and law; or to indict it for its legacy in connectionto our social problems.
  3. Compare social stratification in China based on a Confucian system with socialstratification in the United States today.
  4. Draw a mural of the six major achievements of ancient civilization along with awritten justification for the choice of those particular achievements.
  5. Write an essay exploring the importance of rivers in the development ofcivilization.

Oakland Unified School District / Oakland, California / August, 1999