2/28/19

Today in class, we did a worksheet about important terms and definitions we will need for the test. We talked about words like maat, nomes, dynasties, pyramids, and a bunch of other words that will be on the test. Our test is Monday by the way. We have to have a pretty good idea of which each of the words mean so Mr. Schick suggested we study them very closely. I personally feel really good about them, but ill still study them just in case. We also had o fill in blanks on the back of the worksheet. one of the questions was, "who found King Tutankhamen's tomb?" and another one was who "What French archaeologist decoded the Rosetta stone in 1922?". A lot of these guys that we had to put down had very difficult names. Like Jean Francois Champollion. It is very French. We also talked about the geography of Egypt for a little and the mummification process. Mr. Schick also told us how he wanted to become a tree when he did. I think that's pretty cool.

Page 41

Terms and Names
delta- Major agricultural production center
Narmer- United Upper and Lower Egypt
Pharaoh- Pharaohs were rulers in Egypt but they were also considered, gods.
theocracy- Egyptian government was based on religious authority
mummification- preserving the body in tight wrappings of cloth and liquids kept the body from decaying.
hieroglyphics- Form of written language that the Egyptians used
papyrus- Reed that was glued together to basically make paper.
Pyramid- Temple built by the pharaoh to be buried in with all of his items.

Using Your Notes
The most important achievements are hieroglyphics, uniting the kingdoms, pyramids, and the theocracy. The hieroglyphics established a written language everyone knew and could use and helped unite the kingdom. Narmer uniting the kingdom was also an important achievement. It made Egypt more unified and more powerful. Another achievement is the pyramids. It showed the advanced civilization they lived in which demonstrated power. The last is a theocracy. This shows the unification of the land and the rule the king/Pharaoh had.

Main Ideas
3) It gave them a natural barrier to be protected on all sides. They also were the only ones that really knew the lay of the land.
4) The Egyptians viewed pharaohs as all mighty powerful gods.
5) To preserve their loved ones so the soul could return to it later.

Review day

Today we reviewed for our test tomorrow. We went over all of our notes in our notebook on Mesopotamia. We went over cuneiform, city-states, empires, dynasties, what irrigation is and how it works, the ziggurat, cultural diffusion, different time periods, Hammurabi's laws, and many other things. It was a lot of definitions and writing things down. We also talked about Mr. Shicks Hollywood career. I never knew he was in the movie business. I think that was very cool. He worked with Harrison Ford, Kevin Bacon, and Morgan Freeman!!! That is amazing. He told us many stories and cool things he had experienced throughout his career. That is really awesome. His hands are also famous. He was Kevin Bacon's hands in a movie. That made him even cooler than he was before. Bravo Mr. Schick

2/22/19

Today in class, we read a good bit of our book today for class work. We read pages thirty - five to forty - three. While we read, we also had to take notes. We read about ancient Egypt and the ancient civilizations society. They were very advanced for their time period. The ancient civilization was west of the fertile crescent on the Nile river. The first people to settle there were farmers in 5000 B.C. The Nile flows north for 4,100 miles. It is very much like the Tigris and Euphrates. It floods and provides rich soil for farming their Wheat and Barley. They also used an irrigation system to spread water. They had large natural barriers which left a small piece of land for them to live on. Egypt was split into two parts. Upper and Lower Egypt. The upper king wore a white crown and the lower king wore a red crown. When the kingdoms were united by Narmer, he put both crowns together to show unity between the kingdoms.

2/19/19

Today in class, we had a discussion and practically acted out a situation about six different situations. We had to be the judges on the case and decide what punishment the person doing the crime would receive. We talked about multiple cases and discussed the sentences they would have to serve. Some cases required minimal community service and others required 25-50 years of jail time. After discussing all of the sentences and punishments, we also talked about how Hammurabi would settle the cases. Hamurrabi would settle them in somewhat cruel and unusual ways. Sometimes he would chop ears off, chop hands off, poke eyes out or just straight up kill you. Hammurabi was serious about his laws and the way people acted in his nation. He was strict and sometimes unfair but it kept his nation in order.

2/15/19

Today in class we went back over the power point we started and talked about Sumer, and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. We talked about the irrigation system used, talked about the hierarchies and dynasties formed, talked about the division of labor, major buildings, and major city-states. We also talked about what the fertile crescent looks like today. The fertile crescent consists of the countries, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Jerusalem. The city-states are gone, but their inventions, materialistic and non-materialistic things remain. The Sumerians invented cuneiform which is the first written language. They wrote in clay with wedges. The Sumerians worshiped many animals, human, and nature gods. The gods were based o what they have seen and experienced. In class, we also talked about the first Sumerian epic. The epic of Gilgamesh. That was pretty cool.

2/13/19

Today class was shortened by about fifteen minutes because of the two hour delay. I'd have to say it was pretty nice being able to get two hours of extra sleep. The classes today were short and in my opinion, they were pretty easy. Today in class, we went over our test on Guns, Germs, and Steel. I got a one hundred on it.  And because I got a one hundred, I got two dings on the bell. If you get a one hundred or above, you get two dings and if you get a ninety or above you get one. I felt pretty proud of myself because I got two dings. Only two people got two dings out of the whole class and I was wone of them. Today in class we also started a power point on the different "ages" of humans. We started with the Paleolithic era and then the Neolithic era. The Paleolithic is called the stone age and the Neolithic is considered the new stone age where people started to learn and make more things. It was pretty cool. That was what today's class consisted of. It was short and sweet.

2/7/19

Today in class we finished up reading the section we started yesterday on Early River Civilizations. Then we talked about what we read. We talked about how Messapotamia had little resources, Tigris and Euphrates rivers, natural barriers, the irrigation systems used for farming, and how Hammurabi created a list of laws for his new empire.
Messapotamia had few resources and needed to trade for them. They used their surplus of crops to get what they needed. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers were the main source of water for farming. The settlers there used the irrigation system composed of underground tunnels and mud-brick walls providing barriers.
And last but not least, Hammurabi's code. He created a list of laws composed of laws taken from the city-states. He believed one set of laws would unify the empire.

Today’s class 2/6/19

Today in class, we read pages twenty-eight through thirty-four in our text books. The topic discussed over these pages is ancient river valley civilizations. These ancient civilizations lied on (or within) the Fertile Crescent. The main civilization talked about is Messapotamia. This civilization was between the Tigris and Euphrates river. When the rivers would flood they would leave silt which was what the ancient settlers planted all of their grain in.
Messapotamia was made up of many City-States. City-states has their own governments and their own rulers with their own laws. For example, Harummbis was a ruler and one of his people stole his cousins pig. You had to pay thirty times the amount stolen. But since he didn’t pay, he was sentenced to death. This is just one example of the separate rule and law.

Test day

Today in class, we had our very first test. The test was on the video we watched. I studied quite a bit and I feel like I aced it. The questions were fair, but in my opinion, they were easy peasy. I thought I was going to fail but I feel really good about it. I am waiting for Mr. Schick to grade them and put them into veracross to see what I got. Hopefully, it is a good grade. If it is not my parents will kill me because I am the smartest of my brothers and they expect me to get one hundred on everything. But I am okay with that. It motivates me to do better and study harder and to get better grades on everything I do. Now I am to play the waiting game to see what I got on this test today. Pray for me.