Today marked the last lesson of our Maya studies - it's been a fascinating topic and the children have loved learning all about such a unique and interesting civilisation. We invited a 'Maya expert' here for the day who is an archaeologist and worked at some of the Maya dig sites. She brought a whole wealth of artefacts in and really tested our knowledge and historical interpretation. We got the chance to handle these replica artefatcs and consider their purpose One group thought this obsidian sharpened point and jar was for bloodletting and collecting it in the jar as an offering to the Gods. (genuinely a sensible suggestion and complete with imitation photo) We put the kids to work on grinding their own corn for lunch today - backbreaking work it is too! It was all worth it because we got a delicious Mexican-themed lunch today, which we all enjoyed. Even our fantastic cook got into the spirit of the day. We watched Encanto with our lunch And just what you want to do after having lunch is investigate poo.... that's right, poo! We can learn a lot about the remains left behind, what people ate, where they got their food from, differences between social classes and more. With this knowledge, the children were tasked with identifying the waste of vikings and the Maya by comparing the differences in their diet. (Disclaimer - the 'poo' was playdough with seeds added in ) Despite it being playdough, the thought of poking about in it took a bit of getting used to. Here we are picking it apart to identify the contents And here we are deciding whose poo is whose... And with that, I wish you an enjoyable half term, see you on the 3rd June
Mr Breckon