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.

Learning numbers actually involves a few different skills, from recognizing the shape of the number and knowing the word that goes with it to understanding one to one correspondence for counting and what order the numbers go in.

A lot of this is learned best through play and activities that get kids counting and tracing and otherwise interacting with numbers. These activities can help.

I specifically mentioned tracing above because of these number formation rhymes cards from Teaching Mama, which can be used in lots of ways to practice making the shapes of the numbers, including tracing, lining up items on the number shapes (and counting them!), using playdough to shape the numbers and so on. Each number has a little rhyme to help you remember how to make it, which is cute.

And speaking of playdough, you can find lots of playdough number mats with different themes for kids to use as they learn about numbers. Preschool Play and Learn, for example, has these cute apple themed ones that also teach one to one correspondence as you learn the numbers and count to 10.

Or use these tree-themed ones from Live Over Cs to form the numbers, count out items on a ten frame and place the correct number of items in the tree to match the number (do this with playdough, little buttons or whatever manipulatives you have on hand). Your little builders will also love these Duplo number mats from Life Over Cs, which allow you to shape the number out of blocks and count out the number of blocks that corresponds to each number.

I also love these mats from The Savvy Sparrow that include the number and the word you can trace with playdough or marker, showing how to count the number on your fingers, a tens frame and a number line.

Finger plays and counting songs are lots of fun for little ones, too, and Childhood 101 has a great collection of songs and rhymes having to do with numbers (as well as printable song cards you can use with them.

This cardboard roll number chain form Hands On As We Grow would be a fun addition to singing number songs or to use in other play and counting games. And we all love something easy to make with stuff we already have.

Older kids who already know the order of numbers can also use these connect the dot number printables from Fun Learning for Kids. Or use the shapes for playdough mats or to practice tracing even for kids who don’t know all the numbers in order yet.

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