Part Forty-five--Etiwanda Jones and the Quest for Quetzalcoatl, part 5

FROM THE HALLS OF MONTEZUMA

I always wanted to see Mission San Juan Capistrano, the Jewel of the missions.

There was a special celebration with Aztec and other dancers, so we went!

For our opening day of our study of the Aztecs, I really wanted Montezuma to come. I used these peacock feathers that were the closest thing to quetzalcoatl feathers, to make this headdress. I went through my jewelry and cut up shell necklaces for this.

Jesus Reyes was the best Montezuma. He was so proud to be able to serve us. And our girls just love him. 

This headdress adorned Hal's office that became the Book of Mormon room for many years. There were Arnold Friberg paintings, many copies of the BOM in various languages, and artifacts from this school year.

We had a wonderful Aztec feast with Montezuma.

After he left the students shared their research projects.

I don't remember the research paper Autumn shared this time. 

When we were in Tijuana the second time, I bought a ceramic or concrete replica of the Aztec calendar for the purpose of making a mold and making plaster of Paris replicas for the kids to paint. 

When you are the artist you see more details than if you're just looking at a piece of art. I gave the students some key points about this artifact, and then they got to work painting a model.

The students put plastic bags over their bodies to protect their clothing.

I think this was Giselle's. It hung in our BOM office room as well.

During this school year the BYU Museum of Art had a special exhibit of Minerva Teichert's Book of Mormon paintings. It was wonderful to see those paintings.

I bought a book of her Book of Mormon paintings. This was the most interesting version of Lehi's dream that I had ever seen before.

Haley and Autumn were the oldest students this year, so Haley was at our home a lot, doing school with us. We invited other older students too, but some families always seem to peeter out during the year. Here is a geography lesson on Mexico and Central America.

Aztecs and hearts! One of our topics from this component was I left my heart in Tenochtitlan. Since people lost their hearts there, I thought it would be good to learn about hearts. 

First the students were given diagrams of hearts and we watched a short video about hearts and labeled the parts.

Then the girls dissected pig hearts. I had taught them not to say "How gross!" but to say, 

"How scientific!" when they encountered something in school that might usually disgust them. 

It was a memorable day.

One day I gave the girls all our Book of Mormon painting posters 

with the challenge to put all these stories in order.

Giselle is using the timeline she received at the beginning of the school year. 

This was a good test of their knowledge of the timeline of the Book of Mormon.

Another day we learned about some of the pyramids in Mexico/Central America. I told them the story of Thales measuring the pyramids of Egypt. The girls did an inquiry together. 

They learned how to measure the height of a pyramid or other tall things.

They went outside a few times that day to take measurements 

and calculate tall things like telephone poles.

Giselle classifying plants/herbs for a school project.

The Plaza of the Americas at Hollywood Forest Lawn, 

(which sadly no longer exists), had a presentation by another Montezuma.

I had been here before, and wanted the girls to see this. 

Quetzalcoatl--the feathered serpent

There were many life-size replicas of several Latin American artifacts like this Aztec calendar.

Afterwards we went to the Norton Simon art museum to see this painting by Diego Rivera. 

We had never been here, but the girls especially loved all the impressionist art.

The last time we went to Olvera street was in 2004 for our American Girl school year. 

We saw more of the Aztec culture this time--probably because we were looking for it. 

There were beautiful murals we missed last time. 

We barely squeezed this trip in, but I'm glad we did. They girls loved going back.

We also found and bought little favors to giveaway at our closing day of school. Haley was with us too. Haley bought mini sombreros, Autumn bought Guatemalan worry dolls, Giselle bought mini calla lilies (think Diego Rivera), and I bought ribbon with the colors of the Mexican flag to tie to everyone's journal of discovery.

We learned about Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and I wanted the girls to see what it would feel like to paint a huge mural. I gave them half a dry wall piece and they got to work.

Our closing day for our study of the Aztecs was at Suzanne's home.

The Palmer's homemade double-headed turquoise Aztec snake piñata, 

like the famous artifact.

We learned the Mexican hat dance. 

I think Giselle taught this to us as part of her research project.

And we had another Mexican feast.

The students shared the last of their research projects. Autumn did an experiment and taught us about fresco versus seco painting. (Diego Rivera did many frescoes).

And she taught us about stylized painting.

This was such a fun, relaxing day with perfect weather and beautiful students!