Ancient China and Ancient Egypt
Lesson Plan: February 27, 2013
SOL 2.1: The student will explain how the contributions of ancient China and Egypt have
influenced the present world in terms of architecture, inventions, the calendar, and written
language.
 Objective 1: through a movement activity, students will demonstrate knowledge of the
contributions made by ancient civilizations, correctly sorting contributions by civilization.
 Objective 2: to pre-assess students’ knowledge of vocabulary of ancient China and ancient
Egypt, students will play a game that serves as a formative assessment – an opportunity for
them to demonstrate their prior knowledge from second grade of specific vocabulary words
that have not yet been addressed this year but that they will see on their upcoming quiz.
Context: this lesson takes place the day after the contributions of these ancient civilizations are
sorted in students’ social studies notebooks. It takes place two days before a quiz on ancient
China and ancient Egypt, and the lesson will be used by the instructor as a formative assessment
to determine students’ knowledge prior to the quiz.
Materials:
 White board (with pre-made t-chart of Ancient Egypt/Ancient China)
 24 contribution magnets (large images of contributions of ancient Egypt/China with magnetic
tape on the back)
 PPT screen with questions asking about upcoming vocabulary
 4 sets of index cards, each set containing index cards with the answers to the vocabulary
questions
Procedure
1. To activate students’ prior knowledge, begin lesson with open-ended questions about
what was reviewed during the previous day’s social studies lesson. Ask students questions about
what they learned and what concepts were reviewed. Enter a discussion about how information
in this unit has been organized – through t-charts. Explain that we will use the t-chart again
during this lesson. Today, it will show exactly what ancient Egypt contributed and exactly what
ancient China contributed. Ask students for the definition of contribution; ensure they have
reached the accurate definition.
Explain the rules of the game to the students. They will be broken up into approximately
four teams of five. On the call of the teacher, one person from each group (groups may be in
lines, space permitting, so the first person in line) will go to the back of the room and select a
contribution magnet (face down) off the floor. Meanwhile, their teammates should be doing
[silent] jumping jacks back at their desks. The teammate should bring the contribution magnet
back to their group whether it was a contribution of China or Egypt. Once they have decided, the
teammate will go up and place the magnet on the board. They should then return to their group
and the group should do [silent] air punches to show that they are done until all groups are
finished. Model this process for students during explanation; ask students where you should go
next or what happens next in the game. Run the game. Review each item on the board (ask
teammates who played to tell the class where they placed contributions). If all are correct, repeat
this (constantly switching teammates who play) until all contribution magnets are sorted.
Closure for this activity: discussion of the t-chart. Are there contributions that overlap?
How many of these do we still have use for today? What are our contributions to the world?
2. Students should return to their groups to begin a new activity. Explain to students that
this may be review from last year, or the words may be new. This is just to see what they know
so far and what needs to be reviewed. Launch the PPT and make sure it is visible to students.
Explain the game “Huddle.” Each group is given (after directions) a set of index cards. Every
answer to the questions on the PPT screen is on an index card. Their goal is to answer all of the
questions. They do so by first planning out the answers to the questions and putting them in the
right order on their desks. Next, they should stand in line holding the index cards in the correct
order of the questions asked on the screen. (They need to show which card is the first and which
is the last.) When they think they have all of the questions answered in the correct order, they
should [silently] jump up and down in place (being sure to not ruin their line order. Jumping
groups will be checked. If any of the cards are in the wrong order, the group will get a “no” and
they should look again at the cards and see what needs to be switched. If the group gets a “yes”,
they have all of the answers correct. They should do [silent] stretches in place while they wait
for other groups to finish.
Run the game. When the game is finished, close the activity by reviewing answers to the
questions. Use this opportunity to call on lower-achieving students who tend to be more quiet or
shy; since they have just seen the answers, hopefully this will give them confidence in answering
more questions. Ensure each question is discussed; ask students if they have any questions.
Explain to the students that the next day in class they will see very similar words and definitions,
and they will be putting them in their social studies notebooks for SOL review.
Modification/differentiation strategies
 One student in this class is new (arrived on Monday) and speaks very little (if any) English.
He is assigned a “buddy” who is helping him navigate the classroom. These students will be
instructed to pair up; the ESL student and his buddy should work as a pair during this lesson.
 In an attempt to maintain classroom procedures and give students the best chance of staying
on-task, students will be divided into groups by the teacher such that behavior problems are
avoided as best as possible.
 Contingency plans: to manage the classroom, individual or whole-group consequences may
need to be used. Explain that individual students who are not following directions or who are
being poor sports will be asked to sit out of the games. If the whole class is not following
directions or are not playing the games correctly, time will be taken away from recess.
Assessment
This lesson is designed to be a formative assessment for the instructor. The students’
responses to the first movement activity will give the teacher an idea of what contributions the
students may not fully comprehend. The second lesson is a pre-assessment; if there are words
students are unfamiliar with, this information will be used to guide the lesson the following day.
The activity culminates in an assessment, where students display their answers to questions and
the teacher can evaluate on the spot what students are and are not comfortable with.
Students’ behavior will also be assessed. As third graders, students should be able to
follow instructions and execute these activities in a timely, efficient manner. This will require
classroom management skills to keep students focused and on-task, but it will also require
students to follow directions and act appropriately.