In history, we have been learning about the Maya people, an ancient civilisation from the Mezo-Americas. The children initially knew nothing about the Maya people. We then worked out, that unlike Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, that they are not part of our history and so that is why they knew nothing about them.
We began by exploring where in the world they lived and looked at Maya people today. We then learnt about the their pyramids - that had 364 steps on them and that, including the top of the pyramids is the same as the number of days as in a year.
We learnt the goriness of human sacrifices and blood-letting for special events. On learning about the gods, it soon became apparent to the children that they did not resemble gods that we think of, but squat little figures. The Maya were also very advanced in their understanding of writing, maths, astronomy, their use of the calendar - as we know it today and their agriculture and trading.
Over each lesson, the children had to consider our topic question why we should remember the Maya?
Here are some examples of their research of the Gods and their answering of the topic question.
We began by exploring where in the world they lived and looked at Maya people today. We then learnt about the their pyramids - that had 364 steps on them and that, including the top of the pyramids is the same as the number of days as in a year.
We learnt the goriness of human sacrifices and blood-letting for special events. On learning about the gods, it soon became apparent to the children that they did not resemble gods that we think of, but squat little figures. The Maya were also very advanced in their understanding of writing, maths, astronomy, their use of the calendar - as we know it today and their agriculture and trading.
Over each lesson, the children had to consider our topic question why we should remember the Maya?
Here are some examples of their research of the Gods and their answering of the topic question.
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