1. Ask students if anything stood out to/interested them in the video.
Rise of Empires Guide
This guide can be used with “The Rise of Empires” Power Point presentation. I used this presentation during a whole group reading of our social studies text book whose citation can be found on page 2 of this document.
Slide 1: Anticipatory set (introduction) – “Today we will be learning about 3 empires created through warfare!”
Slide 2: “These 3 empires are the Mayans, the Aztecs, and the Inca. Has anyone heard of these empires before?”
Slide 3: Introduce vocabulary - When I introduce the vocabulary I ask students if they know what any of the words mean to gage their prior knowledge. If they do not know the words, I tell them to look for the words as we go through the days reading. When we come to a vocabulary word in the reading, we stop and discuss it.
Of course, you could also define the vocabulary right there with them or even have them look up the words on their own in the dictionary.
Slide 4 & 5: “The first empire we are going to discuss is the Mayans.” Show students the image of the ruins of the Mayan empire.
Slide 6: Discuss the impact that surplus had on the Mayan empire. (They had more food than they needed so people were able to specialize in jobs other than farming)
Slide 7: “Next up, the Aztecs!” Watch the short video about the Aztec empire.
Ask students if anything stood out to/interested them in the video.
Slide 8: Discuss how the Aztec empire was extended through warfare and that they lived on a small plot of land in the middle of a lake! There were a lot of people in a little area so they had to come up with a way to extend the land.
Slide 9: The last empire is the Inca
Slide 10: Mention that the Incan empire was also extended through conquest.
The empire was connected by roads that lead to the capital at Cuzco.
Slide 11: Watch the video on the Inca. Discuss what students noticed in the video.
Slide 12: Answer discussion questions as a whole group/individually/in pairs/as homework, however you want your students to do so.
Answers:
They had more food than they needed
Jewelry making, basket weaving, stone carving
It helped them extend their empire
Through roads
Through conquest
Works Cited
Foresman, S. (2005). Social Studies The United States. Glenview: Pearson Education, Inc.
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2. The Rise of Empires
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3. Empires
The Maya
The Aztecs
The Inca
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4. Vocabulary Civilization Surplus Specialize Pyramid Empire Tribute
Slavery
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5. The Mayans
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6. The Mayans
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7. The Mayans
The Mayans were extremely successful farmers due to their surplus of crops.
This surplus made it so that not everyone had to be farmers. Now people could specialize.
Jewelry makers
Basket weaving
Stone carving
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8. The Aztecs
Aztec Culture
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9. The Aztecs Warfare Tenochtitlan
The Aztecs would conquer surrounding peoples to extend their empire.
They demanded to be given people as tribute. They enslaved the people that they captured in war.
Tenochtitlan
300,00 people – one of the largest cities in the world
“Floating Gardens” – to create more land they carved terraces, or wide, flattened steps, into hillsides.
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10. The Inca
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11. The Inca
Like the Aztecs, the Inca created their empire through conquest.
Cuzco
Incan empire’s capital
Thousands of miles of roads were built to link all parts of the empire to Cuzco.
Probably was the fastest communication system in the world at that time.
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12. The Inca
Machu-Picchu
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13. Discussion What was the effect of the Mayan success in farming?
In what areas did the Maya specialize?
What role did war play in the growth of the Aztec Empire?
How was the vast Incan empire united?
How did the Aztec and Inca Build their empire?
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