There are many interesting Mayan cities, sites, religious practices, and leaders that students could research for a poster project. This poster focuses on the famous Mayan city Chichen Itza. Students will research this fascinating city and find at least four facts to fill in the bubbles. Then they can use the artwork provided to create a scene! Their finished posters could be presented digitally, printed out to add to a portfolio or hung around the room.
There are many poster templates to pick from if students wish to start with a different layout or complete their poster on a different topic. Teachers can add multiple templates to the example to provide some structure, or direct students to the template page to pick for themselves. They can also edit the existing template and add or remove art as desired for different scaffolding.
(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)
Due Date:
Objective: Research the fascinating city of Chichen Itza. Fill in the poster with at least four interesting facts and create a decorative scene!
Student Instructions:
Requirements: Four facts and a scene that includes at least 5 assets.
Discuss with students their concept of interesting facts. Some students might find the agricultural and irrigation innovations made by the Mayans to be interesting while others can find it boring. Tell the students that the interesting facts are the ones that seem strange or uncanny at this time and the ones that correlate with their interests.
Encourage students to use academic libraries and public libraries for physical materials and to use online scholarly databases like JSTOR and Google Scholar for scholarly papers and publications. Teachers can arrange library visits for students and encourage them to visit on their own time to collect information from resources that are not available online.
Provide students with a list of trusted websites, including those run by universities, the Smithsonian Institution, and National Geographic, while advising them against using Wikipedia or other sources without any credibility for their academic work. Ask students to search for things that they find the most intriguing or interesting.
Tell the students to make fact sheets or note cards for whatever intriguing information they come across. Each card has to have the information, where it came from, and a succinct explanation. Students can save these sheets for later so that they have all the interesting information and their credible sources in one place for use later.
Ask the students to share all the interesting facts that they found out about the Mayan Civilization with their class fellows in engaging and innovative ways. They can prepare a chart with drawings of the facts or make digital illustrations to present their findings.
Environmental considerations were a major influence on Mayan civilization. For agriculture, they adapted to a variety of topographies and religious rituals often making use of natural elements like cenotes.
Some interesting facts about the Mayan civilization include the Tzolk'in, a 260-day ceremonial calendar, and the Haab, a 365-day solar calendar, which were only two of the Mayans' many calendars. They had the ability to correctly forecast celestial occurrences like eclipses. Known for their exquisite ceramics, sculptures, and paintings, the Maya were accomplished artisans. They frequently portrayed images from daily life, religious rituals, and historical events in their artwork. The colorful clothing worn by the Maya was composed of cotton or other natural fibers. Along with jewellery, tattoos, and body paint, they also decorated themselves.