Investigate the Aztec calendar then create a fictional scroll calendar with details of an imaginary trip to Mexico.

• 1.

  With Crayola® Scissors, cut large construction paper in half to make two long rectangular pieces. Put Crayola School Glue along one short edge and glue the sheets together to form a long calendar.

• 2.

  Cut two strips of cardboard longer than the short ends of the calendar. Glue one to each end of the long sheet to form scroll handles. Dry overnight.

• 3.

  Divide the page into the number of days of your Mexican journey with Crayola Fine Tip Markers and ruler.

• 4.

  Refer to the Aztec calendar to find the symbol for each day (1 Crocodile, 2 Wind, 3 House, 4 Lizard). Draw the symbols with Crayola Construction Paper Crayons. Decorate the scroll handles with Aztec calendar symbols.

• 5.

  Ask a friend to help roll up the scroll by turning the cardboard strip handles simultaneously toward the middle. Anchor it to the back with adhesive tape.

• 6.

  Each day of your imaginary trip to Mexico, add sketches and descriptions of the people, art, foods, architecture, music, fantasy souvenirs, and other ideas to your calendar.

Standards

• LA: Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
• LA: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
• LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade level topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• LA: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
• SS: Describe ways in which language, stories, folktales, music, and artistic creations serve as expressions of culture and influence behavior of people living in a particular culture.
• SS: Give examples of and explain group and institutional influences such as religious beliefs, laws, and peer pressure, on people, events, and elements of culture.
• SS: Use appropriate resources, data sources, and geographic tools to generate, manipulate, and interpret information.
• VA: Intentionally take advantage of the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques, and processes to enhance communication of experiences and ideas.
• VA: Select and use the qualities of structures and functions of art to improve communication of ideas.
• VA: Use subjects, themes, and symbols that demonstrate knowledge of contexts, values, and aesthetics that communicate intended meaning in artworks.
• VA: Describe and place a variety of art objects in historical and cultural contexts.

Adaptations

• Possible classroom resources include: Mayas, Incas, and Aztecs: World Cultures Through Time by Wendy Conklin; Aztec, Inca & Maya by DK Publishing; The Aztec Empire by Sunita Apte; Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler: World Cultures Through Time by Wendy Conklin
• Rather than using words to describe the days of the week, the Aztecs named their days with picture symbols. Research these symbols. Using Crayola Colored Pencils, create the symbol for each day of the week. Post these cards on the appropriate day.
• Working in small groups, students organize an imaginary trip to Mexico using various media sources. Students record daily sketches and write summaries in journals of the events of each day on the journey to share with classmates.
• Compare and contrast the Aztec culture with that of the Mayans or Incas who also inhabited land in what we now know as Central America. How were the cultures similar? How were they different?