Exploring Chichén Itzá with Google Earth – Our Year 6 Adventure!

This term, Year 6 have been diving into the fascinating world of ancient civilisations, and one of the highlights of our learning has been our virtual journey to Chichén Itzá—one of the New Seven Wonders of the World!

Using Google Earth, we zoomed across the globe to the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, where the incredible ruins of Chichén Itzá still stand today. We explored:

• El Castillo (the Temple of Kukulcán) – the famous step pyramid

• The Great Ball Court – where ancient Maya played an extraordinary game

• The Sacred Cenote – a huge natural sinkhole used for rituals

Being able to look at these sites from different angles helped us imagine what life might have been like thousands of years ago. It felt almost as if we were exploring the ruins in person!

Sharing Our Discoveries on Padlet

After our virtual exploration, we collected our thoughts and new knowledge using Padlet. Each of us posted facts, questions, and ideas about the civilisation. It was amazing to see how much we could learn from each other just by sharing what we had found.

Our Padlet page quickly filled with colourful notes, pictures, and enthusiastic comments!

 Creating Our Own Tourist Guide Webpages

To finish our project, we worked together to design tourist guide webpages aimed at encouraging people to visit Chichén Itzá. We thought carefully about what visitors would want to know and included:

• Exciting facts about the history of the site

• Eye‑catching images

• Persuasive writing to inspire future travellers

• Tips on what to look out for when exploring

We collaborated brilliantly—sharing ideas, giving feedback, and helping each other make our pages the best they could be.

Our work helped us understand just how incredible the Mayan civilisation was, and how important places like Chichén Itzá are for learning about the past. We hope our tourist guides inspire others to explore this amazing wonder of the world too!