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6th grade · Social Studies · Unit 10 of 15

Trade Routes & Beliefs

Silk Road, religions and ideas

What your child practices

The Silk Road and Indian Ocean trade, how religions and ideas spread, the Islamic Golden Age, medieval Europe and the Magna Carta, up to about 1450.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 6.4a; 6.7a · the Silk Road and Indian Ocean trade, and how religions and ideas spread along trade routes

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Cultural diffusion is ideas and goods spreading, like paper-making from China to the Middle East and Europe.
  2. Religions: Judaism was one of the first to worship one God; Mecca is the holiest city of Islam.
  3. Feudalism: lords gave land to knights for service; serfs worked a lord's land. The Black Death killed about a third of Europe.

Example: Which is an example of cultural diffusion? Diffusion means spreading out. Paper-making spread from China to other lands. Answer: paper-making spreading from China to Europe

Trade Routes & Beliefs in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 10 of 15 in 6th grade Social Studies, after The Islamic World and before Trade Networks.

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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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

    Islam began in Arabia in the 600s CE with the teachings of…

    • The Prophet Muhammad
    • Confucius
    • Jesus
    • Moses

  2. Question 2

    Besides goods, what else traveled along the Silk Road?

    • Only soldiers
    • Nothing else
    • Only letters
    • Ideas, religions and diseases

  3. Question 3

    Why did traders take the Silk Road even though it was dangerous?

    • It was short and easy
    • They were forced by Rome
    • It was the only road anywhere
    • Goods from far away sold for high prices

  4. Question 4

    During the Islamic Golden Age, scholars in Baghdad's House of Wisdom…

    • Translated and added to Greek, Persian and Indian learning
    • Burned all books
    • Invented the steam engine
    • Wrote the Magna Carta

  5. Question 5

    Serfs were…

    • Knights
    • Merchants from China
    • Kings
    • Peasants bound to work a lord's land

  6. Question 6

    The Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan helped trade because…

    • It made Silk Road travel safer across a huge area
    • It banned money
    • It closed all roads
    • It sank ships

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