🌎 7th grade Social Studies

Units

1. Unit 1

   🌾First Farmers

   The long story of early humans, how farming began about 12,000 years ago, domestication, food surpluses, and how settling down led to specialized jobs and the first cities.

   Learning standard: SS.7.1.2.1; SS.7.1.2.2 · the Agricultural Revolution, and hunter-gatherer and early farming societies

2. Unit 2

   🏞️Where Civilizations Grew

   How geography shaped Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley and Shang China along their rivers, plus Greece, Rome and the Maya. Includes a reading passage about the Nile flood.

   Learning standard: SS.7.1.16.2; SS.7.2.19.2 · how geography, climate and resources shaped the first civilizations

3. Unit 3

   🕊️World Beliefs

   Where and when major religions and philosophies began (Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Christianity, Islam), their key figures, texts and ideas, described respectfully and factually.

   Learning standard: SS.7.2.18.2; SS.7.3.7.1 · the world's major religions and how religion and politics connected in early societies

4. Unit 4

   🐫Trade Networks

   Specialization, barter and the first coins, the Silk Road and sea routes (with a reading passage and goods table), and how trade led to both cooperation and conflict.

   Learning standard: SS.7.2.19.1; SS.7.4.23.2 · how trade spread people and ideas, and the results of cultural diffusion

5. Unit 5

   🏺Mesopotamia & Egypt

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

   Learning standard: SS.7.2.19.2; SS.7.2.8.2 · Mesopotamia and Egypt, and comparing early laws with laws today

6. Unit 6

   🏯Ancient India & China

   The Indus Valley and Yellow River, Chinese dynasties and the Mandate of Heaven, Confucius, Hinduism and Buddhism, and inventions such as paper and zero.

   Learning standard: SS.7.2.18.2; SS.7.3.21.1 · ancient India and China and the beliefs that began there

7. Unit 7

   🏛️Greece & Rome

   Athens and Sparta, the Roman Republic and Empire, the Twelve Tables and Code of Justinian, and the Greek and Roman ideas found in US government.

   Learning standard: SS.7.3.10.1; SS.7.2.8.2 · citizens in Athens and Rome, and early forms of government

8. Unit 8

   🏰Medieval Europe

   How medieval Europe was organized (kings, nobles, knights and peasants), the role of the Church and guilds, the Magna Carta, the Black Death, and how change came to the feudal system.

   Learning standard: SS.7.3.21.1; SS.7.3.16.4 · medieval Europe, its social structure and the control of land

9. Unit 9

   🕌The Islamic World

   The early Islamic world and its cities, scholars and discoveries (such as algebra and optics), the exchange of knowledge through trade and translation, and the Ottoman Empire.

   Learning standard: SS.7.3.16.3; SS.7.4.23.2 · the Islamic world, its cities and trade, and the exchange of ideas

10. Unit 10

    🐪African Kingdoms & Empires

    Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Great Zimbabwe, the Swahili coast, Benin and Ethiopia from about 600 to 1900, trade across the Sahara and the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic slave trade and African resistance to colonization.

    Learning standard: SS.7.3.16.3; SS.7.4.16.2 · the kingdoms of West Africa and the trade that connected them to other regions

11. Unit 11

    ☀️Maya, Aztec & Inca

    How the Maya, Aztec (Mexica) and Inca arose, their cities, farming, achievements in mathematics and astronomy, and how the Aztec and Inca empires were defeated by Spain. Maya, Nahua and Quechua peoples are living communities today.

    Learning standard: SS.7.3.16.1; SS.7.3.21.1 · the Maya, Aztec and Inca and how their lands shaped them