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3rd grade · Social Studies · Unit 8 of 10

Time & Evidence

BCE and CE, artifacts and sources

What your child practices

Counting years in BCE and CE, centuries and calendars, artifacts and archaeology, and judging primary and secondary sources about the ancient world.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 3.4.20.1; 3.4.18.1 · historical sources that survive from the ancient world, and ways of marking time

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. BCE years count down toward year 1; CE years count up. So 500 BCE is earlier than 200 BCE.
  2. An artifact is an object made by people in the past.
  3. A primary source is from the time. A secondary source explains it later.

Example: Which year is earlier: 300 BCE or 100 BCE? BCE years count down toward year 1. The bigger BCE number is longer ago. Answer: 300 BCE

Time & Evidence in Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 8 of 10 in 3rd grade Social Studies, after Greece & Rome and before Working Together Fairly.

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

    Some calendars, like the Islamic and Chinese calendars, are based on…

    • Tides only
    • The Olympics
    • The cycles of the moon
    • Presidents

  2. Question 2

    Why do historians compare several sources?

    • Sources are always the same
    • Each source shows only part of the story and may be biased
    • One source is enough
    • It wastes time

  3. Question 3

    Which is a secondary source about ancient Rome?

    • A Roman mosaic
    • A Roman coin
    • A historian's book written in 2010
    • A letter by a Roman senator

  4. Question 4

    Which source would best show what people in Pompeii ate?

    • Food remains found in the ruins
    • A modern cookbook
    • A map of today's Italy
    • A cartoon

  5. Question 5

    Which came first?

    • The first Olympic Games (776 BCE)
    • The building of the Great Pyramid (about 2560 BCE)
    • The Magna Carta (1215 CE)
    • The fall of Rome (476 CE)

  6. Question 6

    The Bronze Age got its name because people…

    • Used no tools
    • Painted things brown
    • Lived in bronze houses
    • Made tools from bronze, a mix of copper and tin

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