Wow Day

On Wednesday 15th January, we had our Hola Mexico wow day. 

We started the day by learning some key facts about Mexico: the national bird is a Golden Eagle, Spanish is spoken in Mexico and they are famous for celebrations such as The Day of the Dead and all the delicious foods they produce. 

We learnt about a Ancient Mayan board game called Patolli and had a go at playing it in our pairs.

Next, we created some Mayan art based on gold discs that were found at a sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza. We used pencil to create indentations in the soft metal and produced representations of Mayan people and animals. We found that it was easier to produce strong indents on softer surfaces so practiced leaning on the table, our books and then an item of clothing to produce the effect we wanted. 

In the afternoon, we learnt a bit more about the Mayan civilisation by labelling maps of Mesoamerica and identifying the famous Mayan cities. To finish the day, we tried playing an ancient ball game invented over 3,000 years ago called Pok a Tok. We had to pass the ball around our teams without using our hands or feet and score by getting the ball through a hoop held by two children. It was very difficult not to catch or kick the ball!