Mesopotamia

[TeachNY]

any suggestions on relating mesopotamia, and making it more interesting.

[Gail Hennessey]

When I taught Mesopotamia and the first recorded historic people, I purchased hardening clay and had the students write their names in cuneiform. A hole was placed in the clay so they could string yarn to hang the tablet in their bedrooms. Check out: http://www.upennmuseum.com/cuneiform.cgihttp:// for a great site to get their names translated into cuneiform. I just had each students' initial's translated. Also, I had over 90 students so it took me a couple of prep times prior to class to do and print out each student's cuneiform so they'd have it for class for the project plus to keep in their notebook.

Hammurabi's Code of Laws- Have the students illustrate a law. You be the judge....what you would do? See this site: http://www.phillipmartin.info/hammurabi

http://www.42explore.com/mesopot.htm

Also, I wrote a cyberhunt on Mesopotamia which I used which you can download for free at :www.gailhennessey.com/index.shtml?mesopotamia.html

Another thing I did was have the students draw/color an artifact( ie: Gilgamesh statue, ziggerate, statue of a person in their traditional clothing, etc.) THEN, the students had to write 5 specific facts(in C.S. form) on different things they had learned to date on the chapter of study on Mesopotamia.

Play Histo(my name for Tic/Tac/ Toe- place words having to do with the topic in a grid of 6-9 and have students stand, say "histo" , if they have the grid done. To "win", they need to state the terms
and define them.

Write a "day in the life" creative writing including 4 specific facts learned about Mesopotamia. Perhaps, they are a scribe for Hammurabi, a priest at a ziggerate, a brickmaker, etc.

http://www.42explore2.com/mesopot.htm -good helpful site on the topic
http://www.historylink101.com/ancient_mesopotamia.htm -another good site
Hope these may be of help.
Gail
http://www.gailhennessey.com