Jones County Schools
Social Studies Curriculum Guide – Sixth Grade
History- Social Science Overview
Overview
Students in sixth-grade world history and geography classrooms learn about the lives of the earliest humans, the
development of tools, the gathering way of life, agriculture, and the emergence of civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the
Indus River valley, China, and the Mediterranean basin. With the guidance of their teachers, students review the geography
of the ancient and contemporary worlds and recognize that these civilizations were not static societies but continually
experienced change. In addition to developing basic geography skills, students are introduced to patterns, systems, and
processes of physical and human geography. Students will study the fundamental aspects of this period:
• The movement of early humans across continents and their adaptations the Mediterranean basin to the geography
and climate of new regions
• The rise of diverse civilizations, characterized by economies of surplus, centralized states, social
hierarchies, cities, networks of trade, art and architecture, and systems of writing
• The growth of urban societies as well as links with one another through trade, diplomacy, migration, conquest,
and the diffusion of goods and ideas
• The development of new political institutions (monarchy, empire, democracy) and new ideas (citizenship,
freedom, morality, law)
• The birth and spread of religious and philosophical systems (Judaism, Greek thought, Hinduism, Buddhism,
Confucianism, Christianity), and changes in societies (social class divisions, slavery, divisions of labor between men
and women)
In studying this earliest history of humankind, students will have the opportunity to explore different kinds of
source documents, such as the Hebrew Bible, Mesopotamian laws, the Homeric epics, Greek drama, the Bhagavad
Gita, the Analects of Confucianism, the New Testament, and a range of visual images.
Unit 1
Subject: Social Studies
Timeframe Needed for Completion: 9 weeks
Grade Level: 6th
Unit Title: Emergence of Civilizations
Grading Period: 1st
Big Idea/Theme: Human Origins and Early Civilizations, Prehistory to 1000 BC
Understandings:
• Map Skills
• Landforms
• Human Origins
• Agricultural Revolution
• Early Civilizations
• Ancient River Valley (Mesopotamia, Nile River, Indus River, Huang He Valley)
Essential Standards:
History: 1.3, 2.2, 2.3
Geography: 1.1, 1.4, 2.1, 2.2
Economics: 1.1
Civics & Governance: 1.4
Culture: 1.1
Essential Questions:
• How did the physical geography of a location influence the lives of early
humans?
• Why did hunter-gathers move into settled communities?
(adaptation and migration)
• Why is it important for archaeologists to “dig up” the past?
• When and where did the earliest civilizations exist? (Ancient River
Valley Civilizations)
• What are some of the tools developed by early man and how were
they used?
• How did early art evolve into the art we know today?
Essential Skills/Vocabulary:
Essential Skills
• Describe how to read and recognize graphs, charts,
diagrams, and other parts of a map.
• Use maps, globes, and artifacts to analyze the
physical and cultural landscapes of the world to
interpret the past.
• Identify the tools developed by prehistoric man.
• Explain how and why civilizations used and modified
environments to suit the needs of the people.
• Understand past archaeological discoveries of
ancient artifacts to prove the existence of
prehistoric man.
• Discuss drawings, weaving, and pottery created by early
man.
Vocabulary
• globe, hemisphere, latitude, longitude, relative location,
absolute location, map key, cardinal directions,
compass rose, intermediate directions, scale, relief,
elevation, contour line, elevation profile
• archaeologists, hunter-gather, civilization,
adaptation, migration
Assessment Tasks:
Projects, journals, foldables
Create latitude & longitude bookmarks.
Play a landform Jeopardy game.
Geocaching
Design your own island. Include a specific
number of landforms, compute the proper scale
for your poster board and find the appropriate
coordinates to place your island. Include a written
narrative describing it all.
• Create a graphic organizer classifying
prehistoric people.
• Write a journal entry as if you were an
archaeologist who had just discovered an
ancient artifact.
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Unit 2
Subject: Social Studies
Timeframe Needed for Completion: 9 Weeks
Grade Level: 6th
Grading Period: 2nd
Unit Title: Development of Civilizations
Big Idea/Theme: Classical Civilizations and Rise of Religious Traditions, 1000BC to 500AD
Understandings:
• History of Ancient Societies
• Development of languages and writing of Ancient Societies
• Government of Ancient Societies
• Economic Development of Ancient Societies
• Religions of Ancient Societies
• Four Cradles of Ancient Society
• Hierarchy of social classes
Essential Standards:
History: 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4
Geography: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.1, 2.2
Economics: 1.1, 1.2
Civics & Governance: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4
Culture: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3
Essential Questions:
• How did the landforms of an area shape the social, political, and
economic characteristics of early civilizations? (Ancient Societies)
• How did the Four Cradles of Ancient Society develop?
• What religious traditions developed in ancient civilizations?
• What forms of language and writing developed in ancient
civilizations?
• What was the impact of Ancient Empires on later civilizations?
• Why was it important for early civilizations to settle near water and
fertile soil?
Essential Skills/Vocabulary:
Essential Skills
• Explain how and why civilizations used and modified
environments to suit the needs of the people.
• Explain the origins and structures of the world’s first
states: city-states, kingdoms, and empires.
• Summarize the ideas that shaped political thought in
various civilizations, societies, and regions.
• Understand ancient centralized government
bureaucracy.
• Understand ancient mythology.
• Describe the origins, beliefs, traditions, customs, and
spread of ancient religion. (Confucianism, Taoism, and
Buddhism, and Judaism)
• Discuss the differences between the earliest forms of
writings and languages.
• Identify the differences in social classes of ancient
societies.
• Demonstrate knowledge in the rise and fall of Ancient
Empires. (Roman, Greek, Byzantine, etc.)
