Aztecs History Slide5 - St Lawrence School€¦ · The Aztecs ate what they could grow or catch from the land or water. They grew crops such as maize (sweetcorn), pumpkins, squash,

The Aztecs

Learning Objective: To investigate what daily life was like for the Aztecs.

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What is your typical daily routine? You have two minutes to tell a partner!



What do you think an Aztec’s daily life would have been like? How might it have been different to yours? In what ways might it be similar? Write your ideas below...



Click on each of these boxes to find out a bit about daily life for ordinary Aztecs...

Clothes

Markets Homes

FOOD


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Clothes

Aztecs made their own clothes on a loom. There were strict rules on who could wear what because what you wore showed how important you were and what your place in

society was.

Ordinary men wore loincloths with a cloak and women wore

ankle-length skirts with a sleeveless tunic. Women wove these clothes using coarse fibre made from the aloe or cactus plants. Only the rich were allowed to wear cotton and wear

brightly coloured and patterned clothes.



Food

The Aztecs ate what they could grow or catch from the land or water. They grew crops such as maize (sweetcorn), pumpkins, squash, peppers and sweet

potatoes.

Maize was the main part of their diet. The women would grind it into flour and then mix it with water to make flat tortillas. They also ate fish but meat was a luxury. They

had no butter, milk or cheese as there were no cows or sheep in Mesoamerica.



Markets

Photo attribution: Joe Ravi

Every Aztec town had a market where people could buy and sell

their goods. the Aztecs did not have money. Instead, they would agree to

trade objects. Cacao beans (the beans used to make

chocolate) were often used as money as they were considered to be very

valuable. Markets were very carefully controlled by officials who would walk

around to check that everyone was dealing fairly.



Homes

Ordinary Aztecs tended to have one-roomed houses. They would cook, eat and

sleep in the same room. The house was usually built out of bricks with a straw roof

going up into a peak.



Your task today is to find out some more about what daily life was like for ordinary Aztecs. What else would you like to find out about?

Questions:



Where can we find the information we will need?

What different sources of information could we use?

Discuss your ideas.


Aztecs History Slide5 - St Lawrence School€¦ · The Aztecs ate what they could grow or catch from the land or water. They grew crops such as maize (sweetcorn), pumpkins, squash,

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