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3rd grade · Social Studies · Unit 5 of 10

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.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 3.4.19.1; 3.4.22.1 · daily life in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, and what they gave the world

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A civilization is a complex society with cities, government, jobs and often writing.
  2. Mesopotamia grew between the Tigris and Euphrates. Egypt grew along the Nile.
  3. Mesopotamians wrote in cuneiform and had Hammurabi’s Code. Egyptians used hieroglyphs.

Example: Why was writing laws down, as in Hammurabi’s Code, important? Before, rules could change from person to person. Written laws let everyone know the same rules. Answer: people could know the rules and they applied the same way

Mesopotamia & Egypt in Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 5 of 10 in 3rd grade Social Studies, after Where Civilizations Grew and before Ancient India & China.

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: Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)

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

    Hammurabi is known for…

    • Inventing paper
    • Founding Rome
    • Building the pyramids
    • One of the earliest written law codes

  2. Question 2

    Mesopotamia means "land between the rivers." Which two rivers?

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

  3. Question 3

    Why was the Nile's yearly flood helpful?

    • It froze crops
    • It brought salt water
    • It left rich black soil for farming
    • It washed cities away each year

  4. Question 4

    Why was writing laws down important?

    • It made laws secret
    • People could know the rules and they applied more consistently
    • It was only for decoration
    • It let kings ignore them

  5. Question 5

    What is the name of the writing system of Mesopotamia?

    • Cuneiform
    • Hieroglyphs
    • Sanskrit
    • The alphabet of Rome

  6. Question 6

    Mesopotamians used a counting system based on 60. Where do we still see it?

    • 100 cents
    • 10 fingers
    • 60 minutes in an hour
    • 12 months

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