Guatemala Difficult

DECODING A MAYAN BOOK
Mayan documents, called “codices” were drawn in beautiful colors on fig-bark paper.  Mayans were experts in the arts and sciences and we can learn about their science as we interpret these codices.  The file in the Equipo Escolar has a long lesson plan to help you do this.  Begin with page one, and work through it, stopping at the hand symbol and do the activity described.  Share this activity.  See if you can work your whole way through this lesson plan, stopping at all the hand symbols, and become an expert at reading Mayan books!  (The answers are in the lesson plan, but see if you can figure them out for yourself.  It will be much more interesting and meaningful that way.  Then check your work.)




MAKING BASKETS:  THE STRUCTURAL PATTERNS OF WEAVING
This activity will introduce you to one of the oldest, most widespread crafts in the world and will give you the opportunity to see the mathematics and symmetries in the structures of two weaving techniques. The file in the Equipo Escolar has a long lesson plan to help you do this.  Begin with page one, and work through it, stopping at the hand symbol and do the activity described.  Share this activity.  See if you can work your whole way through this lesson plan, stopping at all the hand symbols, and become an expert at weaving!


MILCUENTOS: STORY TELLING
Listen to children reading in Spanish stories you already know.  Go to this website and then click on the picture to hear the story.  See if you can find “Peter and the Wolf.”  What other stories do you recognize?  Tell which stories you listened to, and see if you can re-tell them yourself – in English, of course!




 
MI PRIMERA ENCICLOPEDIA DEL ESPACIO
Here is a fun challenge!  This is a book in Spanish, but it is a book whose topic you pretty much know.  Go through this book and piece together as much as you can about what it says.  Use all your thinking tools:  context clues, what you already know about the topic and so guess about what might be written, words that look like English words, words that use roots that you might already know, etc.  Then, choose a page and share its content with an adult.  You will be surprised at how much you can read!