Getting to Know the Aztecs

This term we are doing the Meso-American civilizations for our Topic work.

There are 3 classes in our year group so one of us does the Incas, one does the Mayans and I get to do the Aztecs :)

We turn our classrooms into one enormous project with displays and dioramas and fabulous art and then we have Meso-America Day during the last week of school. We all dress up (I am the Aztec Emperor and have a few hand-picked slaves who follow me around all day with nibbles :) ) and invite the parents to see the project books and art work. We serve hot chocolate and tortillas and "guinea pig" stew. Each class visits the other 2 classes to compare civilizations - it is an AWESOME project.

I'll blog about it sometime in June - and I'll even post photos of myself with my incredible yet-to-be-created-by-my-slaves feathered headdress and gold jewelry :)

In the meantime however I want to boast about my kiddies' amazing work so far!

This term their project is completely independent. I made a webquest 2 years ago (for all 3 civilizations individually - it was a killer!) and the kids research by navigating through the links. Each Friday we have a 90 minute block that they use to gather facts for one or two parts of the project (depending on length and detail) and then they have the rest of the week to create the matching pages in their Topic books. I give them set time and they can also work on them during free choice time as well.

They have rubrics so they know exactly what an average, good and excellent project looks like - and they also understand that they have to manage their time. (Of course, they don't all do this - I have a couple who haven't completed pages 1 and 2 this week so they are now WAY behind and will have to do some serious catching up if they want to get their marks up!!)

However, most of them are doing an INCREDIBLE job and I wanted to share the first couple of pages of some of their projects - bearing in mind that they are all only 8 years old. :)

The first two pages

Creating

Careful gluing

Love this interactive
timeline!!

Look at these
'Did You Know?'
boxes!!

This year's projects are really being enhanced by the GORGEOUS clip art I found by Christine O'Brien. I can't tell you how thrilled I was to find it! I've already started an Aztec Math Problem set using it and the kids are just loving having access to some pictures. They'll draw their own art of course but it's nice to have some really good quality pictures for them to cut out as well.

Just in case anyone is studying the Aztecs check out these beautiful products that Christine made!!

Aztec Gods and Goddesses

Aztec Indians

Have a great weekend everyone :)