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TM Storytime Myths and Legends: The Feathered Serpent God 1 Teaching Resources The Feathered Serpent God is a myth from the Aztec civilisation IN BRIEF about one of their most important gods, Quetzalcoatl, and how he brought people to life. 1 LITERACY LESSON IDEAS The Feathered Serpent God is a good story to read alongside learning about the Aztec civilisation. Quetzalcoatl was an important and powerful god in ancient Central America. Find out more about him on our Quetzalcoatl Fact Sheet and find out about other Aztec gods in our Top 10 Aztec Gods Sheet. See our Feathered Serpent God Word Wise Sheet to find the meanings of any new or tricky words, and have a go at our Quick Comprehension Checker and writing exercises. Put this myth in the correct order using our Story Sequencing Sheet. Looking at the pictures, write the story in your own words using our Simple Storyboards. Make up your own myth to explain why humans come in different shapes and sizes. Discuss your ideas in class. Use our Storytime Writing Sheet to write it. Act out The Feathered Serpent God myth using our printable Quetzalcoatl, Xolotl and Skeleton Masks. The skeletons can be the Lord and Lady of the Underworld. 2 SCIENCE LESSON IDEAS Imagine you are Quetzalcoatl and you have to put the bones you’ve carried back together to make a human. Do you know where each bones goes? Fill in the blanks on our Super Skeleton Sheet and learn the names of some important bones too. Continued on page 2... © storytimemagazine.com 2018 TM Storytime Myths and Legends: The Feathered Serpent God 2 Teaching Resources 3 HISTORY LESSON IDEAS The Aztecs were fascinating. Though we call them Aztecs, they called themselves Mexica, which is how Mexico got its name. Read our Aztec Fact Sheet to find out more about this amazing ancient civilisation. Visit the DK Find Out site for a colourful and interactive way to learn about the Aztecs: https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/history/aztecs/ Watch a video on BBC Bitesize about how people lived in Aztec times: https://www.bbc. co.uk/education/clips/zphpyrd and see an amazing Aztec temple, which was hidden under the streets of Mexico City: https://www.bbc.co.uk/education/clips/zxmxpv4 Horrible Histories Angry Aztecs by Terry Deary is a fantastic non-fiction book, filled with funny and tummy-turning facts to delight your class. 4 GEOGRAPHY LESSON IDEAS The Aztec people were based in central Mexico. Their main city, Tenochtitlan, was built on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco. The lake was later drained. Today it is the site of Mexico City – the capital of Mexico. See if you can find it on a map. What language do people speak in Mexico? What is Mexico’s national currency? Can you find a picture of Mexico’s flag? Find out an interesting fact about Mexico. 5 ART LESSON IDEAS Print out our Quetzalcoatl Colouring Sheet. Decorate the serpent god with green feathers. Invent an Aztec god. What is he or she the god of? Get some ideas from our Aztec Mix and Match Sheet, and draw your creation in our Storytime Picture Frame. Continued on page 3... © storytimemagazine.com 2018 TM Storytime Myths and Legends: The Feathered Serpent God 3 Teaching Resources 6 DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY IDEAS Get a taste of this ancient civilisation with our Aztec Hot Chocolate Recipe. The Aztecs believed that drinking hot chocolate made Quetzacoatl happy. One of their most famous leaders, Montezuma II, was said to drink 50 cups oh hot chocolate every day! 7 P.E. LESSON IDEAS Split up into two teams: Quetzalcoatls and Xolotls versus Bats and Owls. Can the Bats and Owls catch all the Quetzalcoatls and Xolotls before they escape from the underworld? Alternatively, create an obstacle course and see if your Quetzalcoatls can make it to the end without dropping any bones. Use beanbags as bones. © storytimemagazine.com 2018 TM Storytime The Feathered Serpent God: Word Wise Sheet 1 Teaching Resources You’ll find these words in The Feathered Serpent WORD WATCH God in Storytime Issue 44. Here’s what they mean. Sacrifice – killing a person or animal Tuneful – pleasant, catchy as an offering to a god Scowled – frown in an angry way Conch shell – a spiral shell Mortal – will die one day Compose – write, make up Hauled – pulled Gnaw – chew Fashioned – made, created What adjectives do we use to ANGRY ADJECTIVES show that Lord and Lady Mictlan don’t want to give up their bones? Write as many as you can here. Write a paragraph describing the appearance of Lord and WRITE Lady Mictlan – see the picture in our story for guidance. IT! © storytimemagazine.com 2018 TM Storytime The Feathered Serpent God: Word Wise Sheet 2 Teaching Resources QUICK COMPREHENSION CHECKER 1. Why was Quetzalcoatl different to the other Aztec gods? 2. Why did he decide to travel to Mictlan? 