Sixth Grade Benchmarks - Culture

Performance Indicators State

6.1.spi.1 Recognize the basic components of culture (i.e., language, common values, traditions, government, art, literature, lifestyles).

What Is Culture? - Online explanation, vocabulary, and quiz.

Ancient Egyptian Culture Exhibit - Covers many spi's. Links include Heiroglyphs, Art, Daily Life, Government, and many others.

Culture Quest World Tour - Join the characters as they sample the delicious cuisines, play the games, see the museums full of arts, crafts and history, hear the folktales and learn about the holidays & festivals of many of the world's cultures.

Global Gang - Find out more about people all around the world through articles, pictures, games, and more!
6.1.spi.2. Identify the job characteristics of archaeologists, anthropologists, geologists, and historians.

Anthropologist - Read the tasks involved in an anthropologist's job.

Career As A Geologist - What does a geologist do?

From Monster Career Advice - job descriptions:

Historian Archaeologist

dig The Archaeology Magazine for Kids - The online site for this magazine. Current and past issues. Test your Archaeology IQ - get answers to questions from Dr. Dig, etc.!

6.1.spi.3. Recognize the world's major religions and their founders (i.e., Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed).

Major Religions - Ranked by adherents - difficult reading, but good information source.

Religions - Easier to read site from Social Studies for Kids. Good information

6.1.spi.4. Recognize significant epics as historical sources (i.e., Iliad, the Odyssey, Mahabharata, Ramayana).  
6.1.spi.5. Identify differences between various cultural groups (i.e., European, Eurasian, Indian, Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, African, Native American). Native American Regions - Learn about Native Americans in North America.
6.1.spi.6. Recognize reasons that cultural groups develop or settle in specific physical environments. Biotic Change on the Colorado Plateau - How human activities have changed this region.
6.1.spi.7. Identify how early writing forms in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley influenced life (i.e., legal, religious, and culture).

Egyptian Writing - This site has easy to read info about Ancient Egypt and its culture.

Heiroglyphs - Decipher this.

Frequently Used Heiroglyphs - From the Metropolitan Museum of Art

6.1.spi.8. Recognize how migration and cultural diffusion influenced the character of world societies (i.e., spread of religions, empire building, exploration, languages).  

 

Sixth Grade Benchmarks - Economics

Performance Indicators State

6.2.spi.1. Recognize an example of a barter economy.  
6.2.spi.2. Identify major trade routes (i.e., silk roads, Persian trade routes, African trade routes, Mediterranean trade routes, ocean routes).  
6.2.spi.3. Identify disadvantages and advantages of nomadic and early farming lifestyles (i.e., shelter, food supply, and, domestication of plants and animals).  
6.2.spi.4. Recognize the importance of economic systems in the development of early civilizations around rivers (i.e., Tigris and Euphrates, Huang He, Nile, Indus).  
6.2.spi.5. Recognize the importance of trade in later civilizations (i.e., Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, India, European).  
6.2.spi.6. Analyze how basic economic ideas influenced world events (i.e., supply and demand leads to exploration and colonization).  

 

Sixth Grade Benchmarks - Geography

Performance Indicators State

6.3.spi.1 Identify the basic components of a world map (i.e., compass rose, map key, scale, latitude and longitude lines, continents, oceans).  
6.3.spi.2 Identify basic geographic forms (i.e., rivers, lakes, bays, oceans, mountains, plateaus, deserts, plains, coastal plains).  
6.3.spi.3. Identify the location of early civilizations on a map (i.e. Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Ancient Chinese, Indian.).  
6.3.spi.4 Identify geographic reasons for the location of population centers prior to 1500 (i.e. coastal plains, deserts, mountains, river valleys).  
6.3.spi.5. use a variety of maps to understand geographic and historical information (i.e., political maps, resource maps, product maps, physical maps, climate maps, vegetation maps).  
6.3.spi.6. Interpret a graph that illustrates a major trend in world history (i.e. population growth, economic development, governance land areas, growth of religions).  

