South of the Border

South of the Border

¡Bienvenidos a nuestra clase! Welcome to our class!

My name is Mrs. Siqueiros, and I am so excited to offer this Project Seek class for the fifth time. I can honestly say that it is never exactly the same class twice but here are some things you can count on doing this summer:

Many different crafts including:

·   Pottery using authentic Mexican earthen clay

·   An Ojo de Dios

·   Weaving on a backstrap loom

·   Dying fabric like the Maya Indians

Many different activities such as:

·   Grinding corn on an ancient stone grinder

·   Making corn husk tamales

·   Making pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread) on our extended day

·   Mixing real Mexican hot chocolate

Many different learning experiences:

·   Anthropology

·   Customs of the Mexican baker

·   Maya math

·   Important Mexican holidays

Each day, we will work in teams on piñatas that we will make and break on the last day of class.

Grab your passport and join me on the 12th of June. ¡Olé México!  

 

 

                

 


Pictured: God's Eyes in progress

Hola! Our first week of Project Seek is almost over already! We have been very busy.

·   Day One: We talked about Mexico and the very interesting origin of its flag. We made flag folders to store our journal and other written projects to show parents on Open House night. We learned about all of the toys and games at our work table.

·   Day Two: We learned about the culture of the Huichol Indians. We made beaded clay masks and God’s eyes which you will see in our "Mexican Museum" during Open House.

·   Day Three: We began to learn about the culture of the Maya Indians. We used natural dye to make red cloth. Ask your child what we used for red coloring – you might be surprised! We began to make the looms that we will weave with on Thursday.

Note: Please remember that next week's classes will take place Tuesday through Friday.

Pictured above: Working on pinatas

June 15, 2023

Hola! June 15th was a busy day! We continued to work on our pinatas. We also completed working on our backstrap looms with the fabric we dyed on the 14th. We learned how to write numbers using the Maya math system which is based on units of 20 rather than units of 10. We practiced representing the numbers using beans, sticks, and shells.

June 20, 2023

Hola! Another busy day! We viewed some slides about archaeology and anthropology as we continue to delve into Mexico’s history. We also reviewed Maya math using a program on our chromebooks. It was such a pleasure to see the students focused on the challenges and games designed to further their understanding of this advanced math system. We viewed a video about real red clay from the earth and each student made their own clay pot. We finished class with another pinata building session.

Please remember that tomorrow is our extended day. We will be learning about Mexican baking and making pan dulce. The “Strike It Rich” class will still be open for snacks, but your child will need to bring a bag lunch.

In case you would like to try out Maya math with your student, here is the link: https://maya.nmai.si.edu/maya-sun/maya-math-game 

June 21

Hola! Today was our extended day baking activity and we completed the following activities:

·   We talked about some of the 300+ shapes and flavors of pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread) while making a yeast dough with a cinnamon topping.

·   We learned how to mix Mexican chocolate with a wooden stirring tool called a molinillo.

·   We ate our pan dulce which we dunked in the hot chocolate. Yum!

·   We watched a video that showed a baker in a small town who still follows the tradition of carrying his pastries on a large straw tray on his head while walking through town to sell them.

·   We added layers to our pinatas.

June 22

Hola! Today we continued our Mexican cooking experiences with “Corn Day” activities.

·   We made a sweet corn dough for tamales using maseca (milled corn flour) with brown sugar filling which we then wrapped in corn husks and steamed in a real steamer designed for cooking tamales.

·   We took dried corn that we had cooked with calcium hydroxide, known as cal in Mexican cooking. This softened the corn so that we could grind it on an authentic metate. See our pictures below.

·   We looked at the development of corn in Mesomerica.

·   We ate our tamales with Mexican soda and plantain chips.


Hola! Today we continued our work as anthropologists by compiling information in a webquest based on a website from Dorling Kindersley: https://www.dkfindout.com/us/history/mayas/ . Working as archaeologists, we assembled puzzle pieces to reconstruct a stela. The Maya built stelae to honor rulers and recount historical events. They were important to anthropologists in beginning to understand and translate the Maya language. We looked at the Maya letter system and each student wrote the first syllable of their name in the Maya language.

Please remember that we return to the schedule of the first week: Monday through Thursday. Plan on our Open House this Wednesday from 5:00 to 7:00.


June 26

Hola! It seems impossible that this is our last week of Project Seek already! I enjoyed teaching this class so much. Project Seek is such a wonderful program for expanding on the learning that students do during the regular school year. Today our students worked as an archaeology team to complete a puzzle of the Aztec empire called Tenochtitlan. We had a small problem with the Smartboard which was resolved by the Tech Dept. after class so we will be able to expand on our knowledge of Tenochtitlan tomorrow. We talked about the Aztec calendar (also known as the Aztec calendar round and the Aztec sunstone). We talked about codices, which are the books that the Maya and Aztecs made of amate (pounded tree bark coated with calcium carbonate to provide a smooth surface). We prepared our "amate" today and will record on it tomorrow.

One more day until Open House! 5:00 - 7:00 on Wednesday, June 28th. Come visit our Mexican Museum!