3. What did Xolotl use to find his way through the underworld? 4. Why do you think Lord and Lady Mictlan didn’t want to give up their collection of bones? 5. How did the worms and bees help Quetzacoatl? QUETZALCOATL’S FIB Quetzalcoatl asked Xolotl to lie to Lord and Lady Mictlan and say that he was bringing the bones back. Can you think of a good argument he could have used instead? Discuss it in class. © storytimemagazine.com 2018 TM Storytime Myths and Legends: The Feathered Serpent God Teaching Resources STORY NAME SEQUENCING CLASS Number these sentences from 1 to 14 to put them in the right order. Quetzalcoatl asked for the bones of the ancient people. Quetzalcoatl asked the worms to gnaw holes in the shell and asked the bees to buzz inside it. He made music. Quetzalcoatl asked his twin brother Xolotl to help him. The Lord and Lady of Mictlan had to give their bones to Quetzalcoatl, but made him promise they would get them Quetzalcoatl sent Xolotl to say he would drop the bones, but the underworld Lord and Lady knew it was a lie. Quetzalcoatl felt sad that there were no people, so he decided to visit the underworld. They also made a deep hole in his path. Quetzalcoatl fell into it and the bones broke. The next day, Quetzalcoatl brought humans back to life. The Lord and Lady of Mictlan changed their minds. They wanted their bones back. Xolotl hauled Quetzalcoatl out of the hole and they escaped. The Lord of Mictlan set Quetzalcoatl a test. He gave him a conch shell with no hole in it and told him to make music. Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl took the bones. Xolotl led them through the underworld to the Lord and Lady of Mictlan. They sent bats and owls to bring their bones back. © storytimemagazine.com 2018 TM Storytime The Feathered Serpent God: Storyboard sheet Teaching Resources NAME CLASS Use the pictures to write The Feathered Serpent God in your words. 1 ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2 ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ © storytimemagazine.com 2018 TM Storytime Myths and Legends: The Feathered Serpent God Teaching Resources NAME CLASS WRITING Invent your own myth to explain why SHEET humans are different shapes and sizes. © storytimemagazine.com 2018 TM Storytime The Feathered Serpent God: quetzalcoatl Fact Sheet Teaching Resources To the Aztecs, who ruled from the 14th to 16th centuries, Quetzalcoatl was the god of many things – including the wind, the day, craftsmen, artists, goldsmiths and priests. He was also a god of life and the great creator of mankind. Aztecs believed that Quetzalcoatl invented the calendar and also books, so he was also the god of writing and learning. Quetzal means ‘emerald plumed bird’ and coatl means ‘serpent’. He could fly like a dragon. The beautiful quetzal bird of Central All the other gods believed in human America and has bright sacrifice, but Quetzalcoatl didn’t. The Aztecs green feathers. People sacrificed snakes, birds and butterflies to him. used to think it was sacred, because it was associated Some of the gods didn’t like the fact with Quetzalcoatl. For a that Quetzalcoatl was kind to humans. They long time, it was a crime used magic to get rid of him. In one story, he to capture or kill a disappeared and turned into the planet Venus, quetzal. which is also known as the morning star. In another story, a giant red ant helped Quetzalcoatl to discover corn so that the Aztec people would never go hungry. Quetzalcoatl had many disguises. He appeared as a serpent with a plume of feathers, as a man with a long white beard or, when he was the wind god, he wore a mask with two tubes sticking out of it, which the wind blew through. Temples to Quetzalcoatl were often round. The Aztecs thought this pleased him, as the wind could blow around the temples easily. © storytimemagazine.com 2018 TM Storytime The Feathered Serpent God: TOP 10 AZTEC GODS Teaching Resources NAME CLASS GOD OR NAME GODDESS OF… FACT LOOKS As well as his feather Wind, learning, He also guarded the plume, he wore a QUETZALCOATL writing, art, boundary between the 1 special necklace with a (kets-orl-ko-artul) craft and more earth and the sky conch shell cut in half He was Quetzalcoatl’s Death, illness, He is a man with the twin brother and he XOLOTL twins, fire and head of a dog or he 2 accompanied the
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