Aztec Lesson Plans

Students gather information about artifacts and write formal essays.  In this artifact essay writing lesson plan, students view three pictures of pieces of Aztec art. This follows the completion of a unit on the Aztec civilization.  Students discuss each piece of art. Students demonstrate understanding of the content area by writing an essay.

Learners explore the Aztec culture and the Conquistadors. In this Aztec instructional activity, students investigate the language and culture of the Aztec civilization. Over several days and lessons, learners expand their study to explore the impact of Conquistadors on this ancient civilization.

Young scholars explore Aztec and Mayan history and their influence on contemporary Mexican society. They identify the location, society structure, agriculture, science, and contributions the Aztec and Mayan people made to later civilizations. Students develop a meaningful vocabulary of words related to the culture through web and cluster activities

Learners explore the lifestyles of the Aztecs. In this ancient culture lesson plan, students jigsaw into groups that divide up various aspects of Aztec culture. Learners reform as a class in order to discuss and share their findings.

Young scholars write a diary entry or a letter from the viewpoint of a character in a myth.  In this Aztec myths lesson, students define myths and read "The Heart of Copil" and "The Eagle of Tenochtitlan" and find the land of the Aztecs on a map.  Young scholars work in small groups to read the stories, assuming the identities of the characters.  Students write a diary entry or a letter from their character's perspective.

Middle schoolers write an editorial giving an opinion of whether or not Quetzalcoatl has arrived and if so, what the Aztecs should do.  They discuss whether or not they believe Quetzalcoatl is a god or a man, and use an Editorial Prewriting Organizer to assist them in writing their editorials. To extend the lesson, encourage young writers to adapt the myth for modern society.

Sixth graders read and analyze an article about the Aztec City of the Gods. They read the article and underline the words that indicate cultural information and complete a chart of cultural words. Students complete a worksheet of story comprehension questions, and match vocabulary words with their definitions.

Young scholars create their own Sun God Sculptures. In this Aztec art lesson plan, students create their own Sun God Sculpture. After finishing the project sudents compare and contrast their sculpture to the pictures of the Aztec's sculpture.

Students simulate an Independent Counsel to represent the Spanish and the Aztecs to formulate a policy for the Roman Catholic Church in 1527. They conduct research, graph the similarities and differences, create a poster, and write a position paper.

Young scholars categorize aspects of Aztec culture. In this ancient civilization world history and writing lesson, students write a paragraph about important activities they participated in the day before. Young scholars use paragraph information to  complete a  chart categorizing aspects of their culture such as "economic," "political," "religious" and "technology." Students read an article entitled "An Aztec Merchant," and complete a similar chart independently.