All Social Studies Units

Explore a menu of Social Studies unit plans from PreK–Grade 8, featuring engaging, standards-aligned lessons that build historical and civic understanding.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 27 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Midyear Project—Legacies of Greece and Rome

Roman governance, the Senate, and the Twelve Tables laid the foundations of rule of law and citizenship, showing how written laws, shared rights, and civic responsibilities shaped fairness, voice, and public life in the early Roman Republic.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 26 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Rome’s Republic and Laws

Roman governance, the Senate, and the Twelve Tables laid the foundations of rule of law and citizenship, showing how written laws, shared rights, and civic responsibilities shaped fairness, voice, and public life in the early Roman Republic.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 25 (Grade 6 Social Studies): The Rise of Rome

Rome’s geography, origin stories, and early political struggles shaped its transition from monarchy to a republic, helping explain how physical location, cultural influences, and evolving civic roles laid the foundation for citizen participation in early Rome.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 24 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Alexander the Great and Hellenistic Culture

Greek ideas, language, and science spread across the Hellenistic world as new cities, ports, and caravan routes created powerful networks of diffusion and trade interdependence from the Mediterranean to South and Central Asia.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 23 (Grade 6 Social Studies): The Persian Empire and Cultural Exchange

Persian rule blended tolerance, satrapy governance, and powerful infrastructure—roads, relay posts, coinage, and qanats—to maintain order, boost trade, and spread ideas across a diverse, connected empire.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 22 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Sparta and Athens Compared

Compare how Sparta and Athens organized government, education, and the military, and evaluate how each system shaped roles, rights, and civic responsibilities using evidence from multiple perspectives.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 21 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Greek Culture and Innovation

Explore how Greek achievements in architecture, drama, philosophy, science, and mathematics shaped civic life in the polis and created enduring cultural legacies that continue to influence modern societies.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 20 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Ancient Greece—The Polis and Democracy

Examine how Greek city-states developed distinct forms of governance, with a close look at Athens—its direct democracy, institutions, and limits on participation—and trace how Athenian civic ideas continue to influence modern political systems.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 19 (Grade 6 Social Studies): The Geography of the Mediterranean

Explore how seas, islands, straits, winds, and currents shaped Mediterranean settlement and trade, using map tools like scale, coordinates, and legends to analyze routes and regional connections.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 18 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Inquiry Project—Life in Ancient Times

Guide students to research an early civilization using credible sources, evaluate evidence, and communicate findings through a curated museum exhibit or investigative report that explains daily life, beliefs, economy, and governance with clear citations.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 17 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Comparing River Civilizations

Compare how geography, government, and technology shaped four major river civilizations—Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, and the Huang He—revealing why similar environments produced different political, economic, and cultural outcomes.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 16 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Belief Systems and Cultural Legacy

Explore how Hindu, Confucian, and early polytheistic belief systems shaped law, leadership, social roles, and civic ideals—and how their core ideas of duty, justice, and order continue to influence cultures and institutions today.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 15 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Ancient China and the Huang He River

Explore how the Huang He’s fertile yet hazardous environment shaped early Chinese settlement, how Shang and Zhou technologies and artifacts reveal work and power, and how trade routes and diffusion spread goods and ideas across East Asia.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 14 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Indus Valley Civilization

Explore how monsoon-fed rivers powered Indus Valley farming, how Mohenjo-Daro’s advanced city planning and water systems revealed organized governance, and how trade routes and specialized goods connected the Indus to thriving ports and distant regions.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 13 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Egypt and the Nile

Explore how the Nile’s geography and flood cycle powered Egypt’s rise—creating fertile farmland, surplus, and centralized rule—and how pharaohs used labor, resources, monuments, and trade networks across Africa and the Mediterranean to build a wealthy, connected civilization.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 12 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Hammurabi’s Code and Early Law

Explore how early law codes—especially Hammurabi’s—helped governments maintain order, security, and resource management while shaping ideas of justice, fairness, and rule of law that influenced later legal traditions.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 11 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Mesopotamia—The Cradle of Civilization

Explore how Mesopotamia’s environment, irrigation, surplus, writing, law, and early exchange systems shaped the rise of powerful city-states—connecting cuneiform, governance, and economy to the first empires.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 10 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Life Along the Rivers

Explain why early civilizations formed along major rivers by showing how flood cycles, fertile soils, and irrigation supported surplus farming, specialization, trade, and the rise of early cities.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 9 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Midyear Project—World Map Gallery

Create an annotated world map showcasing early migration routes, using coordinates, scale, and geographic evidence to explain how landforms and physical systems shaped human movement and settlement.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 8 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Early Communities and Trade

Explore how surplus production sparked specialization, barter, early money, and cooperative systems—revealing how trade, standards, and recordkeeping linked producers and consumers in emerging economies.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 7 (Grade 6 Social Studies): The Dawn of Agriculture

Agriculture and domestication reshaped early human societies—creating surplus, specialization, settlements, and new trade-offs in power, labor, health, and environment.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 6 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Adapting to Environments

Explore how early humans adapted shelters, tools, and clothing to diverse environments while tracing how technologies spread across regions and how different groups experienced these innovations.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 5 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Early Humans and Migration

Trace early human migrations using fossil, map, and DNA evidence while exploring how climate, landforms, and resources shaped movement, routes, and early settlement across regions.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 4 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Movement and Cultural Diffusion

Explore how ideas, goods, and technologies travel across regions through trade networks, why key ports and corridors thrive, and how interdependence creates both opportunities and risks for connected societies.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 3 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Climate, Land, and People

Explore how climate zones, landforms, and physical systems shape settlement, agriculture, trade, hazards, and human adaptations, helping Grade 6 students analyze regions through clear, evidence-based geography.