Year 5 had a tasty time on their latest curriculum-related trip and found out that there is more to chocolate than a sweet treat, courtesy of the Chocolate Museum in Brixton.

As part of their Connect topic work both 5H and 5N have been learning about the Mayans of Central America, for whom chocolate was of central importance in their culture and many of their religious ceremonies incorporated cocoa.

The workshop at the museum gave the students great theoretical and practical knowledge of how the Mayans grew and used chocolate – rather different to how we think of chocolate today! Key ingredients were cinnamon and chilli which the Maya used these to spice up their original hot cocoa drink.

When it came to producing the real stuff themselves, Year 5 were able to grind and mix their cocoa beans to make a compacted bar to which they added their own special spicy touches. They also developed packaging for the chocolate bars using Mayan glyphs – their own unique writing system. The two stand out brands developed were Sacred Panther Cocoa and Sleeping Turtle!

The experience really put Year 5’s learning into a practical context and they couldn’t  wait to taste the results!