We had a lot of fun learning about the Aztecs yesterday on our day devoted to History.
Status and Society
We worked together in groups to make an Aztec king’s head dress, creating our own feathers and geometric patterns to mimic Aztec fabric. We looked at images from Aztec times of weaving to understand why geometric patterns were popular and at birds from the rainforest. The children were surprised to learn that bright colours on fabrics are a relatively recent invention – in Aztec times, the bright colours of the birds around them would have been the brightest colours available to them to adorn themselves with. We explored how the headdress symbolised wealth and importance and took turns wearing it through the day and being king of the table.
Everyday Life for Aztecs
As well as exploring what power meant and looked like for the Aztecs, we explored everyday life through creating our own museum of artefacts. After finding out more about Aztec life, in pairs the children created a replica object and thought through what the object could tell us about Aztec life. Then we enjoyed a visit to our homemade museum to share our ideas and thinking.
The End of An Era
In the afternoon, we learnt about what happened when Hernan Cortes arrived in South America looking for gold in 1519. Montezuma was the last Aztec king in Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, and was killed in 1520. The Aztecs were not able to withstand the conquest of the Spanish with their more advanced weapons and armour technology. We created map-based board games to play out this conflict, considering the obstacles and advantages that both sides had. While some groups managed to change the course of history in their playthroughs, we agreed that this game could not be called fair and that one side was almost inevitably down for the win.
Thanks to the children for their fantastic group work and historical thinking and creativity throughout the day!
