6th Grade History

6.1 Students describe what is known through archaeological studies of the early physical and cultural development of humankind from the Paleolithic era to the agricultural revolution.

Describe the hunter-gatherer societies, including the development of tools and the use of fire.

Identify the locations of human communities that populated the major regions of the world and describe how humans adapted to a variety of environments.

Discuss the climatic changes and human modifications of the physical environment that gave rise to the domestication of plants and animals and new sources of clothing and shelter.

6.2 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the early civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Kush.

Locate and describe the major river systems and discuss the physical settings that supported permanent settlement and early civilizations.

Trace the development of agricultural techniques that permitted the production of economic surplus and the emergence of cities as centers of culture and power.

Understand the relationship between religion and the social and political order in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Know the significance of Hammurabi's Code.

Discuss the main features of Egyptian art and architecture.

Describe the role of Egyptian trade in the eastern Mediterranean and Nile valley.

Understand the significance of Queen Hatshepsut and Ramses the Great.

Identify the location of the Kush civilization and describe its political, commercial, and cultural relations with Egypt.

Trace the evolution of language and its written forms.

6.3 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the Ancient Hebrews.

Describe the origins and significance of Judaism as the first monotheistic religion based on the concept of one God who sets down moral laws for humanity.

Identify the sources of the ethical teachings and central beliefs of Judaism (the Hebrew Bible, the Commentaries): belief in God, observance of law, practice of the concepts of righteousness and justice, and importance of study; and describe how the ideas of the Hebrew traditions are reflected in the moral and ethical traditions of Western civilization.

Explain the significance of Abraham, Moses, Naomi, Ruth, David, and Yohanan ben Zaccai in the development of the Jewish religion.

Discuss the locations of the settlements and movements of Hebrew peoples, including the Exodus and their movement to and from Egypt, and outline the significance of the Exodus to the Jewish and other people.

Discuss how Judaism survived and developed despite the continuing dispersion of much of the Jewish population from Jerusalem and the rest of Israel after the destruction of the second Temple in A.D. 70.

6.4 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the early civilizations of Ancient Greece.

Discuss the connections between geography and the development of city-states in the region of the Aegean Sea, including patterns of trade and commerce among Greek city-states and within the wider Mediterranean region.

Trace the transition from tyranny and oligarchy to early democratic forms of government and back to dictatorship in ancient Greece, including the significance of the invention of the idea of citizenship (e.g., from Pericles' Funeral Oration).

State the key differences between Athenian, or direct, democracy and representative democracy.

Explain the significance of Greek mythology to the everyday life of people in the region and how Greek literature continues to permeate our literature and language today, drawing from Greek mythology and epics, such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and from Aesop's Fables.

Outline the founding, expansion, and political organization of the Persian Empire.

Compare and contrast life in Athens and Sparta, with emphasis on their roles in the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars.

Trace the rise of Alexander the Great and the spread of Greek culture eastward and into Egypt.

Describe the enduring contributions of important Greek figures in the arts and sciences (e.g., Hypatia,