Social Studies Unit 1: Pre-Columbian History

Social Studies Unit 1 covers the Pre-Columbian history of the Americas. I always begin the year with a project that is titled "The Maya, Inca, Aztec Project" (even though it covers other civilizations). This project is a nice starter, it gets the students used to working together on a research based project that will eventually be put on butcher paper. The project is done in groups, and consists of research, the making of a poster board, a group timeline done online, and an individual research paper.

 The timeline will be done using Timerime. Students will be asked to place 15 important dates and at least 5 photos to coincide with some of those dates on their timeline.

 I have project guidelines that I hand out to students at the beginning of the project. It includes explanations of the parts of the project, and a scoring rubric for the poster board. You can access that file HERE.

 I'm going to leave some links here that will be helpful to myself and others who wish to teach about Mayas, Incas, Aztecs, Navajos, and other early civilizations of the Americas. 

 Mayan Civilization: 

•  Mayan Math: I like to teach Mayan math at the beginning of the year. It is something interesting and outside the box for students to work with. Click HERE for a brief introductory lesson on how Mayan math works, then you can download this worksheet in pdf format with answer keys. There are obviously tons of resources out there on Mayan math, these are just two that are simple and to the point. Kid Friendly Research Sites:

• Mayan history facts at Kids PAST.com: This is as simple as it gets. This site breaks down the absolute basics of Mayan history into easily readable parts.

• Ancient Mayan facts at Kidskonnect.com: A neat little infographic style presentation with some great facts and links to other sites.

• Mayan Kids at Mayan Kids.com: Another kid friendly site. This one is a must for me, as I ask students to create a timeline of the culture they study at the end of this unit. It has a great timeline.

Finally, I will have the group of students studying the Mayan civilization take a look at a few videos on Youtube. I recommend this great one about Mayan Prophecies that is shown exclusively in Baker Burke Planetarium at the Houston Museum of Natural History (that's why it's warped with the fish-eye view):

Inca Civilization:

• Kid Friendly Research Sites:
• The Incredible Incas for Kids: This site has it all and is definitely the most used site by my students studying the Inca every year we do this project. 
• Inca history facts at Kids PAST.com:  This is as simple as it gets. This site breaks down the absolute basics of Inca history into easily readable parts.
• Inca history Thinkquest: What I like about this site is it has both easy and hard passages, making it appropriate for most students.
• Inca Empire interactive map at National Geographic: It's not the most kid friendly, but it offers dates and a lot of great, deep information.

And finally, this neat, quick little video that gives 500 years of the Inca history in 5 minutes.

Aztec Civilization:

• Kid Friendly Research Sites:
• Awesome Aztecs for Kids:  This site has it all and is definitely the most used site by my students studying the Aztecs every year we do this project. 
• Aztec 7 Question Webquest at Scholastic.com: A quick and easy webquest that will answer a few basic questions students may be looking to find answers to.
• Aztec Food: Some basic information about what the Aztecs ate.
• Aztec Timelines: I have links to two timelines, a more kid friendly one HERE and a much deeper one HERE.  

And finally we have this 10 minute documentary about the Aztec Empire.

Other groups have the option of researching another civilization that is rooted in the pre-Columbian time period. On occasion students of certain Native American descent want to study their own tribes history, and this is fine.

Here is a link to some photos of our completed Unit 1 Project Based Learning Posters