The ancient Maya: transport students back in time to the world of the ancient Maya, whose great empire in the Yucatan Peninsula endured from 2500 B.C.-1550 A.D.

Before You Begin

Start off your unit by sharing the pull-out Masterpiece Poster, "Maya Culture," from the center of this issue. Ask students to come up in pairs to study and discuss the images of ancient Maya artifacts, which include jewelry, a mask, statues, and even household tools. The poster also shows one of the many great stone temples that the Maya built. Next, ask students: "What do you know about the Maya? How do you think they created these artifacts?" Then launch into your Maya study with the following activities, nearly all of which correspond to an artifact pictured on the poster.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

About the Maya The Maya were one of the greatest New World civilizations. They excelled in the arts, mathematics, architecture, farming, and astronomy. The early Maya lived in villages, where they farmed corn, or maize. Hundreds of years later, they built vast city-states. It was during this time that the Maya made many advancements. They built great structures and studied the planets to create calendars, one of which had 365 days. And they did this all without modern technology! The Maya began declining around 900 A.D. due to warfare, drought, disease, and overpopulation. Spanish explorers conquered the remaining Maya in the 1500s.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Towering Temples

MAYA FACT: Temple-pyramids are an amazing architectural achievement of the ancient Maya. One of the most famous of these is Kukulcan, or El Castillo, in Chichen Itza, Mexico. It stands about 80' high, and is 180' wide on each side at its base. Monster masks adorn the temple.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

ACTIVITY: Students can sharpen their measurement skills--and practice cooperative learning--by creating an El Castillo scale model as a class. Ask students to estimate how big the model should be in inches, based on the measurements of the original. Next, have groups measure appropriately-sized platforms out of self-hardening clay. Stack the layers as shown, adding glue between each layer, and insert a dowel in the center. Invite students to add staircases to the sides and a temple on top. Finally, challenge students to research how the original design of El Castillo relates to the 365-day solar Maya calendar.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Magnificent Mosaics

MAYA FACT: The ancient Maya made exquisite masks from stone, wood, gold, obsidian, and shell. These masks often contained many pieces of jade arranged in mosaic patterns. Maya royalty also had personal items beautifully decorated in these patterns, such as the hand-mirror at left.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

ACTIVITY: Students can make their own intricate mosaic masks in the style of the ancient Maya! Begin by sharing some mosaic and mask examples (see "Maya Resources" at www.scholastic.com/instructor), then have students draw and cut out a mask shape--with eyes, mouth, and nose--on an 8" X 10" piece of oak tag. Next, have students cut out tissue paper "tiles," each no larger than an inch square. Show students how to glue the tiles one at a time next to each other on the mask, as shown. Once the glue is dry, invite students to share and compare their masterpieces with each other.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Modern Maya Pen Pals 

More than six million Maya descendants still live in the Yucatan Peninsula. Many of these modern Maya incorporate the customs of their ancestors into their daily lives. To learn more, invite students to write letters to Maya children c/o the Maya Education Foundation. Send letters in Spanish to Armando J. Alfonzo Utrilla, Rt. 106, House 076, P.O. Box 38, S. Woodstock, VT 05071-0038.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Create-Your-Own Codex 

MAYA FACT: The Maya recorded important information--such as scientific discoveries and historical records--using glyphs, or pictures, instead of an alphabet. Glyphs were painted on pottery and into books called codices, and carved into stone.

ACTIVITY: Ask: "How many examples of Maya glyphs can you find on the poster?" Then invite students to make their own codices to record an important event in their lives. For each codex, use half of an 8.5" X 11" piece of construction paper, folded like an accordion to create three surfaces. Have students draw an original glyph on each surface with colored pencils. Then have each student "read" his or her codex aloud.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Amazing Animal Pendants

MAYA FACT: Jewelry was an important part of upper-class and royal dress. Pendants shaped like animals were especially popular.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

ACTIVITY: Have students, working in small groups, research animals common to the ancient Maya world (see "Maya Resources" at www.scholastic.com/instructor). Each group should find a photograph of its "totem" animal and record its habitat, life cycle, and the locations where it can be found today. Next, give each student a ball of self-hardening clay to shape into his or her group's animal, as shown. Encourage groups to wear their pendants as they present their animal research to the class.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Jaguar Warrior Banners

MAYA FACT: Maya rulers often waged war between city-states to acquire more territory. Rulers wore magnificent headdresses to present an imposing image. As a sign of power, some also went into battle holding banners made from the skin of the jaguar, or b'alam, a powerful animal the Maya worshiped and feared.

