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7th grade · Social Studies · Unit 5 of 14

Mesopotamia

Cuneiform, ziggurats and the first city-states

What your child practices

Children learn about life between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers: city-states, irrigation, writing, laws and technology.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 7.6 · Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates: irrigation, cuneiform and city-states

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Mesopotamia is the land between the Tigris and Euphrates. Sumer, in the south, had the first city-states.
  2. People irrigated fields, built ziggurats (stepped temple towers) and wrote cuneiform on wet clay.
  3. Their counting by 60 lives on in minutes and angles. Law codes carved on stone made laws known to all.

Example: What was a ziggurat? It was a huge building at the center of a city. It rose in steps and had a temple on top. Answer: a stepped temple tower

Mesopotamia in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 5 of 14 in 7th grade Social Studies, after Where Civilizations Grew and before Mesopotamia & Egypt.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    A ziggurat was…

    • a stepped temple tower
    • a palace garden
    • a marketplace
    • a boat

  2. Question 2

    Which two rivers shaped Mesopotamia?

    • the Yellow and the Yangtze
    • the Nile and the Congo
    • the Indus and the Ganges
    • the Tigris and the Euphrates

  3. Question 3

    The Fertile Crescent is…

    • an ocean
    • a curve of rich farmland in the Middle East
    • a mountain range
    • a desert

  4. Question 4

    The Mesopotamians used a counting system based on 60. We still use it when we measure…

    • distance in meters
    • money in dollars
    • weights in kilograms
    • time in minutes and angles

  5. Question 5

    Which statement about life in Mesopotamia is true?

    • no one worked
    • everyone had the same job
    • there were no cities
    • enslaved people also lived and worked there

  6. Question 6

    The first empire in Mesopotamia is linked to Sargon of Akkad. An empire is…

    • a large area ruled by one government that has conquered other lands
    • a type of farm
    • a law code
    • a small village

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