• Nov. 3, 2007
5th Week of Co-op
Edited to add **Here are links to each entry about of our Mayan classes. **
Introduction to Mayans/ Pok-a-Tok
Mayan Pottery/Jewelry and Oh! My Body!
Finishing Pottery/Jewelry
Mayan Math and Writing
Mayan Step Pyramid
Mayan Masks
It's time for the next co-op update. This has been such a fun class! This time we talked about the Mayan step pyramids. The kids did a great job remembering the names of the cities on the Yucatan Penninsula. I guess Tikal and Chichen Itza are kind of hard to forget. 
The kids learned about what the pyramids (temples) were used for. They already knew that temples were a place people went to worship God. They knew from our 1st class that the Mayans had many gods. We discussed the different ways the Mayans worshipped, touching briefly on sacrifice and murder and what the Bible says about it.
Then everyone got to make their own step pyramid. Charity and I went round and round on the best and most cost efficient way to do this. We finally decided on a homemade dough recipe. It worked out great! The dough was made before class. It was very pliable and could be painted immediately.
1st we rolled out the dough.
Then we used cardstock templates to cut out our squares.
The kids then put the squares together and designed their own topper with the leftover dough.
Last came painting.
Here's Taylor with her finished pyramid. She chose to make a rainbow for her topper. 
Comments
• Nov. 5, 2007
Mayan Pyramid
Posted by thewoons
This class was a BLAST! Here is the dough recipe we used:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Food coloring to your liking
What to do:
Combine the dry ingredients, then the liquids in a pan.
Heat slowly, stirring constantly, until thickened.
Remove from heat, take out of the pan and knead until smooth.
Store in an air tight container.
This is the best recipe I have used. I plan on using it at tthe next co-op classes for the Creation class, too!
