Over the past few weeks, Grade 6 students have been on a journey through the major Ancient Mesopotamian Empires across Humanities, Judaic Studies, and Math.

Students put the study of ancient artifacts into practice while spending a morning this week at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Museum. While there, they worked with a partner to search for artifacts that demonstrate seven major characteristics of developed civilizations that they have been studying in class.

In Humanities, students created mock court cases, channeling the often-unforgiving laws of Hammurabi's Code (one of the earliest written sets of laws) and pleading their case for Judge Morah Jenn and a jury of their peers within the ancient legal system.

In Judaic studies, guided by Morah Lianne, students tried their own hand at Cuneiform, learning about and practicing the different wedges of the ancient writing system.

In Math, with Morah Jill and Morah Kate, students learned about Base-60 (the Babylonian number system) and practiced converting numbers between our base-10 number system and base-60. Working with both whole numbers and fractions, they’ll continue this week by learning about and utilizing different ‘base’ systems.