Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I am really looking forward to learning with you today all about the earliest civilizations, the Indus and the Shang.

So, shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to describe some of the features of the Shang and where they lived.

Before we start, I would like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down.

The keywords we'll be using today are Yellow River, empire.

I'm going to say those again, and I'd like you to repeat them after me.

Yellow River.

Empire.

Good job.

Now let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean, and let's take a look at each of their definitions.

The Yellow River is a large river that flows from central to eastern China.

An empire is a group of nations or people under one ruler.

Pause the video here to make a note of these keywords, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that we'll be working through together in today's lesson.

The beginning of the Shang Dynasty.

What were the Shang Dynasty cities like? In the first learning cycle, we'll explore the beginning of the Shang Dynasty.

The Shang Dynasty began in ancient China in 1600 BCE, which is over 3,500 years ago.

We call it the Shang Dynasty, because the rulers all came from the same family.

The Shang Dynasty began in the Yellow River Valley, because the land was made fertile by the Yellow River, which made it easy to grow food there.

Can you think of any other civilizations that began in a river valley? Hmm.

Have a think about that question.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

The Shang Dynasty began in the: Indus Valley, Yellow River Valley, Nile Valley.

Hmm.

Pause the video here and take a moment to think, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said the Yellow River Valley, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

Other ancient civilizations you might have heard about, like the Ancient Egyptians and the Indus Valley civilization, also began in river valleys for the same reason.

The Ancient Sumerian civilization also began in a river valley between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, around 6,000 BCE, which is over 8,000 years ago.

The Ancient Sumerian civilization still existed when the Indus Valley civilization began around the Indus River, and the Ancient Egyptian civilization began around the Nile River in 3000 BCE.

Roughly around 1,400 years after this, the Shang Dynasty began in 1600 BCE.

The Ancient Sumerian, Ancient Egyptian and Indus Valley civilizations all still existed when the Shang Dynasty in China began.

Like the other ancient civilizations, the Shang Dynasty began near fertile land around a river.

So you can see where the Shang Dynasty is here, and it's around the Yellow River.

And then the other civilizations, we have the Ancient Sumerian that's there between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, the Ancient Egyptian, which is near the River Nile, and the Indus Valley civilization near the River Indus.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

When did the Shang Dynasty begin? In what year? Pause the video here, have a discussion with your partner, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that's in 1600 BCE, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

This brings us to our first learning task.

I'd like you to correct each of Lucas's statements about the beginning of the Shang Dynasty.

So let's read these first two.

"The Shang Dynasty began in India." "The Shang Dynasty began around the River Nile." "The Shang Dynasty began a river valley because the land was not fertile." "The Shang Dynasty began around 3000 BCE." So we need to correct each of Lucas's statements about the beginning of the Shang Dynasty.

So pause the video here, make sure you give yourself enough time to read those statements through and find where you need to make the correction, and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at those corrections? So, the Shang Dynasty began in China, not India, the Shang Dynasty began around the Yellow River, not the Nile River, the Shang Dynasty began in a river valley because the land was fertile, and the Shang Dynasty began around 1600 BCE.

Well done if you were able to correct each of Lucas's statements about the beginning of the Shang Dynasty, and well done for completing that learning task.

This brings us to the second part of our lesson.

We're going to explore what the Shang Dynasty cities looked like.

Similar to the other ancient civilizations, the people of the Shang Dynasty built cities, although they weren't as big as the cities in the other ancient civilizations, because not everybody lived inside these cities.

The cities were built to protect the kings of the Shang Dynasty and the royal families.

Anyang was the capital city for over 200 years.

This is where the Shang Dynasty kings ruled from.

So you can see where Anyang is on the map there.

So that was the capital city, and it's also where Fu Hao's tomb was found, quite near to Anyang.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Anyang was the capital city of the Shang Dynasty.

Is that true or false? Hmm, what do you think? If you said that's true, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

Now, looking at these two statements, which of these would help to justify your answer? This was the capital city for over 600 years.

This was the capital city for over 200 years.

What do you think? Pause the video here and have discussion with your partner.

Which of these two statements would help to justify your answer? And press play when you're ready to continue.

If you said this was the capital city for over 200 years, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

Shang Dynasty cities had big walls around them to protect the kings.

