Tuesday, June 24th Today was Corn Day. We discussed how important corn was to the indigenous people of Mexico and how important they were in developing corn as a major crop. We made tamal dough and a filling using masa seca and brown sugar. We assembled the tamales with a corn husk wrapping and placed them in a tamal steamer to cook. While the tamales cooked, the students took turns grinding the corn that we soaked in water and cal yesterday. They used a metate and mano, made of basalt rock. The metate is similar to a three-footed table and the mano resembles a rolling pin. In most Mexican homes, tortillas are eaten with all three meals daily. We realized it would take a tremendous amount of work to make that much tortilla masa using a metate!

Wednesday, June 25th  Today was the last day of piñata making! Tomorrow we will decorate it and Friday we will break it. We estimate that it took about five pounds of flour and countless newspapers to sufficiently cover those two balloons! 

We began learning about the Aztec Empire. We worked on a grid to create a depiction of Tenochtitlan, the capital of their empire, which is now known as Mexico City. It was great to see the groups cooperate and express their ideas.

Don't forget Open House tomorrow night! Our students will be your guide tomorrow, and our room will be the museum. This is an excellent opportunity to see what your child has done over the last three weeks. All work will go home during Open House, so you may want to bring a bag for your child's many creations. Be sure to allow time to visit other rooms; this is an excellent opportunity to see what other classes did this summer. The "Strike It Rich" class will be providing meals in the cafeteria, and two drama classes will be performing. I hope you'll be able to make it -- see you then. 

Thursday, June 26th Today, we visited the Global Arts class to view their Seek projects from the last three weeks. We also attended the Shakespeare for Kids presentation, which displayed their theatrical talents, from set construction to acting. We are lucky to have such an array of classes for our gifted and talented students! We worked on our codices. A codex (singular for codices) was a book made by folding paper accordion-style. The Maya and Aztecs made their paper by pounding the bark of trees until it was pulp. It was spread to dry and then coated with slaked lime to last longer. We decorated the pages of our codices with glyphs representing the Aztec day signs. We made the final touches to our piñata.

Friday, June 27th Today, we learned about the Day of the Dead, which is celebrated in many parts of Mexico on November 1st and November 2nd. The children received packets of information and viewed video clips about the days when the return of ancestors is observed with altars, food, and candies. Graves are decorated. In some cities, there are parades and fireworks. We also talked about "Las Posadas," the 9-day celebration of Christmas, which includes the nightly breaking of a piñata. Although our piñatas were very sturdy, they were easily broken and each student received candy. Our final activity involved "Manita de Suerte" (Hand of Luck) suckers with humorous fortunes attached.

Thank you so much for sharing your child with me during the past three weeks. I hope they learned about Mexico and had a lot of fun along the way. Sincerely, Barbara Siqueiros