Maya calendar: cogs and cycles

Topics Year 4/5
This unit is part of Maya Maths and the Calendar

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Objectives

History

Develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study.
Understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.
Undertake an in-depth study of a non-European society that provides contrasts with British history - The Maya civilization.

Maths

Appreciate the beauty and power of mathematics.
Develop their ability to solve a wider range of problems including increasingly complex properties of numbers and arithmetic.
Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.

Lesson Planning

Consider the Maya calendar and compare it to our own system; make a Maya calendar.

Teaching Outcomes:

To consider the Maya calendar and its features. To compare to our own calendar system.
To make their own Maya calendar and learn how to read it in the way the Maya would, for example to plan when to sow seeds or harvest plants.

Children will:

Consider the Maya calendar and its features and compare to our own calendar system.
Make their own Maya calendar and learn how to read it in the way the Maya would, for example to plan when to sow seeds or harvest plants.

Planning

Provided Resources

4 different Maya calendars
How to make a Maya Tzolkin calendar

Unit Resources

You Will Need

Split pins
craft match sticks
Sheets of card
Modern calendars and diaries

Weblinks

'Living Maya time' Smithsonian website from maya.nmai.si.edu
The meaning of calendar hieroglyphs from maya.nmai.si.edu
The Maya calendar from historyonthenet.com
The significance of each month for the Maya from mayan-calendar.com
The link between the sun, corn and the calendar from maya.nmai.si.edu