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7th grade · Social Studies · Unit 6 of 14

Mesopotamia & Egypt

The first river valley civilizations

What your child practices

Why civilizations grew along the Tigris, Euphrates and Nile, cuneiform and hieroglyphs, Hammurabi's Code, pharaohs and pyramids.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 7.6; 7.7 · Mesopotamia, and ancient Egypt's economy, government and society

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. The first civilizations grew along rivers: the Tigris and Euphrates (Mesopotamia) and the Nile (Egypt).
  2. Irrigation brought river water to crops with canals.
  3. Scribes wrote cuneiform on wet clay or hieroglyphs. Hammurabi wrote one of the earliest law codes; pharaohs built pyramids.

Example: What does irrigation mean? Crops need water even when it doesn’t rain. Farmers dig canals to bring river water to fields. Answer: bringing water to crops with canals or ditches

Mesopotamia & Egypt in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 6 of 14 in 7th grade Social Studies, after Mesopotamia and before Ancient 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

    The Great Pyramids at Giza were built as…

    • Tombs for pharaohs
    • Markets
    • Schools
    • Lighthouses

  2. Question 2

    Egyptians made a paper-like writing material from…

    • Silk
    • Papyrus reeds
    • Wood pulp
    • Clay

  3. Question 3

    A Mesopotamian temple tower is called a…

    • Pagoda
    • Pyramid
    • Colosseum
    • Ziggurat

  4. Question 4

    Cuneiform was written by pressing a stylus into…

    • Silk
    • Wet clay tablets
    • Stone with paint
    • Paper

  5. Question 5

    Which river flows through ancient Egypt?

    • The Nile
    • The Amazon
    • The Indus
    • The Tigris

  6. Question 6

    How did surplus food change early societies?

    • Cities disappeared
    • Everyone had to farm more
    • People stopped eating
    • Some people could do jobs other than farming

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