Pok-Ta-Pok

In history this term we will be looking at Ancient Maya society. The Maya lived in parts of Central America from 2000 BC to 900 AD.  We started off our topic by learning the game pok-ta-pok. This was one of the earliest ball games ever invented. The Maya’s played on a court that was a T shape about 100m long and 30m wide. There were also small stone hoops to ty and get the ball through.  The tricky part? According to the rules, you could only touch the ball with your elbows, hips and knees! You weren’t allowed to use your hands at all. We did what we could to recreate the game in the hall.

Pok-ta-pok was a really significant part of Maya culture and was often shown in paintings and sculptures. ‘The game was really good to play and I would like to play it more’ said Oliver while Matthew thought ‘it was difficult but fun too!’

Playing pok-ta-pok was a really fun introduction to our new history topic and we are all looking forward to learning more about the Maya this term.