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.

We were there for a special celebration with Aztec and other dancers.

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 Montezuma. He was so proud to be able to serve us, and we 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 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 wore plastic bags for aprons.

I think this was Giselle's calendar. 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. I taught a geography lesson on Mexico and Central America.

Aztecs and hearts! One of our topics from this component was called, I left my heart in Tenochtitlan. Since Aztecs practiced human sacrifice by cutting out hearts, I thought it would be fun to learn about the human heart. 

We watched a short video about how our hearts work. Then we dissected pig hearts--supposedly the closest to human hearts--and labeled the parts.

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

Autumn and Giselle 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 hosted 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 give away at our closing day of school. Haley was with us too. Haley bought mini sombreros, Autumn bought tiny Guatemalan worry dolls, Giselle bought mini calla lilies, (think Diego Rivera), and I bought tri-color, Mexican flag ribbon.

One day while learning about Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, 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 Palmers made a double-headed turquoise Aztec snake piñata, 

like the famous artifact.

We learned the Mexican hat dance. 

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

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!