ACTIVITY: Invite students to become academic "warriors" with their own jaguar banners! Host a confidence-boosting march before a standardized test, challenging class project, or assessment period. First, show students how to measure and cut out a 10" circle of oak tag. Tape a straw to the back of the circle for use as a handle. Have students decorate their banners by glueing pieces of spotted animal-print material (available at fabric and discount stores) onto the front of the oak tag. Students may also glue strips of ribbon or fabric along the bottom edge, as shown. Next, ask small groups of students each to brainstorm their own special "fear-vanquishing" chant, and nominate a spokesperson. The spokesperson then leads the chant by reciting the words first and having the group repeat them.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Maya Feast

MAYA FACT: The Maya ate lots of foods--including peppers, beans, squash, and fruit--but served corn at each meal. Maya women made cakes by grinding corn kernels into zacan, a thick dough cooked on a stone comal, like the one below.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

ACTIVITY: It's easy to buy tortillas, but more fun to make them as the Maya did. (For a quick corn-flour dough recipe, visit www.scholastic.com/instructor.) Divide the dough into equal-sized balls and give one to each student. Encourage them to use their hands or a rolling pin to flatten the balls into thin cakes on a clean surface. Place one corn cake at a time on a preheated skillet and cook each side for about 30 seconds. As students are munching, read aloud The Corn Grows Ripe, by Dorothy Rhoads (Puffin, 1993).

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Birthday Pottery

MAYA FACT: Maya artists crafted beautiful pots, urns, vases, goblets, plates, and jars with painted images and glyphs, like the detail at left.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

ACTIVITY: Students can make their own Maya vases with special painted glyphs that represent their birthdays. Start by having students visit www.michielb.nl/maya/calendar.html and enter their birth date. A converter will give them the Maya names for the day and month, then students can locate their combined glyph. To create each vase, flatten a piece of self-hardening craft clay (with a diameter of about 4") into a base. Coil more pieces of clay into 8 "snakes." Place the first coil around the base, then stack each additional coil on top. Blend with moist fingers inside and out. Before the clay dries, add a Maya glyph with acrylic craft paint.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Maya Mythology (Using the Reproducible)

MAYA FACT: Maya myths describe the ties between humans and the world of gods and demons. The most famous text is the Popol Vuh. In one of its myths, the twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque are summoned to Xibalba, the underworld.

ACTIVITY: Distribute copies of the Reproducible on page 41. Since students are likely familiar with this style of storytelling, focus on the importance of a comic's sequence of events. Ask: "How does a comic compare to other kinds of narratives?" Then invite students to plan and draw their own mythical comics.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

RELATED ARTICLE: INSTRUCTOR REPRODUCIBLE

Name __________

MAYA MYTHS

The Story of the Hero Twins

Read the tale below of the "Hero Twins" Hunahpu (hoo nah poo) and Xbalanque (shaw bal an kay), two famous characters in Maya mythology. The story tells how the twins outsmarted the gods of the underworld, or Xibalba (shee bahl bah), to become immortal.

The twins loved to play ball, but the noise of their playing made the underworld gods angry.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The gods sent messenger owls to summon the twins down to the underworld, called Xibalba.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The gods made the twins stay in the Dark House, which was the first of many scary nights.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The twins escaped by tricking the gods, winning every challenge they faced in Xibalba.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

After the last challenge, the twins jumped in a river and turned into magical catfish.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The twins were later reborn as the sun and the moon--more powerful than the underworld!

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[GRAPHIC OMITTED]

Arlette N. Braman is the author of Secrets of Ancient Cultures: The Maya; Activities and Crafts from a Mysterious Land (John Wiley & Sons, 2003), from which some of these activities were adapted.