Sixth Grade World History: Mr. Lemin
I. Beginning of Year Review (Introductory pages)
A) Basic vocabulary terms
B) Five Themes of Geography
C) Map skills
II. Regions / History (Chapters 1 and 2)
A) Geography
1. Physical, climate, and cultural regions
B) Comparison of cultures - U.S. and India
1. customs, religion, values, government, interaction
C) Understanding “How to Study History”
1. oral tradition, artifacts, primary and secondary sources
D) Case study: “The Iceman of the Alps”
1. archaeology, prehistory, carbon-14 dating
III. Beginnings of Civilization (Chapter 3)
A) Old Stone Age, Ice Age, New Stone Age
1. technology
2. Hunting and gathering (“Og, Mog, Pog, and Zog”)
3. Cave paintings
B) Village Life
1. Agriculture: domestication and cultivation
2. Surplus, specialization and trade
3. Catal Huyuk and civilization
IV. Ancient Egypt (Chapter 4)
A) Geography of the Nile River Valley and Delta
B) Farming and irrigation
C) Early government and history (Old Kingdom)
1. Menes, Memphis, powers of the Pharaoh, religion (polytheism), economy
2. Hieroglyphics, papyrus, the Rosetta Stone, Champollion
3. Zoser, Imhotep, Snefru, Khufu, and the pyramids
D) Middle Kingdom
1. the Hyksos, Ahmose
E) New Kingdom (Empire)
1. Hatshepsut and trade expeditions
2. Tutankhamun [Valley of the Kings], Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon
3. medicine, math, and science (calendar)
F) Daily Life
1. social pyramid
2. slavery
3. specialization (including brewing)
V. Ancient Mesopotamia (Chapter 5)
A) Geography of the Fertile Crescent
1. Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, Mesopotamia, Persian Gulf
2. central plateau, southern plain, Taurus and Zagros Mountains
3. flooding and droughts; irrigation, crops
B) Sumer - basic history
1. cuneiform writing; clay tablet demonstration; Oannes; Gilgamesh
2. city-states, lugals
3. Sargon and the First Empire; the spread of symbol-writing
4. Phoenicia
5. religion (polytheism), ziggurats, Nimrod and the Tower of Babel
C) Babylon - basic history
1. Second Empire, Hammurabi and the Code of Laws
2. Third Empire, Persia, Nebuchadnezzar and the Hanging Gardens
D) Hebrews - basic history
1. Judaism (monotheism), the Bible, Abraham and the covenant, Canaan
2. Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph; slavery in Egypt
3. Moses and the Torah (The 10 Commandments), Mount Sinai
4. Solomon, Jerusalem, the Sabbath, and the Diaspora
VI. Ancient Greece (Chapter 8)
A) Geography
1. Map
a) The Aegean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Ionian Sea, the Black Sea
b) The Balkan Peninsula (Attica and the Peloponnesus)
c) The Islands: Crete, Rhodes, and the "Steppingstones"
d) The west coast of Asia Minor
2. The Balkan Mountains, the lack of rivers
3. The importance of the Sea, triremes
4. Phoenicia, the alphabet, colonies
B) The Polis
1. Acropolis, Agora, citizenship
2. Governments
a. Archons, monarchy, tyranny, oligarchy, direct democracy
3. Athens and Sparta
4. Religion and Literature
a. Polytheism and mythology, the Trojan War [Homer]
5. Age of Glory
a. Persian Wars
b. Pericles, the Assembly, trial by jury
C) Legacies
1. Olympics
2. Theatre [Aeschylus and Aristophanes]
3. Philosophy [Socrates and Plato]
4. Architecture [Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian]
D) Alexander the Great
1. Peloponnesian Wars, rise of Macedonia, spread of Greek ideas
[End of first semester]
VII. Ancient Rome (Chapter 9)
A) Geography of Italian Peninsula and the Mediterranean Sea
1. The Alps, the Po River, the Apennines, the Tiber River Valley, Sicily
2. The Adriatic Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea
B) Early history
1. Romulus and Remus
2. Latins, Etruscans, and Greeks
3. Agriculture