• Understand how the spread of Ancient Empires
influenced Western Civilization.
Vocabulary:
religion, mythology, civilization, hierarchy, Mt. Vesuvius
Important Empires/Events/People:
Roman, Byzantine, Persian, Greek, Eruption of Mt.
Vesuvius, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, etc.
Assessment Tasks:
• Projects, journals, foldables
• Play Jeopardy.
• Choose an ancient society and create an
illustrated time line
• Choose style of writing and create your own
piece of writing.
• Write a “What if…” paper.
• Design a comic strip detailing a historical event.
• Time for Kids – Around the World Site –
• Create fact cube on the languages and writings of
ancient civilization
Unit 3
Subject: Social Studies
Timeframe Needed for Completion: 9 Weeks
Grade Level: 6th
Grading Period: 3rd
Unit Title: Expanding of Civilizations
Big Idea/Theme: Postclassical Civilizations, 300 to 1000AD
Understandings:
• Spread of Empires
• Religious Influence
• Effects of Trade Routes
• Establishment and Spread of Goods, Technology, and Ideas
• Investigate the differences of the Medieval Periods
Essential Standards:
History: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4
Geography: 1.2, 1.4, 2.1
Economics: 1.1, 1.2
Civics & Governance: 1.2, 1.3, 1.4
Culture: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3
Essential Questions:
• What caused the decline of the Roman Empire?
• How did political and cultural geography influence the rapid
expansion of trade and the spread of civilization?
• Why did the Byzantine Empire have so much influence on
religion, culture, and trade in Russia and Eastern Europe?
• What factors produced the division within the Christian
Church?
• How did postclassical civilizations preserve and extend ancient
learning from the Four Cradles of Ancient Society?
• How did the Middle Ages influence people over time?
Essential Skills/Vocabulary:
Essential Skills
• Explain how and why civilizations used and modified
environments to suit the needs of the people.
• Explain how invasions, conquests, and migrations
affected various civilizations, societies, and regions.
• Summarize the ideas that shaped political thought in
various civilizations, societies, and regions.
• Identify the cultural influences on trade and the
expansion of peoples.
• Discuss how the Byzantine Empire influenced the
culture of Russia and Europe.
• Summarize the division within religions.
• Describe how key historical figures and cultural groups
influenced and transformed societies (e.g. , Mansa
Musa, Confucius, Charlemagne and Qin Shi Huangdi).
• Discuss how competition, conflict, and compromise over
the availability of natural, human, and capital resources
impacted economic development.
Vocabulary:
monastery, count, knight, feudalism, monk, medieval,
serf, fief,
Assessment Tasks:
• Projects, journals, foldables
• Using a map, trace the trade routes of goods and
people.
• Create a timeline
• Play Jeopardy.
• Choose an Empire and create an illustrated time
line of that Empire’s history, from creation to
decline.
• Create an Empire cube.
• Write a “What if…” paper.
• Create a learning cube that reflects the
various products, technologies, and ideas
passed along the trade routes
Important People/Groups:
Charlemagne, Vikings, Eric the Red, Leif Ericson, Patrick,
Clovis, Benedict, Joan of Arc, Islam, etc.
Unit 4
Subject: Social Studies
Grade Level: 6th
Unit Title: Regional Civilizations
Big Idea/Theme: Regional Interactions, 1000 to 1500 AD
Understandings:
Timeframe Needed for Completion: 9 Weeks
Grading Period: 4th
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Renaissance
The Late Medieval Period
Age of Exploration
Major Trade Patterns/Routes
Economic Interdependence
Technological Advances and Transfers between Civilizations
Exchange of Ideas and Resources between Regions
Knowledge of Eastern and Western Hemisphere Civilizations
Essential Standards:
History: 1.3, 2.2, 2.4 Geography:
1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.1
Economics: 1.1, 1.2
Civics & Governance: 1.2, 1.3, 1.4
Culture: 1.1
Essential Questions:
• What was the effect of contact with new people on the health of the
natives of that particular area?
• What impact did major trade routes have on the interactions among
cultures?
• Has the role of law and legal systems within a society changed over
time?
• How have religions evolved?
• Why has the geography of a location influenced the region?
Essential Skills/Vocabulary:
Essential Skills
• Explain how and why civilizations used and modified
environments to suit the needs of the people.
• Discuss how competition, conflict, and compromise
over the availability of natural, human, and capital
resources impacted economic development.
• Summarize the ideas that shaped political thought
Assessment Tasks:
• Projects, journals, foldables
• Using a map, trace the trade routes of goods and
people.
• Research Pompeii. Write journal entries from the
point of view of a child experiencing the volcanic
eruption.
• Research Leonardo da Vinci as an artist and as an
inventor. Write a persuasive paper defending your
choice on which he should be
in various civilizations, societies, and regions.
• Compare the role and evolution of laws and legal
systems in various regional civilizations.
Vocabulary:
causeways, aqueducts, canals, dams
Important People/Groups:
Mayans, Aztecs, Incas, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo,
Petrarch, Machiavelli, Crusades, Ferdinand and Isabella,
known as, artist or inventor.
• Write a “What if…” paper
• Create a learning cube that reflects the various
products, technologies, and ideas passed along the
trade routes
Jones County Schools
th
6 Grade Grade Social Studies
Week By Week Essentials
Week
1
st
1 Nine
Weeks
Geography
Skills
nd
th
3 Nine
Weeks
4 Nine
Weeks
Development
of Civilizations
Expanding of
Civilizations
Regional
Civilizations
2
3
4
5
rd
2 Nine
Weeks
Emergence of
Civilizations
6
7
8
9
Adapted from Brunswick County Schools Pacing Guide (2013)