Family Digest · Quarter 1 · Week 3
Mesopotamia II — Babylon, Empire & Hammurabi's Code
From city-state to empire; one of the world's first written legal codes.
6.NS.A.1
RI.6.2
RI.6.6
W.6.1
MS-LS1-3
C3 D2.Civ.5.6-8
ELA this week
- Monday: Read Hammurabi's Code excerpts (primary source); identify central idea (RI.6.2).
- Tuesday: Compare two laws from the Code — what do they reveal about Babylonian values? (RI.6.6).
- Wednesday: Begin argument essay planning: 'Was Hammurabi's Code just?' (W.6.1).
- Thursday: Argument essay: draft a thesis with two reasons.
- Friday: Argument essay revision; peer-edit conventions (L.6.1).
Standards
RI.6.2
RI.6.6
W.6.1
L.6.1
Math this week
- Monday: Fraction division intro: 'how many 1/4 cups in 3 cups?' (6.NS.A.1).
- Tuesday: Visual fraction division: area models and number lines.
- Wednesday: Algorithm: invert and multiply; justify why it works.
- Thursday: Word problems with fraction division (recipes, sharing, scaling down).
- Friday: Mixed practice: fraction division in real contexts.
Standards
6.NS.A.1
Science this week
- Monday: Body systems overview: name the 11 systems of the human body.
- Tuesday: Digestive system tour: mouth → stomach → small intestine.
- Wednesday: Investigation: enzyme action — crackers chewed for 1 minute; what changes?
- Thursday: Circulatory system; pulse-rate investigation before/after exercise.
- Friday: Lab journal sync; weekly reflection on body-systems learning.
Social Studies this week
- Monday: Sargon of Akkad — the world's first empire; what changes when one ruler controls many cities.
- Tuesday: Babylon under Hammurabi; the principle of written, public law.
- Wednesday: 'Eye for an eye' — examine social class in the Code; free, slave, noble.
- Thursday: Family, marriage contracts, schools (edubba), and merchant houses.
- Friday: What we still inherit: written law, base-60 time, the wheel.
Ask at the dinner table
- 1.Ask: "Who is the main character or speaker in what you read today, and what do they want?" Then have your child read aloud one favorite sentence from "Read Hammurabi's Code excerpts (primary source)".
- 2.Ask: "Who is the main character or speaker in what you read today, and what do they want?" Then have your child read aloud one favorite sentence from "Compare two laws from the Code — what do they reveal about Babylonian values?".
- 3.Ask: "Who is the main character or speaker in what you read today, and what do they want?" Then have your child read aloud one favorite sentence from "Begin argument essay planning: 'Was Hammurabi's Code just?'".
- 4.Ask: "Who is the main character or speaker in what you read today, and what do they want?" Then have your child read aloud one favorite sentence from "Argument essay: draft a thesis with two reasons".
- 5.Ask: "Who is the main character or speaker in what you read today, and what do they want?" Then have your child read aloud one favorite sentence from "Argument essay revision".
- 6.Ask your child to teach you tonight's idea in 60 seconds: "Show me one example of fraction division intro: 'how many 1/4 cups in 3 cups?' (6." Teaching it back is the fastest way to lock it in.
How to help at home
Read together. Spend 15 minutes on any text — fiction, news, even recipes. Talk about new words.
Show your thinking. When you do math in real life (cooking, shopping, budgeting), narrate it out loud.
Ask "why" and "how." For science and social studies, open-ended questions matter more than right answers.
Celebrate effort. Six hours of school is a long day. Notice the work, not just the grade.