All binder packets

Geography of the Ancient World & the Rise of Cities

Why early cities formed where they did — river valleys, climate, and surplus.

Mesopotamia I — Sumer and the First City-States

Ur, Uruk, cuneiform, ziggurats; the world's first writing.

Mesopotamia II — Babylon, Empire & Hammurabi's Code

From city-state to empire; one of the world's first written legal codes.

Egypt I — The Nile, the Old Kingdom & the Pyramids

Geography of the Nile; pharaohs and the architecture of eternity.

Egypt II — Religion, Mummification & the Middle Kingdom

Ma'at, the gods, and beliefs about the afterlife.

Egypt III — The New Kingdom & Daily Life

Hatshepsut, Tut, daily life along the Nile.

The Indus Valley Civilization

Harappa & Mohenjo-Daro: the planned cities of South Asia.

Early China — The Shang Dynasty

Bronze, oracle bones, and the roots of Chinese civilization.

Synthesis, Comparison & Q1 Culminating Project

Compare the four river-valley civilizations across themes.

The Aegean World — Minoans & Mycenaeans

Bronze-age Crete and mainland Greece; the Trojan War context.

Greek Dark Age & the Rise of the Polis

Phoenicians and the alphabet; how the city-state emerged.

Sparta & Athens — Two Visions of the City-State

Two opposing models of citizenship and society.

The Persian Empire & the Persian Wars

Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes; Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis.

Athenian Democracy & the Golden Age

Pericles, the Parthenon, and the world's first democracy.

Greek Philosophy — Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

The ideas that still shape Western thought.

Greek Mythology, Theater & the Olympics

Tragedy, comedy, and the games.

Alexander the Great & the Hellenistic World

From Macedonia to the Indus; cultural blending across three continents.

Beginnings of Rome & Q2 Culminating Project

Founding of Rome; the early Republic. Mid-year synthesis week.

Rome Rising — From Republic to Mediterranean Power

Punic Wars and Roman expansion.

End of the Republic — Caesar, Crisis & Civil War

The fall of the Republic and the rise of one-man rule.

The Roman Empire & the Pax Romana

Augustus and the long Roman peace.

Roman Engineering & Daily Life

Roads, aqueducts, the arch, and life in the empire.

Han China — Empire in the East

Confucian governance and a contemporary of Rome.

The Silk Road — Connections Across Continents

Trade routes that linked Rome, Kushan, and Han China.

The Spread of Buddhism

From India along the Silk Road to East Asia.

The Rise of Christianity in the Roman World

From Judea to the empire.

Decline of Rome & Q3 Synthesis

Why empires fall; Q3 culminating project.

The Byzantine Empire — Rome's Long Eastern Echo

Constantinople, Justinian, and Hagia Sophia.

Rise of Islam — Muhammad & the Early Caliphates

The Five Pillars and the rapid spread of a new faith.

The Islamic Golden Age — Baghdad & Córdoba

Algebra, astronomy, and the House of Wisdom.

Early Medieval Europe — Charlemagne to the Vikings

After Rome: kingdoms, monasteries, and longships.

High Medieval Europe — Feudalism, Manors & Cathedrals

Lords, vassals, and the gothic cathedral.

T'ang & Song China — The World's Most Advanced Civilization

Paper, gunpowder, the compass, movable type.

Sub-Saharan African Kingdoms — Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Great Zimbabwe

Gold, salt, and the trans-Saharan trade.

Mongols, Plague & the End of the Medieval World

How globalization in 1300 changed everything.

Year-End Synthesis & the Grade 6 Portfolio

The capstone project; looking ahead to Grade 7.