We did a few fun projects that went with these civilizations. Some came from books we checked out from the library, others I found online. Some are pinned on this Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/marilynnielson/ancient-civilizations-homeschool-unit/
We made and played "The Royal Game of Ur." (I like how Daisy credited "the City 'Ur'" for making it up.)
We watched this slightly weird video from the curator of the British Museum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVmsfL5LG90
and then did cuneiform writing in homemade play-dough:
(Gussie's cuneiform was rather…finger-shaped)
My favorite craft this unit was these "Hanging Gardens of Babylon." I found the idea in this post here, but it doesn't really take much explanation. We (and by "we" I mean just the children; I didn't help them) just took dry floral foam blocks and carved windows and arches out of them with butter knives and skewers. Then they painted them with a mixture of tan paint and a few tablespoons of sand, to make them look like bricks or stone.
After the children had put their "buildings" out to dry outside, Ziggy came running inside all excited to tell me something. "I did a ac-tivity! I made some beautiful gardens! Come and see!" He had taken the bunches of flowers and stuck them nicely into the buildings, and he was so proud! Luckily they could be pulled out again so the other children could finish their projects.
They added water with blue paint (and Daisy and Teddy put clear plastic wrap on first, to look more like dripping waterfalls), and then stuck pieces of plastic plants and flowers inside the foam to complete their gardens!
I thought they both (Daisy's and Teddy's gardens, and Junie and Goldie's gardens) turned out so pretty! We kept them as centerpieces on the table for a long time, and they looked great!
Lots of people think the Hanging Gardens of Babylon weren't real, but I hope they were! I like imagining what they might have looked like.
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