C) The Republic
1. Oligarchy
2. Representative democracy
a. Senators, Tribunes, and Consuls
b.The Forum
3. Society
a. Patricians and Plebeians
4. The Twelve Tables
D) Hannibal, Carthage, and the Punic Wars
E) Civil War and the Empire
1. Julius Caesar
2. Cleopatra, Marc Anthony, and Octavian (Augustus)
3. The Pax Romana
a. Aqueducts, roads, the Pantheon
b. Taxes, trade, and the census
c. The Colosseum and the gladiators
F) Christianity
1. Jesus of Nazareth
a. The New Testament
b. The concept of the Messiah
c. The Parables
d. The Crucifixion
1. The Apostles / Saul of Tarsus (Paul)
2. The Early Church
a. The Bishops and the Pope
G) The Barbarian Invasion
1. Diocletian and the Divided Empire
2. Constantine
3. Byzantium and the Eastern Empire
H) The Fall of the Western Roman Empire
1. Legacies
a. The Latin language
b. Law and government
c. Architecture and art
d. “Bloodsports”
e. The spread of Christianity through Europe
VIII. The Middle Ages (Chapter 10, Lesson 2; Chapter 12, Lessons 1, 2, and
3)
A) The Rise of Islam
1. Early history, Muhammad
2. Basic beliefs / The Five Pillars
3. The Spread of Islam
a. Charles Martel, The Battle of Tours
B) Geography and climate of Europe
1. Map: Peninsulas, Island groups
2. Ocean currents
3. Rivers, forests, and plains
C) Charlemagne
1. Kingdom of the Franks, Pope Leo III and the Holy Roman Empire, Aachen
2. Feudalism
a. Social pyramid
b. Knighthood
c. Manor life
3. Growth of towns
a. deforestation
b. trade faires
c. Troubadors and Minstrels
d. Guilds
4. The Vikings, the Norman Invasion
a. William the Conqueror
b. King John and the Magna Carta
D) Influence of the Church
1. Monasteries and convents
a. Centers of learning
b. Scriptoriums
c. Cathedrals
e. Saints
f. The Crusades
E) Rise of Commerce / End of the Middle Ages
1. Italian port cities
2. The Black Death (Bubonic Plague)
IX. The Renaissance, Reformation, The Age of Exploration, and
The Beginnings of Modern Science (Chapter 12, Lessons 4 and 5;
Chapter 16, Lessons 1 and 2)
A) Italy
1. Humanism
2. Lorenzo de Medici / Patrons
a. Petrarch
b. Michelangelo
c. Leonardo
B) Germany
1. Erasmus and Martin Luther
a. Indulgences / The 95 Theses
b. The Reformation
c. Johannes Gutenberg and the movable type Printing Press
C) England
1. King Henry VIII and the Anglican Church
2. Edward and Mary
3. Elizabeth
a. religious tolerance
b. The defeat of the Spanish Armada
c. William Shakespeare and 'The Merchant of Venice'
D) Modern Science
1. Nicolaus Copernicus and the Heliocentric Theory
2. Galileo and the Scientific Method
a. Experiments in Pisa
b. The telescope
3. Isaac Newton
a. Gravity
b. Laws of Motion
E) The Age of Exploration
1. Marco Polo and the Silk Road
2. Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator
a. the school for sailors
b. new technology: caravels and compasses
3. Bartholomeu Dias and the Cape of Good Hope
4. Vasco da Gama and the colonization of India
5. Christopher Columbus and the New World
6. Ferdinand Magellan and the circumnavigation of the world
X. Revolutions (Chapter 17, Lessons 3 and 1)
A) Industrial Revolution
1. Major inventions
a. Flying Shuttle (John Kay)
b. Spinning Jenny (James Hargreaves)
c. The Steam Engine (James Watt)
2. Social changes
a. Rise of the Middle Class
b. Karl Marx and Socialism
B) French Revolution
1. Louis XVI
a. Divine right / absolute monarchy
2. The Three Estates
a. Clergy
b. Aristocracy
c. Bourgeoisie
3. Reasons for the Revolution
a. Bankruptcy
b. American Revolution
c. The Palace at Versailles
4. The Storming of the Bastille
5. The National Assembly
6. The Republic
a. Robespierre
b. The Reign of Terror
C) Napoleon Bonaparte
1. Early life / rise to power
2. The French Empire
3. Waterloo
4. Legacy: The rise of nationalism