 

Sixth Grade Benchmarks - Governance & Civics

Performance Indicators State

6.4.spi.1 Recognize types of government (i.e. formal/informal, monarchy, direct/indirect democracy, republics, theocracy).  
6.4.spi.2. Recognize the steps that give rise to complex governmental organizations (i.e., nomadic, farming, village, city, city-states, states).  
6.4.spi.3. Identify the development of written laws (i.e., Hammurabi’s Code, Justinian Code, Magna Carta).  
6.4.spi.4. Recognize the roles assigned to individuals in various societies (i.e., caste systems, feudal systems, city-state systems, class cystems).  
6.4.spi.5. Compare and contrast the lives of individual citizens in various governmental organizations (i.e. monarchial systems, feudal systems, caste systems, democratic systems-Greek).  

 

Sixth Grade Benchmarks - History

Performance Indicators State

6.5.spi.1 Read a timeline and order events of the past between prehistory and the Renaissance.  
6.5.spi.2. Recognize the types of early communities (i.e., nomadic, fishing, farming).  
6.5.spi.3. Identify types of artifacts by pictorial representation (i.e., Egyptian, Roman, Greek, Chinese, Native American, Medieval, and Renaissance).  
6.5.spi.4. Recognize the forms of early world writing (i.e., cuneiform and Egyptian/Native American Hieroglyphics).  
6.5.spi.5. Identify major technological advances (i.e., tools, wheel, irrigation, river dikes, development of farming, advances in weaponry, written language, and printing press).  
6.5.spi.6. Recognize the designations for time dating (i.e., BCE, AD, centuries, decades, prehistoric, historic.)  
6.5.spi.7. Recognize major historical time periods (i.e., Early Civilizations, Classical Period, Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Renaissance).  
6.5.spi.8. Identify conclusions about early world historical events using primary and secondary sources.  
6.5.spi.9. Recognize and order major historical events on a timeline between the Middle Ages and Renaissance.  
6.5.spi.10. Identify the development of written and spoken languages (i.e., Roman alphabet, Latin word origins, Romance Languages).  
6.5.spi.11. Identify characteristics including economy, social relations, religion, and political authority of various societies (i.e., Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek City-States, Roman Empire, Indian, Medieval).  
6.5.spi.12. Recognize the possible causes of change in civilizations (i.e., environmental change, political collapse, new ideas, warfare, overpopulation, unreliable food sources, diseases).  
6.5.spi.13. Identify the impact of advances in technology on history (i.e. agricultural revolution, Renaissance scientists, exploration during the 1400s).  
6.5.spi.14. Recognize how the Renaissance changes the nature of society (i.e., shift from religious domination to science, philosophy, art).  
6.5.spi.15. Evaluate to what extent civilizations build on the accomplishments of previous civilizations.  
6.5.spi.16. Compare and contrast the historical development of the Western, Eastern, and African cultures.  
6.5.spi.17. Recognize the significant mythologies of the Sumerians, Egyptian, Greeks, and Romans.  

 

Sixth Grade Benchmarks - Individuals, Groups, & Interactions

Performance Indicators State

6.6.spi.1 Identify examples of groups impacting world history (i.e., Muslims, Christians, Mongolians, Vikings, slave traders, explorers, merchants/traders, inventors.)  
6.6.spi.2. Recognize the impact of individuals on world history (i.e., Charlemagne, Joan of Arc, William the Conqueror, Ramses II, Julius Caesar, Socrates, Aristotle, Marco Polo, Alexander the Great, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, Martin Luther, and Johannes Gutenberg).  
6.6.spi.3. Describe the ways in which individuals can change groups (i.e., Martin Luther – Christian church, William of Normandy – English Monarchy, Joan of Arc – Hundred Years War, Buddha – Chinese Culture).