What archaeologists have found out about the Indus Valley civilisation
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can explain what archaeologists think they know about the Indus Valley civilisation and why.
Key learning points
- Archaeologists have uncovered all sorts of objects that tell us about the great cities of this farming civilisation.
- Archaeologists have asked lots of questions about the objects to try and work things out about these people.
- From these questions about the objects, they have found out lots of things about these people and their cities.
- However, there are still many mysteries about these people because archaeologists cannot understand their writing.
- A good explanation of what archaeologists think they know about this subject will use knowledge from across this unit.
Keywords
Archaeologists - people who dig in the ground for clues about people who lived in the past are archaeologists
Civilisation - a group of people who live together and follow the same ways of life and the same set of rules are a civilisation
Common misconception
Pupils may associate making guesses with being wrong.
Reassure pupils that making guesses is necessary to learn new things, and essential in jobs like archaeology. Acknowledge that the guesses are educated and based on drawing information from lots of sources to make conclusions.
Teacher tip
Use this lesson to activate all of the knowledge already gained in this unit about the Indus Valley and let the students answer the questions on screen. For the final task the students could even try to make a model of an Indus Valley city.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.A small statue or model of a person is called a ...
Q2.Select the possible things that figurines could have been used for.
Q3.Historians do not know how to read the writing of the Indus Valley civilisation.
Q4.What evidence tells us that the Indus Valley cities were well organised?
Q5.Which things are still a mystery about the Indus Valley civilisation?
Q6.Put the following into the correct order.
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Match the word to the correct definition.
people who dig in the ground for clues about the past
a group of people who live together and follow the same ways of life
Q2.What things do archaeologists do?
Q3.When the floods, it makes the land in the Indus Valley fertile.
Q4.Archaeologists can guess lots about the Indus Valley civilisation from objects.
Q5.What would help archaeologists understand more about the Indus Valley civilisation?
Q6.What do the cities in the Indus Valley tell us about the people who built them almost 5000 years ago?
To help you plan your 3 history lesson on: What archaeologists have found out about the Indus Valley civilisation, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 3 history lesson on: What archaeologists have found out about the Indus Valley civilisation, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 history lessons from the The Indus Valley civilisation: What have archaeologists found out about it? unit, dive into the full primary history curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.