The Mayan Civilisation is a great history topic, suitable for children in Year 3 to Year 6.
I taught my daughter about this topic after covering it with year 4 children in a school I was teaching at.
I didn’t have all the resources the school had, because I didn’t have access to the subscriptions they pay for, so I searched the net and found these equivalents myself.
Personally, I think some of these resources are better than the ones I used for the children in school, but I didn’t do the planning for the school’s lessons, so there you go.
If your child is in Year 3 or 4 like mine, you’ll have to spend a lot more time helping them understand the information on the net.
However, if they are in Year 5 and 6, they can work more independently and fact-find more information from the internet themselves.
Mayan Civilisation Resources
There is a lot of information that is above a Year 6 child’s level of reading and comprehension, so I have included some resources for them to use here and narrow down theirs or your search.
As this is a topic that would be in schools, here are the key objectives a school would focus on:
a. Research gather information about the Mayan civilisation – children should look in books and the internet to do this. Independently search for information themselves to develop their research and IT skills also.
b. They should learn the skill of taking relevant notes – write short sentences of interest.
c. They should watch videos on the topic and also take relevant notes from these too.
d. They should gather information about important facts, to understand the difference between the Mayan Civilisation of the past and modern day civilisations.
They should try to discover the similarities and differences between now and then?
They should develop their understanding by looking at:
- Where the Mayans lived
- What they ate?
- How they got their food
- What they wore
- What activities they took part in
- How they celebrated special occasions
- What they believed in
- And any other interesting facts about their life.
- The information that is gathered can be written as a fact file, a written non-chronological report or presentation.
If your child found the topic particularly interesting, they could produce all three.
Pictures and Illustrations of Mayan Civilisations
Children should be encouraged to draw their own pictures if they are in Year 5 and 6, but I have included pictures for Year 3 and 4 children to colour if they prefer.
Many children complain about not wanting to colour, but this is a skill that should be encouraged.
The colouring process will strengthen wrist and hand muscles and will be like a hand ‘workout’ in preparation for writing. So encourage children to colour pictures in beautifully as this process has many benefits.
I have not labelled the pictures, but from the research that is carried out they should be able to label each image themselves.
Web Links:
Here are a list of the web links I used for my own daughter I hope you find them useful.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zq6svcw/articles/zqv6msg
http://clipart-library.com/mayan-ruins-cliparts.html
https://mayaarchaeologist.co.uk/pupils/amazing-facts-about-the-maya/
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=ancient+mayans
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/79735/15-facts-about-maya-civilization
Of course don’t limit yourself to these. Feel free to explore the internet and find out more information yourselves.
Download the pictures and resources below to support you.