History: AZTEC BUNDLE - lesson plans, resources, Escape Room, Student Workbook, Answer Key

The Aztecs - a complete unit plan including resources for the teaching of this Ancient, non-European civilisation.

Upon purchase, you will receive two products:

• 13 detailed lesson plans accompanied with 11 photocopiable resources to support specific lessons also. Each of the lesson plans and the resources are in Word and are therefore editable to allow you the flexibility to change the plans if required to support the needs of your learners.
• Escape Room with 9 Challenges using the children's knowledge of The Aztecs and their research skills to solve all of the Challenges and Escape the Room!

Lesson Planning and Resource/Worksheet details

The lesson plans can be seen in the preview and include the following elements:

• Lesson Number
• Main objectives of the lesson
• Key activities in the lesson
• Organisation of resources and pupils
• Success criteria
• Assessment opportunties

Of the lesson plans, the following coverage is achieved:

• Lesson 1: Where did the Aztecs live? What was the environment of Mexico like?
• Lesson 2: Create a timeline of Aztec society alongside European society
• Lesson 3: Why was exploration encouraged?
• Lesson 4: What was the impact of exploration? What was achieved and by who?
• Lesson 5: How were the Aztecs discovered? By who? When?
• Lesson 6: Learning about the Aztec civilisations lifestyle within Tenochtitlan
• Lesson 7: Using sources and images to find out more about Aztec lifestyles
• Lesson 8: Setting up a class based museum of images and artefacts
• Lesson 9: Classifying artefacts and understanding what they show
• Lesson 10: Aztec civilisation - the arts, number system and alphabet
• Lesson 11: Producing a report: The Rise and Fall of the Aztecs
• Lesson 12: Interpreting historical sources and investigating bias
• Lesson 13: Summarising what we have learnt about the Aztecs

All of the lessons have been taught in classrooms and have provided high quality learning experiences. If you have any questions, please let us know either before or after purchase.

Escape Room Focus

Using an Escape Room to develop curriculum knowledge is an exciting activity that will inspire learners from 2nd Grade to 5th Grade.

Curriculum Coverage within the Escape Room

• History of the World– The Aztecs
• Aztec Society and Organisation
• Religious and Cultural Understanding
• Chronological understanding

The aim of the Escape Room is to provide jeopardy for the children to work under pressure to solve 9 clues to help save the legacy of The Aztecs from being forgotten – including reasons for their downfall. The only way to save the legacy of The Aztecs is to solve the 9 Challenges within this Escape Room!

Before beginning, you will need to prepare the following:

• A copy of the Pupil Workbook for each group
• A set of table activities for every group – prepared beforehand and given to each group after they have all completed each Code Key activity
• IT sources and research materials
• Initial Starting Script sharing the problem to the children
• Completion Script celebrating the completion of the challenge

Children do not need prior knowledge of The Aztecs to complete this Escape Room, as the research will support the answers and each Code Key is supported with several clues. This Escape Room is ideal as a review of learning.

The activity begins by the teacher reader the Initial Message received. It clearly tells the children that the legacy of The Aztecs is being forgotten, and it is down to them to learn about them, share their knowledge and keep The Aztec legacy safe – the price being the successful completion of the 9 Challenges.

What follows are 9 challenges which the children must solve to discover the code to move onto the next activity.

Each activity focuses and builds the children’s knowledge on the life of The Aztecs:

The 9 activities are based on the following outcomes:

• Word Search to introduce 25 key words related to the life of The Aztecs – as well as an extra secret hidden word which is the Code Key to move to Challenge 2.
• Crossword which introduces facts about the life of The Aztecs
• Timeline of key events within The Aztecs, including the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors.
• The role and importance of the ten most prominent Aztec Gods
• The roles of different people, men, women, children, slaves and priests within Aztec society
• The social pyramid of Aztec Society
• The number system – and solving a growing complexity of ten math questions using the number system
• Sequencing the events which led to the downfall of The Aztecs
• The invention of chocolate (within a drink) and the importance the cocoa bean had within Aztec society.

When all 9 activities are completed, and the children have gained the correct Code Keys from each activity, the teacher can read the final communication detailing how the children have been able to help to save the legacy of The Aztecs – and are free to leave the Escape Room.

The Escape Room should last for 2 hours.

We hope that your children enjoy this Escape Room.

Thank you for visiting our store.

Best wishes - INSPIReducation