Chili in the Heat!

Some of us thought that Aztec Day would never arrive. But, patience – not a quality associated with the Aztecs – was rewarded and Year 5 enjoyed a fun curriculum day with a South American flavour.

This term, the children are discovering the delights, highlights and lower lights of the Aztec civilisation. They are working in groups to conduct research, the results of which they will then share with their classes. What we have already learned is that, though the Tudors may have been less than civilised in some ways, less than tolerant and indeed, less than clean, most of the time, the Aztecs, it is fair to say, were in an entirely different league – at least, to begin with. Making children draw comparisons in this way is a sure way to help make the learning effective and memorable.

For Year 5, Aztec Day is traditionally one of the high points of Term 3 and we felt the children deserved a little extra fun. Each of the classes was given the challenge of creating their own ‘Aztec’ shields or mosaic face masks. These planned art activities provided us all with a little welcome respite from the usual academic rigour and, walking around, it was wonderful to see children happily engrossed in painting, cutting, gluing and drawing. Occasionally, strains of music of a rather un-Aztec nature wafted along the Activity Street and this was followed, shortly after, by the smell of rather more authentic Aztec cooking. The children enjoyed tasting some mildly spiced food or were too polite to say otherwise. An exciting day was had by all!