SOCIAL STUDIES
6th grade
FROM THE SUMERIAN CLAY TABLETS TO THE IPAD: CENTURIES OF WRITING HISTORY
CLAY TABLETS:
The ancient Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hittites wrote on tablets made from water-cleaned clay. Developed in Ancient Mesopotamia, clay tablets were used for over 3,000 years. Scribes used a reed stylus to impress characters in moist clay. The tablets were usually dried in the sun or sometimes fired in kilns. Documents were often archived in libraries where they could survive for millennia.
This tablet preserves an account of wages paid to workers 4,000 years ago.
The students from 6th grade modeled clay tablets and created their own wedge-shaped tool to write their names in sumerian alphabet.
STANDARDS:
SS. 6.H.1: Use historical thinking to understand the emergence, expansión, and decline of civilizations, societies, and regions over time.
