I have 7 facts about the Incan Empire and your kids will love this Incan ruins model hands-on activity. Also, you’ll love my Free South America Printable Lapbook and Fun Hands-on Unit Study Ideas.
In a learning journey to South America, you must be sure to visit the Incan Ruins with a fun hands-on activity or two.
We are making a unique Incan ruins model with a little paint and a handful of unfinished blocks.
Also, you’ll learn a few important facts about the ruins, and discover a few more activities to help your child know more about this culture that helped shape future civilizations.
While creating your Incan ruins you can watch a video about their history or talk about the architecture that they are well known for.
This is a culture rich with history, from its architecture to the symbols, traditions, food, and its rise and fall.
And this is an interesting period of early history that lends itself wonderfully to many crafts and activities.
7 Facts about the Inca and the Incan Ruins
- At Machu Picchu, each stone was perfectly cut to fit together so tight that mortar was not needed to keep the walls standing.
- The Inca Empire lasted for just one century, with most scholars believing it started around the 13th century.
- The highly advanced Incan Road system, which is known as Qhapaq Ñan (“royal road” in Quechua) was over 25,000 miles long.
- The Incas had a unique communal concept Called Ayni, which translates today for you, tomorrow for me. They believed in an interdependent society and that every individual must give before receiving. The Inca pooled together all they had and made sure everyone was taken care of.
- The Incas were mostly vegan, only eating special meats for special occasions.
- Inca was the largest pre-Columbian empire in the Americas, it covered 770,000 square miles.
- The Inca Empire fell to the Spanish conquistadores under the rule of Francisco Pizarro in 1533 CE.
Next, add some of these books and resources to your South America unit study.
13 Resources for a Study of South America
Add some of these fun books and resources to your study of South America.
An incredible variety of climates and biomes span the territory of South America. As a result, the continent contains some of the greatest biodiversity on Earth.
Rookie Read-About: Continents series gives the youngest reader (Ages 3-6) an introduction to the components that make each continent distinctive and exceptional. Readers will get to know each continents' geography, history, and wildlife. In this book readers learn about the continent of South America, including the geography, native animals, people and more.
A full-color, compelling book for ages 7 to 10 offers a deep dive into the three sophisticated ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica―the Aztecs, Maya, and Incas― through hands-on STEAM projects, essential questions, and loads of fascinating facts!
Why were there more than 3,000 steps built at Machu Picchu? Why did the Aztecs roam Mexico for nearly 200 years before finding a place to settle? How did the Maya study the movements of the stars and the planets? Ancient Civilizations: Aztecs, Maya, Incas! With 25 Social Studies Projects for Kids takes kids ages 7 to 10 on a guided tour to experience the history, culture, economics, and daily life of the Aztecs, Maya, and Incas.
A man, his burros, and his books bring joy to children in remote Colombian villages in this inspiring book based on a true story by celebrated picture book creator Jeanette Winter.Luis loves to read, but soon his house in Colombia is so full of books there’s barely room for the family. What to do? Then he comes up with the perfect solution—a traveling library! He buys two donkeys—Alfa and Beto—and travels with them throughout the land, bringing books and reading to the children in faraway villages.
An Incan boy who tends llamas in a hidden valley in Peru learns the traditions and secrets of his ancestors.
In the sequel to On the Pampas, the author recalls her first year on the small Argentinian ranch purchased and managed by her mother, in an account that includes a visual dictionary of the Spanish words and geographical terms used in the text.
Atmospheric woodcuts illustrate this Newbery Award–winning collection of 19 South American folktales. Charles J. Finger heard the tales firsthand from native storytellers, whose fables of talking animals, witches, giants, and ordinary people in supernatural settings provide remarkable insights into regional values and culture. The first of the stories, "A Tale of Three Tails," tells of an age when the rat had a tail like a horse, the rabbit had a tail like a cat, and the deer's tail was plumed like the tail of a dog. "The Magic Dog" recounts an act of kindness to a stray animal that helps overcome a witch's curse. In "The Calabash Man," the creatures of the jungle assist a suitor in winning his bride, and in "El Enano," a greedy troll's insatiable appetite leads to his downfall. Packed with adventure and full of surprises, these and other stories emphasize the importance of hard work, courage, and loyalty.
In 1911, Hiram Bingham III climbed into the Andes Mountains of Peru and “discovered” Machu Picchu. While history has recast Bingham as a villain who stole both priceless artifacts and credit for finding the great archeological site, Mark Adams set out to retrace the explorer’s perilous path in search of the truth—except he’d written about adventure far more than he’d actually lived it. In fact, he’d never even slept in a tent.
