Mexico
Curiosity
To start our Mexico Geography topic, students spent an afternoon in school exploring different aspects of Mexican culture. This included making and eating guacamole. Students followed recipe cards to combine the fresh ingredients before dipping tortilla chips to taste their creations.
Did you know that guacamole translates to ‘avocado sauce’?
For some this was their first taste of an avocado and it was a huge hit across the class.
To follow on from their culinary activities, students learnt and performed a traditional Mexican dance, known as the Mexican Hat Dance. This involved dancing in time around a traditional sombrero in groups of four.
Confidence
Students embarked on a geographical and historical tour of Mexico during our topic lessons. Using atlases, students explored the human and physical features of the country and how its climate differs from our own here in the UK. Students built confidence in map reading skills using atlases as well as the difference between political, topographic and weather maps.
Did you know that Mexico is around 8 times bigger than the UK?
Students explored Mexican biomes and popular tourist destinations- thinking about human’s impact on the country throughout its history. This included looking at Mayan and Aztec ruins as well as areas such as Baja California and the Yucatán Peninsula.
Challenge
To finish, students produced detailed and persuasive travel brochures that included where to visit, what to do and what to eat. As food is hugely important part of Mexican culture, students were tasked in DT lessons to create Mexican chilli recipe cards and to make and taste the food in class. Let’s just say that the students in year 5 really do like their food with a true Mexican kick.