Pupils from St Michael’s primary school, part of Salisbury Plain Academies, spent a day at Cadbury World recently to launch their new topic on the Mayans.
The Mayans of Central America are believed to be the first to discover cocoa as early as 900 AD. They discovered that the beans inside the cocoa pods could be harvested and made into a liquid that would become a treasured Mayan treat.
The children took part in a workshop where they learnt about the gruesome practices of the Mayan civilisation, such as how they sacrificed women and children to their rain God when their water supply was low and how their ball game, Poc-A-Tok, was played to the death.
Two children, Rhian from Year 3 and Sam from Year 6, tried on Mayan style clothing, with Sam wearing the headdress of a king.
“I found it really interesting that what the Mayan people wore showed how high they were in society by the size of their headdresses,” said Year 5 pupil Georgia.
Her fellow Year 5 pupil Kirsten said: “My favourite part of the trip was tasting the yummy chocolate!”
After the workshop, the children experienced the 4D cinema, played on the Mayan adventure playground, toured the factory and tasted the melted chocolate. They enjoyed finding out about the history of chocolate and how the Cadbury brothers grew the business and looked after their workers.
“The trip was an excellent start to our project,” said Class 3 teacher, Owena Archer. “The children were really engaged and discovered lots about the Mayan people. The workshop was brilliant as the children were able to handle coco beans and try their hand at Mayan maths.”