Writing With Play-Doh… Cuneiform!!

Did you know our 6th graders time-traveled back to Mesopotamia and developed their own language?! 

They arrived in Mesopotamia, now in modern-day Iraq, excited to learn about some of the earliest civilizations.  Mesopotamia has been called the “cradle of civilization” as it was home to some of the earliest complex societies. Their earliest system of writing is called Cuneiform, developed by the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia around the year 3200 BCE. While there, Mrs. Wells and the students made up their own alphabet using sounds and pictures and presented messages in Play-Doh form to one another. Now that’s the kind of STEM activity I like!  

The term “cuneiform” comes from the Latin word cuneus, which means “wedge.” The script was created by pressing a reed stylus into soft clay to form wedge-shaped marks. Originally used for record-keeping, cuneiform evolved to represent syllables and words, enabling the writing of a wide range of texts and literature like, “Gilmesh.”  It was adopted and adapted by various civilizations and remained in use for over 3,000 years. Check out these photos they sent back!

Each week, we will be highlighting the amazing and wonderful things that are happening in our classrooms and grade levels at St. Margaret of Scotland School. We are very proud of the work our teachers do with our students and are amazed by what happens at SMOS. Our goal is to share more about the hidden gem that is St. Margaret’s.