Educational Services
School Visits Programmes
As a team we offer illustrated presentations and workshops on Mexico in general and the Aztecs in particular. We have always used music, dance, drama, costumes, artefacts, crafts, slides and other media to bring Mexican history and culture alive to British school children.
Option 1
Option 1
Team illustrated presentation on the Aztecs with many
references to Mexican culture today. Constantly supported
with authentic artefacts of all kinds and illustrated
throughout with slides on a rear-projection screen, we bring
the Aztecs to life in a way no book or static exhibition
possibly can.
Though we work with some thirty volunteers from the audience
at different times, this is a formal presentation and as
such there is no theoretical limit to the audience size, and
we often present to several classes together.
Total presentation time is a full 90 minutes, after which we
like to allow time for questions, and for some brief
'hands-on' viewing of the artefacts on display in groups. An
outline of contents is sent in advance to schools, but some
of the subjects touched on include: founding of the Aztec
capital, every-day life, education and the family, sex
roles, clothing styles, basic diet, markets, decorative
crafts, religion, gods and their disguises, human sacrifice,
birth and death, predictions, calendars and the codices,
'writing' systems, ritual ball game, music and its role in
public ceremonies.
The whole presentation has high visual impact, and well-loaded cameras are a must!
Option 2
Half -day Programme offering the same presentation, followed by a complete change of pace: half-hour music/dance workshops with 1 to 1 1/2 classes in each. Depending on the length of the school morning we can run up to 3 workshops consecutively after the presentation. These are fast and furious: all the children dress up, split into musicians and dancers, and learn a traditional Mexican folk dance (NOT an Aztec dance, which would take far longer to teach and definitely be less fun!).
with 2 workshops: £250
with 3 workshops: £275.
Travelling expenses (outside London) and VAT are extra. In all cases we need the use of the school hall, several large tables, and time before and after for (un)packing and setting up/taking down the display.
Since 1980, our team have visited not only many hundreds of schools throughout England but also museums, arts centres and other venues. From 1991 to 1993 we were based at the Museum of Mankind in London, running a major educational programme in support of the hugely successful exhibition on the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico.
We featured in the BBC TV Landmarks
programme on the Aztecs, and have since run workshops for
schools in the new Mexican Gallery at the British Museum
itself.
The Education Department of the British Museum
refer to Mexicolore as 'the highly successful teaching
team', and further references from
recently visited schools are always available on request.