Specific Expectations Ontario Curriculum

Knowledge and Understanding

By the end of Grade 5, students will:

– identify major early civilizations (e.g., Mediterranean,African,Asian, North/

Central/South American) and locate them on a world map;

– describe the physical features and climate of two or more regions where early civilizations developed (e.g., the flood plains of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the Nile

River Valley, the inland delta of the upper Niger River, the mountainous islands of

Greece, the fertile plains of China, the rain forest of the Amazon, the deserts of the United States);

– explain how two or more early civilizations shaped and used the environment to meet

their physical needs for food, homes, clothing, and health (e.g., use of irrigation in

agriculture in Egypt, planting of olive groves and orchards in Greece, use of bamboo for homes in China, pottery making in Mesopotamia, growing of maize by Mayans, use of cedar trees by Haida people);

– compare how two or more early civilizations were governed (e.g., pharaohs in

Egypt; early democracy in Greece; emperors in China; republican government in Rome; nobles, priests, and military in Aztec society; chiefdoms in the Indus Valley; city states on the Swahili Coast; clan mothers and chiefs in the Iroquois Confederacy);

– outline how social needs were met in two or more early civilizations (e.g., family

roles, recreation, sports, arts, entertainment, sanitation, education, written language);

– identify important values and beliefs in two or more early civilizations and describe how they affected daily life (e.g., world views, including religious beliefs and practices; government; social

structure; family structure and roles);

– identify some scientific and technological advances made by two or more early civilizations (e.g., written language, calendar, time-keeping methods, invention of the

wheel, medicine, sculpture, irrigation, building methods, architecture, embalming,

aqueducts, metalwork)

Inquiry/Research and Communication Skills

By the end of Grade 5, students will:

– formulate questions to develop a research focus (e.g.,What farming methods were

used by the Aztecs? How did trade between early African civilizations contribute to

mutual prosperity? How did social organization differ among various North American First Nation peoples?);

– use primary and secondary sources to locate information about early civilizations

(e.g., primary sources: artefacts, field trips; secondary sources: atlases, encyclopedias and other print materials, illustrations, videos, CD-ROMs, Internet sites);

– use graphic organizers and graphs to sort information and make connections (e.g., Venn diagrams comparing governments, subject webs illustrating physical needs, year-round calendar to show agricultural cycles, bar graph for temperature data);

– compare maps of early civilizations with modern maps of the same area;

– use knowledge of map-making techniques and conventions to map sites of early civilizations (e.g., grids and direction symbols to show locations; colour and shading to show elevations/physical features);

– use media works, oral presentations, written notes and descriptions, drawings, tables,

charts, maps, and graphs to communicate information about early communities;

– use appropriate vocabulary (e.g., culture, myth, legend, civilization, technology, democracy)

to describe their inquiries and observations.

Application

By the end of Grade 5, students will:

– make connections between some elements of modern life and similar elements from

early civilizations (e.g., the Olympic ideal, democracy, money as a medium of exchange, citizenship, philosophy, mythology, trade, social structures, legal systems, theatre, architecture);

– compare and respond to myths and legends from two or more early civilizations;

– report on the relevance to modern society of selected scientific and technological

discoveries made by early civilizations (e.g., written language, astronomy, irrigation, mathematics, navigational instruments, medicine, architecture, the mining and smelting of metals)