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Workbook Lesson Review 9

Lesson Review

Use with Pages 34–39.

Name Date

Lesson 1: The Fertile CrescentDirections: Read the passage. Write the main idea and the details in the boxes.

Notes for Home: Your child learned about one of the first civilizations.Home Activity: Ask your child to identify the main idea and details of a favorite story or book. You maywish to make a chart similar to the one shown in this lesson and complete it together.

Main idea

Detail

Detail

Detail

Detail

Around the year 3500 B.C., one of thefirst civilizations began in a region knowntoday as the Fertile Crescent. The centerpart of the Fertile Crescent is a landknown as Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamia lies between two rivers,the Tigris and Euphrates. In fact, theword Mesopotamia means “the landbetween the rivers.” These rivers playedan important role in the civilization thatdeveloped there.

The people who lived in Mesopotamiahad to overcome many obstacles in orderto survive. The climate in this part of the

world did not make farming easy. Duringthe extremely hot summers, the land wasvery dry. During the rainy season, therivers flooded the land. Natural resourceswere limited to little more than water andsoil. There were few trees to providewood for construction and other uses.

Fortunately, the people were goodproblem solvers. They designed anirrigation system that brought water fromthe rivers to their fields. This systemallowed them to grow crops such as straw.By mixing the straw with mud, they wereable to make bricks for building shelters.