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Myths andLegends

Blake’s Topic B

ank Each integrated unit contains:

� 6 pages of teaching notes in an integrated teaching sequence� 10 practical blackline masters� National Profile outcomes� A useful resource list

by Jane Campbell

IU22 � Myths andLegends

Middle Primary

© Blake Education – Myths and Legends Integrated Unit

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MIDDLE PRIMARY

Learning Area Focus ScienceTopic Myths and legends are stories that explore the world and the nature of humanity. They are anexcellent way to introduce students to other cultures and beliefs. Students who know nothing about mythologywill be surprised to meet familiar characters, such as Robin Hood, King Arthur, goddesses and gods, unicorns,and other fantastical beasts. Characters will be invited, through books, into the classroom. Students will beable to investigate the origins of myths and legends and will learn how these stories are affected by a country’shistory, location and climate.

National Profile Outcomes Students will:

� SOSE 3.1b Interpret accounts and stories aboutpeople in other times.

� SOSE 3.16 Frame questions to generate adiscussion about myths and legends.

� SOSE 3.17 Present information to explore keyideas about legends.

� English 3.1 Interact to discuss and researchinformation about myths and legends within theclassroom and school communities using a rangeof text types.

� English 3.6 Identify stereotypes in texts (e.g.heroes) and discuss their purpose and meaning.

� English 3.8a Integrate a variety of strategies forinterpreting printed and visual stories aboutmyths and legends.

� Arts 3.8 Plan and present a play for the schoolcommunity.

� Arts 3.20, 3.24 Explore ideas and feelings aboutother cultures through their art.

Myths and Legendsby Jane Campbell

ResourcesMyths and legendsThe Kingfisher Book of Mythology: Gods, Goddesses andHeroes from around the World, Kingfisher.Geraldine McCaughrean, The Orchard Book of GreekMyths, Orchard Books.Geraldine McCaughrean, Myths and Legends fromaround the World: The Crystal Pool, Orion Children’sBooks.Neil Philip, Mythology, Eyewitness Guides, DorlingKindersley.Ann Pilling, Realms of Gold: Myths and Legends fromAround the World, Kingfisher Books.Claude-Catherine Ragache, The Creation of the World:Myths and Legends, Cherrytree Books.Morgan Roberts, Classical Deities and Heroes,Friedman Group.Maurice Saxby and Robert Ingpen, The Great Deeds ofHeroic Women and The Great Deeds of Superheroes,Millennium.

Aboriginal Dreaming StoriesCatherine Berndt, Land of the Rainbow Snake:Aboriginal Children’s Stories and Songs from WesternArnhem Land, Scholastic.Barbara Ker Wilson, Tales Told to Kabbarli,HarperCollins.

For all your teaching needs visit www.blake.com.au

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Myths and LegendsTeaching NotesRead all about it!With students, locate and borrow books concerningmyths and legends from the school and publiclibraries. Ensure you have stories from a variety ofcultures. Ask students to bring in any books fromhome on myths and legends. Display all the booksin the classroom and allow time for students tobrowse through them before discussing the topic.

What are myths and legends?Brainstorm questions about myths and legends withstudents. Write each one on an individual piece ofpaper. Examples might include: What are myths andlegends? Are a ‘myth’ and a ‘legend’ the same thing?Are they fact or fiction? Do different cultures havesimilar types of myths and legends? Why are theremyths and legends? Why are many of the storiesstill popular today? Can you learn more about aculture by reading their myths and legends? Canyou give examples of myths and legends?

Include other questions as students learn moreabout the subject and are able to think morecritically. Questions, written on individual pieces ofpaper, can be displayed on the wall. As answers arefound, display these as well. By the end of the unit,the classroom walls will be full of valuableinformation.

Myth or legend?While both are part of folklore, myths and legendsare distinct from each other. Legends are asubsection of mythology. Allow students to revisitbooks on display and then, as a class, brainstormdifferences between the types of stories myths and

legends tell. List on the board

differences thatthe class has

noticed.

