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4th grade · Social Studies · Unit 2 of 9

Civilizations of the Americas

Olmec, Maya, Aztec, Inca and Mississippian

What your child practices

What makes a civilization (cities, government, job specialization, writing, social classes), city-states and empires, and how the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, Inca, Mississippian and Ancestral Puebloan peoples farmed, built and adapted to their land. Maya, Nahua and Quechua peoples live in these lands today.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 4.H1.1; 4.G2.1 · early civilizations of the Americas and how they adapted to their environments

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A civilization has cities, government, specialized jobs, writing and social classes.
  2. The Olmec and Maya lived in Mexico and Central America. The Aztec built Tenochtitlan.
  3. The Inca linked their empire with roads and rope bridges. Mississippians built mound cities.

Example: How did the Inca connect their huge empire? Their empire stretched across the Andes mountains. They built a long road system. Answer: with roads and rope bridges

Civilizations of the Americas in Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 2 of 9 in 4th grade Social Studies, after Geography of the Americas and before Maya, Aztec & Inca.

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: Arizona Department of Education

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

    What did the Maya, Aztec and Inca have in common?

    • They all used iron tools and horses
    • They all spoke the same language
    • They all lived in the Andes
    • Cities, rulers and skilled farmers

  2. Question 2

    The Mississippian peoples built…

    • Stone pyramids with glyphs
    • Castles
    • Large earthen mounds
    • Igloos

  3. Question 3

    The Maya wrote using…

    • The Latin alphabet
    • No writing at all
    • Glyphs, a kind of picture writing
    • Knotted strings only

  4. Question 4

    Which civilization lived high in the Andes Mountains?

    • Mississippian
    • Inca
    • Olmec
    • Aztec

  5. Question 5

    The Olmec lived along the Gulf Coast of…

    • Brazil
    • Peru
    • Mexico
    • Canada

  6. Question 6

    The Maya used a symbol for zero, which helped them…

    • Grow potatoes
    • Tame horses
    • Build ships
    • Do complex math and keep calendars

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