Learn about the Aztec for Aztec New Year

Did you know that March 12 is considered the Aztec New Year? The holiday is still celebrated by some in Mexico, and even if you don’t have another New Year’s celebration to mark the occasion, it’s a fine time to learn about the Aztec.

The Aztec were the dominant culture in Mesoamerica (that’s the land from Northwest Mexico to current day El Salvador) before the Spanish colonizers came. In their own time they were known as Mexica or Tenochca, with the name Aztec being popularized in the 1800s. About 300,000 people lived in the capital of Tenochtitlan at its peak, making it one of the biggest cities in the world at the time. Tenochtitlan was located where Mexico City is today.

Words like chocolate, tomato and avocado are all derived from the Aztec language of Nahuatl. Some of their farming techniques are still used in Mexico, and their legal system is similar to that still used today. The symbol of the eagle eating a snake while sitting on a cactus, which is on Mexico’s flag, is a symbol the Aztec said was sent from the gods.

You can learn more basic facts about them from this page at Primary Topic Shop, or from National Geographic Kids.

Woo Jr also has some good information about the Aztec, including a sun stone activity, worksheets to use for learning about important animals, how to make chocolate and more.

123 Homeschool 4 Me has lots of great resources on the Aztec, including a printable reader with pictures for kids to color, printable worksheets and notebooking pages and a banner activity where kids can share what they learn about temples, clothing and other facts.

Learn some basic Aztec vocabulary at Storyboard That, and learn about Aztec codices (symbols to represent numbers and letters) and practice translating them with this activity from Teaching Ideas.

And you can learn more about Aztec New Year from Calpulli Tonalehqueh, a group in San Jose, California, where the oldest and largest Mexica New Year celebration in the United States is held. There’s a video there to show you a bit of what their celebration looks like.

To download these coloring sheets right click and save the image.

Growing Up Ladybug and How to Become a Butterfly are both by Stepanka Sekaninova and illustrated by Linh Dao, and they came out at the same time and are on similar themes, so let’s look at them together.

Growing Up Ladybug is narrated by Mariella, a seven-spot ladybug. She talks about the parts of a ladybug, where they live, different kinds of ladybugs, why humans love them, their defenses against predators and the life cycle of a ladybug.

The drawings are cute if not always scientifically accurate, it’s not in such a way that’s likely to confuse kids (who probably already know that ladybug mamas don’t push their larval babies around in strollers, for instance.

It’s a good general description of the life cycle of a lady bug and why we like having them around.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Similarly, How to Become a Butterfly covers the life cycle of a butterfly, starting with caterpillars eating burning nettle leaves. (Here Amanda is the narrator.) The book talks about a few of the more than 18,000 daytime butterflies in the world as well as other creatures that live in the meadow (there’s that ladybug again, along with crickets, bees and other bugs).

It also covers some of the enemies of caterpillars like wasps and spiders, and the defenses that caterpillars use to try to prevent being eaten. It illustrates how caterpillars grow and change as they molt and prepare to pupate, and what a caterpillar looks like before and while it is forming its chrysalis. And while the book uses the word metamorphasis it doesn’t really talk about what happens between the caterpillar forming a chrysalis and the butterfly hatching.

This butterfly is a peacock butterfly, and once it hatches the book covers the parts of a butterfly and the life cycle. It also talks about nocturnal moths (though it says nocturnal butterflies are “usually called moths” when moths are actually a different species) and what butterflies do at night.

I’m maybe a little hard on this book because my daughter is a butterfly expert from way back, but it is still cute and good for the very basic basics of the butterfly life cycle.

Both books would be fun additions to your bookshelf for younger kids starting to learn about different animals or who have an interest in insects.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Have you read?

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