With the memorable characters and plot twists she brings to her best-selling fantasies, acclaimed author Eva Ibbotson has written a hair-raising novel, set in turn-of-the-last-century Brazil.Accompanied by Miss Minton, a fierce-looking, no-nonsense governess, Maia, a young orphan, sets off for the wilderness of the Amazon, expecting curtains of orchids, brightly colored macaws, and a loving family. But what she finds is an evil-tempered aunt and uncle and their spoiled daughters. It is only when she is swept up in a mystery involving a young Indian boy, a homesick child actor, and a missing inheritance that Maia lands in the middle of the Amazon adventure she's dreamed of. Readers of every generation will treasure Ibbotson's lush historical adventure that harkens back to the beloved classics of Frances Hodgson Burnett and Louisa May Alco
Can you imagine living in a place where there is so much water some houses need to be built on stilts to protect them when the river rises? Or where it is so wet that some plants can grow on the sides of trees with their roots gathering water from the air? In This Place Is Wet, you'll find out all sorts of things about what it's like to live in the rain forest of Brazil. Try to imagine living there!
It is astonishing that Simón Bolívar, the great Liberator of South America, is not better known in the United States. He freed six countries from Spanish rule, traveled more than 75,000 miles on horseback to do so, and became the greatest figure in Latin American history. His life is epic, heroic, straight out of Hollywood: he fought battle after battle in punishing terrain, forged uncertain coalitions of competing forces and races, lost his beautiful wife soon after they married and never remarried (although he did have a succession of mistresses, including one who held up the revolution and another who saved his life), and he died relatively young, uncertain whether his
achievements would endure.
Ada Ríos grew up in Cateura, a small town in Paraguay built on a landfill. She dreamed of playing the violin, but with little money for anything but the bare essentials, it was never an option...until a music teacher named Favio Chávez arrived. He wanted to give the children of Cateura something special, so he made them instruments out of materials found in the trash
Mayans Aztecs Incas Coloring Book – Fun And Education For Adults and TeensMake the perfect gift for anyone who loves coloring! Enjoy this Mayans Aztecs Incas Coloring Book for Adults and Teens. Click the cover to reveal what’s inside!About this book:
- 40 original pages drawings of Symbols, Warriors, Masks and Mandalas.
Explore the Inca empire, including how the Incas survived in the mountains, how the empire was built, and why it disappeared.
A True Book: Ancient Civilizations series allows readers to experience what makes each ancient civilization distinctive and exceptional as well look at its influence on the some of the practices of the modern world. This series includes an age appropriate (grades 3-5) introduction to curriculum-relevant subjects and a robust resource section that encourages independent study.
More Incan Empire and Ruins Resources
- Watch The Rise And Fall of The Inca Empire to learn more about the Inca, this is a great video for late elementary through middle school.
- How to Make Paper Mache Mountains to Celebrate Chimborazo Day
- Another interesting video centers around Machu Picchu, Guide to Machu Picchu for Children: Lost City of the Inca for Kids on YouTube.
- 9 Free South America Country Reports for Kids Notebooking Pages
- Make a simple Metal Foil Inca Sun as you learn about the importance of this symbol to the Incas.
- 9 Free South America Country Reports for Kids Notebooking Pages
- Appreciating the Culture of South America Through Dance
- Make a Peruvian Weaving Project and learn how important the different patterns were to each tribe.
- An important part of the Inca history was their textiles, which were called tocapus which had checkered layouts, filled with repetitive geometric patterns. Here is an example to color on Incan pattern coloring page.
- These stuffed Crinkle Paper Llamas are perfect for preschoolers learning along with older kids.
Finally, look how to make a fun Incan ruins model.
How to Make an Incan Ruins Model
You will need:
- Small unfinished blocks
- Grey paint
- Black Paint
- Sand
- Green cardstock or model grass
- Cardboard or wood piece for the base
- Paintbrush
- Tacky glue or hot glue
Start with a rectangle of wood or cardboard for the base.
I had a scrap of long balsa wood I used. Cover with glue and press your model grass or green cardstock down over it.
Trim off the excess so it just fits the base.
Use library books or search Google to find an image of Incan ruins that you want to recreate.
We went for the Sacsayhuaman Terrace Gateway because it seemed easy and interesting enough to recreate with our wooden blocks.
You can use tacky glue which is a little quicker drying than school glue or hot glue to affix your “stones” in the design you have chosen.
Be sure to not only glue the top and bottoms together but to give it good structure add glue to at least some of the side touching pieces.
To create longer stones glue 4 or 5 pieces together and let them dry before placing them atop the doorway.
Mix up 3 parts gray paint to 1 part sand to get a gritty sandy texture.
Paint your mixture all over the structure you built with a heavy hand, allowing some to completely fill in the cracks.
You can brush off some of the excess when it’s partially dry.
Before the gray is completely dry dab on a bit of black paint to age it.
Allow everything to dry completely.
