The Maya were a prominent Mesoamerican indigenous civilization known for their advanced writing, mathematics, architecture, and astronomical systems.

In this lesson, students will learn why the Maya developed a writing system and what made it so successful. They will try to understand some glyphs and how Maya writing was used. They will also learn about the Maya mathematics number system and what made it so impressive for its time. A story will be read based around a Maya character interacting with both writing and maths to help deepen understanding of its purpose at the time.

For their task, students will complete the Maya mathematics calculations and will then create their own Maya message in glyphs before translating it.

All resources for this lesson are provided, including a knowledge organiser for the unit. This lesson is just 1/6 lessons on The Maya Civilisation.

This lesson is intended for KS2 but can easily be modified to suit KS3