In the middle of the cities were palaces for the royal families and temples where they left food and drink offerings and prayed to the gods they believed in.

Surrounding the middle of the city was an area of workshops where things were made.

Here, people carved stones like jade and made bronze and pottery.

This shows how important these workshops were, because they were inside the protective city walls.

Take a look there at that photo of a jade dragon statue.

How skilled you must be to create something like that.

Some of the bigger cities had farming land inside the city walls, too.

The farmers would have lived outside of the city walls.

To water the crops and the farmland, the people of the Shang Dynasty dug long ditches, a bit like channels, from the Yellow River to their farmland.

This made the cities stronger and more successful.

Can you see in that photo there, a channel, how it was used to move water to towards the farmland? You can see there the water sitting within it.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Match the parts of the Shang Dynasty cities to the area of the city where they were built.

So we have temples, farmers' houses, palaces, bronze workshops.

Are they inside the city walls or outside the city walls? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner to match those parts of the Shang Dynasty cities to the areas of the city they were built, and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at the matches? So the temples were built inside the city walls, the farmers' houses were built outside the city walls, palaces were built inside the city walls, and the bronze workshops were inside the city walls also.

Well done if were able to match those parts correctly.

The kings of the Shang Dynasty were always at war.

They wanted to rule over more land and have a bigger empire by using their armies to take over land near to the borders.

Other rival kings nearby had the same idea and we're always trying to take land from within the Shang Dynasty empire, too.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Sam is thinking about what an empire is.

Is Sam correct? Sam says, "An empire has lots of different people in charge." Hmm.

Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? Is Sam correct? Well, Sam is incorrect, because an empire is a group of people or countries with only one ruler in charge.

Well done if you were able to spot that.

Now, the kings of the Shang dynasty had to fight and win lots of battles if they wanted to remain as king.

They protected their cities from enemies with walls that were up to 20 metres thick, like the city at Zhengzhou.

Have a look there, that illustration of the thick walls.

Can you imagine a wall that thick to protect your city? To help defend their empire, the people of the Shang Dynasty were very good at making weapons from bronze.

This made their armies very strong and difficult to defeat in battles.

Their bronze weapons and armour helped them to create and defend their empire for over 500 years.

Take a look there at that photo of a bronze helmet and a bronze weapon.

So they were very important at making sure that the Shang Dynasty were successful in battle.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Can you select all of the things that help the kings of the Shang Dynasty to build and defend their empire? Jade statues, bronze weapons, thick city walls, ditches to bring water into cities.

Hmm.

Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner about all the things that helped the kings of the Shang Dynasty to build and defend their empire, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that bronze weapons and thick city walls helped to build and defend their empire, as well as ditches to bring water into cities, then you're absolutely right.

Well done.

This brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to describe to your learning partner where the Shang Dynasty cities were and what they were like.

You could use these words to help you.

Yellow River, palaces, farmers, thick walls, bronze, empire.

So pause the video here, make sure that you give yourself enough time to describe to your learning partner where the Shang Dynasty cities were and what they were like, and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at an example? So your answer could include, "The Shang Dynasty cities were built in the Yellow River valley in China.

They had very thick walls to keep enemies out, like the walls in the city of Zhengzhou, which were 20 metres thick.

In the middle of the cities, there were palaces and temples.

On the edges of the cities, there were workshops with people making items from things like bronze and jade.

Bronze was important for making strong weapons and defending the empire.

Farmers lived outside of the cities, and they dug ditches from the Yellow River to the farmland to water the crops." Well done if you were able to describe to your learning partner where the Shang Dynasty cities were and what they were like, and well done for completing that learning task.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learnt about who the Shang were.

"The Shang Dynasty began around 1600 BCE in the Yellow River Valley, later than other ancient civilizations like Ancient Egypt.

Like Ancient Sumerian, Ancient Egyptian and Indus Valley civilizations, the Shang Dynasty started in a river valley with fertile land.

The Shang Dynasty built major cities, including the capital city of Anyang, and Zhengzhou, which had 20 metre thick walls for defence.

Strong bronze weapons and armour helped the Shang Dynasty to build and defend their empire for over 500 years." Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope to see you in the next one.

See you next time.