Sumer & Ancient Civilizations
Sumer & Ancient Civilizations Unit Study
Studying ancient history with Mathilde has been such a fascinating journey! In our latest homeschool unit, we explored the world of Sumer and the earliest civilizations. We learned through rich stories, hands-on activities, and some truly wonderful conversations sparked by the big questions kids love to ask. It’s been one of those topics that opened up so much curiosity and connection. I also put together a video where I walk you through everything we did—books, projects, and all the little moments in between. Keep reading for our favorite resources and ideas!
I found myself completely drawn into the world of ancient civilizations. It’s so fascinating to see how different regions developed in their own unique ways—and yet, there are these striking similarities across cultures all around the world. The more we studied, the more I wanted to keep going!
The first thing I did was look at when each of the major ancient civilizations began—and I ended up making a simple graph to map it all out. It really helped me (and the kids!) visualize how these cultures rose around the same time in different parts of the world. Seeing it laid out like that made everything feel more connected and real.
Here is another one I tried to make as a PDF: Ancient_Civilizations_Timeline
After that, we explored what kinds of crops, animals, and resources each civilization had—and it led to some great conversations about why they might have developed a little differently from one another. It was so interesting to see how geography, climate, and natural resources shaped the way people lived, farmed, and built their cultures.
Comparison of Domesticated Animals by Region
Dark Blue = Commonly domesticated
Light Blue = Introduced later
Light Yellow = Not present or not domesticated
Crop Domestication Comparison chart
Dark Blue = Commonly domesticated
Light Yellow = Not present or not domesticated
Looking at the graphs side by side really helped us visualize how different each civilization was—and yet how much they had in common. We could see which cultures were centered around rivers, which crops and animals they relied on, and even which innovations took root in different places. Civilizations like the Sumerians, Egyptians, and the Indus Valley all developed near rivers and had similar grains and livestock, which likely supported dense populations and the rise of early cities. In contrast, the Maya relied on completely different crops—like maize, beans, and squash—and domesticated animals unique to their region, such as turkeys. It was fascinating to see how environment, geography, and available resources shaped the rhythms of daily life in each culture. These patterns opened up great conversations about why farming started when and where it did, and how different cultures responded to the world around them in brilliant and resourceful ways.
Throughout this unit, we also leaned on a mix of storybooks and more structured texts to guide our learning. Some helped us imagine what life might have felt like in ancient cities, while others offered helpful context and historical details. One of the highlights was reading Gilgamesh—a story that has been told and retold for over 4,000 years. It’s considered the world’s oldest surviving written story, first inscribed in Sumerian cuneiform on clay tablets. Reading it together felt like reaching back in time and listening to voices from the dawn of storytelling.
Below is a list of all the books we used along the way—each one added something meaningful to our journey through early civilizations.
Books We Used in Our Sumer & Ancient History Study
When it comes to teaching history, I love incorporating a mix of engaging stories, visual timelines, and reference books. Here are the books we used in this unit study:
📖 History Quest: Early Times – Padiapress
📖 The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History
📖 The Story of Writing – Carol Donoughue
📖 History Alive: The Ancient World – Wendy Frey
📖 Timelines of Everything – DK Children's Timelines
📖 Gilgamesh the King (The Gilgamesh Trilogy) – Ludmila Zeman
📖 The Revenge of Ishtar (The Gilgamesh Trilogy) – Ludmila Zeman
📖 The Last Quest of Gilgamesh (The Gilgamesh Trilogy) – Ludmila Zeman
📖 A Child Through Time: The Book of Children's History – Phil Wilkinson & Steve Noon
These books helped us explore life in ancient Sumer, the development of writing, and even the epic of Gilgamesh! The Gilgamesh Trilogy was especially great for storytelling and connecting with ancient mythology.
Hands-On Learning & Activities
To bring the ancient world to life, we created a little Sumer-inspired learning space where we explored:
🏺 A Sumerian-inspired display with all the books opened on the beautiful illustrations and Mathilde made posters of the first city states and everyday life in ancient Sumerian.
✏️ The evolution of writing and cuneiform — we read about it and I so wanted to have made a cuneiform clay plate, where we wrote our selves but time ran out so that must be next time we dive into the history of writing.
📜 Retelling the Epic of Gilgamesh through storytelling and drawing - I was so impressed by these stories and how they are thousands of years old and I can sit here and read them to my kids.
📅 Using timelines to understand historical context - here I really nerded out, I am so fascinated by ancient civilizations and I thought it was so much fun to compare them and what made them bloom where they did and why? I have made some printables about the differences in the ancient world.
It was amazing to see how much more engaged Mathilde was when history became something they could see, touch, and interact with!
