Year 6 had a ‘Maya’ themed day on Friday 14th November. The children thoroughly enjoyed an immersive learning experience about the ancient Maya civilization, incorporating a variety of hands-on activities like crafts, making clay pots, artifact exploration, playing the ‘Pok-a-tok’ game and trying authentic Maya chocolate to bring the culture to life.

In History lessons, Year 6 children had learnt about how the Maya lived and what they wore – they had a fun 'craft-ernoon' and made their very own Maya headdresses to understand the social hierarchy (the bigger the headdress, the more important the person). In Design & Technology, children have been learning about food & nutrition and pottery making.

Orion Goodbrand 6UH describes the day:

School was amazing today!

We dressed up as people from the Maya times on Friday 14th November to conclude our History learning of the Maya Civilization. We designed and created headdress, wrote a recipe on how to make a chocolate drink and made clay pots as part of our Design & Technology learning.

Firstly, we started the day by making clay pots using air dry clay. We spent time to make intricate shapes and designs using water to smooth the clay. Once our pots were ready, we painted and then decorated them.

Our next activity was chocolate tasting. We had a variety of chocolates to taste that included Lindth excellence 90% cocoa, 85% cocoa and bitter chocolates too. It was an incredible experience as some of us had never tasted these chocolates before and we all loved the delicious texture of these chocolates which got the children wanting more. We were given the opportunity to drink cocoa with chilli flakes which was also a Maya style drink. It had a bitter and strong taste leave us all unpalatable.

After morning break time, we played the Maya game called ‘Pok-a-tok’. The game was played between two teams using a hard rubber ball. Players could only use their hips, thighs, elbows, and knees to advance the ball, not their hands or feet. The game's objective was to score points by sending the ball to the opposing end zone, getting the ball to hit the floor a second time, or, most difficult, shooting it through a high  hoop. It was a rough battle but in the end, Haydn’s team won. 

Soraiya Amina Sheik 6S wrote:

A memorable event was celebrated by the Year 6s on Friday 14th November 2025.This experience was called Maya Day! On this fun-filled day, the students were asked to come to school wearing bright, colourful clothes in recognition of the Maya civilisation. The day began, everyone eager to start this enjoyable occasion by making cups out of clay. Miss Suciu, who is our teacher, demonstrated how to make it using her own piece of thick muddy clay. When is it was our turn, everyone focused carefully on making their cup beautiful and perfect. Before starting this muddy activity, students had an option of sitting with their friends. This made it even more fun for the pupils! After an hour of creativity, everyone created a piece of art.

Our next activity of the day involved creamy, smooth hot chocolate. Year 6 tried Mayan- style hot chocolate: cocoa with hot water, which included spices, and it wasn’t very filling in my opinion. Students said it just tasted like hot water; however, we also tried cocoa with honey. Many pupils found this drink very yummy.

Next, we tried chocolate. We had a variety of chocolate: Bourneville chocolate, Lindt chocolate- 80% cocoa and Lindt chocolate- 95% cocoa. Everyone enjoyed the exquisite, indulgent treat. How yummy!

Then our next activity was a sporty, challenging activity- a game that the Mayans played. This particular game was called Poc-a-Toc. You couldn’t use your hands or feet; you had to catch the ball only with your arms. There were two hoops on the side. Our class got into teams of seven. Our team won several times. What an amazing game!

Our last activity of the day was making Maya masks. This was a calm, peaceful thing to end our amazing day. Everyone carefully coloured their masks concentrating on not making one single mistake. We added colourful feathers to make them look like Maya headgear with quetzal feathers. In the end, the pupils looked brilliant and they were exhausted. What a wonderful day!

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