We have been spending the past couple of weeks inundating ourselves in the Mayan & Aztec cultures. After reading chapter … in Story of the World: The Middle Ages, we dove into a more extensive exploration of these amazing empires.
We have enjoyed this unit perhaps more than any other thus far – perhaps because I have been to several of the ancient sites including Tula (an ancient Toltec city), Chitzén Itzá and Tulúm (ancient Mayan cities) and was able to share with them the photographs of my travels.
One of our favorite activities was making a ‘jade mask’. We first applied Vaseline to MeiLi’s face and then laid strips of plaster gauze across her face. When her face was completely covered (she was too scared to cover her eyes), we carefully removed the mask and set it on a paper plate. We then adhered to the plaster small pieces of egg shell that we had dyed with food coloring to resemble jade. When the mask was dry, we coated it with a layer of Modge Podge to seal it and help to protect it.
Here are a few of the websites we explored as a part of our study:
One comment
Phyllis
February 2, 2011 at 5:41 pm
That is a great Jade mask! We are studying these cultures right now too.
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