Family Digest · Quarter 4 · Week 34
Sub-Saharan African Kingdoms — Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Great Zimbabwe
Gold, salt, and the trans-Saharan trade.
6.RP.A.3
6.G.A.1
RI.6.2
W.6.2
MS-LS2-5
C3 D2.Geo.4.6-8
ELA this week
- Monday: Read on Sahel geography; central idea (RI.6.2).
- Tuesday: Vocabulary: griot, sahel, caravan, mosque.
- Wednesday: Read an Ibn Battuta excerpt; compare to a textbook account (RI.6.6).
- Thursday: Plan informative paragraph: 'What did Timbuktu offer the world?' (W.6.2).
- Friday: Draft & publish informative paragraph.
Words to know
griot
sahel
caravan
mosque
Standards
RI.6.2
RI.6.6
W.6.2
Math this week
- Monday: Area of West African kingdoms; map work.
- Tuesday: Trade ratios: gold per camel-load of salt.
- Wednesday: Percent gold given away on Mansa Musa's hajj — inflation problem.
- Thursday: Compare empire size data: Ghana, Mali, Songhai.
- Friday: Mixed practice: ratio, percent, area.
Words to know
ratio
percent
area
Science this week
- Monday: Biodiversity in African ecosystems — savanna case study.
- Tuesday: Investigation: 'savanna in a jar' biome model.
- Wednesday: Animal adaptations to grassland life.
- Thursday: Compare savanna and Mediterranean ecosystem services.
- Friday: Lab journal sync; weekly reflection.
Social Studies this week
- Monday: Sahel, Niger River, Sahara; trade across an ocean of sand.
- Tuesday: Wagadu/Ghana Empire; gold-salt trade taxed at the borders.
- Wednesday: 1324 hajj to Mecca; Timbuktu as a center of learning.
- Thursday: Sunni Ali and Askia Muhammad; Sankore University.
- Friday: Stone enclosures; gold trade with Indian Ocean ports.
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 on Sahel geography".
- 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 "Vocabulary: griot, sahel, caravan, mosque".
- 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 "Read an Ibn Battuta excerpt".
- 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 "Plan informative paragraph: 'What did Timbuktu offer the world?' (W".
- 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 "Draft & publish informative paragraph".
- 6.Ask your child to teach you tonight's idea in 60 seconds: "Show me one example of area of West African kingdoms." 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.