MythsMyths are ancient stories that have their roots in thesacred beliefs or cosmology of groups of people longago. The stories take place in a remote past, in atime before historical time, and the main charactersare deities, semi-deities, or humans withextraordinary powers. Myths represent the ways inwhich all cultures, before the advent of modernscience, sought to explain the origin of the worldand of human beings’ relationship to it.

Explain to students that myths stem from the desireto know and make sense of the world. They areexplanations of how things began. The stories aretimeless and concern the human condition: what weare, why we are and how we react to things. Somestories might seem unrealistic but the messagebehind the story usually has an important religiousor social meaning that sets myths apart fromordinary stories. Encourage students to browsethrough books on myths and then fill in BLM 1.

LegendsLegends too are explanatory stories. Like myths,they have fantastic elements in them. Legendshowever are set in historical times and in placesthat seem recognisable, and the main characters arehumans. Legends may grow up around historicalpeople and events or may be wholly imaginary.

Legends have often been passed down fromgeneration to generation, and popularly accepted aspart of history. While myths tend to explore themeaning of the world, legends are tales of heroeswho generally go out on an adventure andaccomplish amazing and sometimes impossiblefeats. Most races and cultures have national heroes,for example Ancient Greece has Hercules whileBritain has King Arthur and France has Joan of Arc.Can students think of any other legendary figures,for example Robin Hood, Boadicea, Beowulf, FinnMacCool, William Tell and Gilgamesh? Ask studentsto research some of these legendary heroes to findout which country they come from. When studentscomplete their research, compile their answers onchart paper. Ask students to fill in BLM 2.



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Truth or fiction?Have students brainstorm qualities they feel a heroshould have. Tell the story of Robin Hood tostudents. Discuss his qualities, for example his senseof humour, fair play and daring escapades. Dostudents think he is a hero? Did he really exist?Why has this story survived down the generations?

Group students and ask them to read other legendsand discuss the hero in each legend. They can usethese questions to start discussions: Is there a hero?Is the hero male or female? What do you think thehero looks like? What qualities does the heropossess (e.g. brave, never gives up)? What problemsdoes the hero encounter and how does he or sheovercome them? How does the story end?

Discuss, as a class, similarities and differencesbetween heroes in legends. Why do most countrieshave some sort of legendary figure? Are theseheroes good role models? Has our image of heroeschanged over the generations, for example, domodern heroes have to be male, brave, strong and tough?

Discuss how the qualities of these heroes andheroines could be displayed by people today,including the students themselves. Have studentscomplete BLM 3.

Sharing storiesIf any students have a favourite myth ask them totell it, or read it, to the class. Encourage them to saywhy they like this myth. Discuss with students whatthe myth is about. What is it trying to explain?

Spreading the wordRemind students that myths and legends werepassed down the generations orally. Discuss whathappens when people tell stories orally - are thefacts accurately related? Encourage students tothink of times when they have told stories aboutevents in their lives. Ask if they ever exaggerated oraltered facts when telling a story about themselvesor a friend. Did it make for a better story? As a storyis continually repeated, it can be hard to rememberwhich parts are real or invented. Many heroes inlegends may have originated from a real person butthe story has changed over time. This is also whythere are many different versions of the same story.Ask if students have found this in their research.

Getting the message acrossHave students brainstorm methods of givinginformation in forms other than talking and writing,for example through dance, ceremony, bodypainting and art. Have students choose a myth orlegend they have read and paint a story of it. Askthem to draw a rough copy first and to discuss theirwork with a friend. Does it make sense? Then askthem to paint the final version. Have them write thename of the story underneath the painting. Displaythe paintings around the room.

A myriad of mythsGroup students and give each group a myth to readand discuss. Ask students to consider ideas the mythis exploring, for example it may be trying to showhow the world was created or why there is a sunand a moon. Students might like to draw individualstory maps. Each group appoints a spokesperson topresent a short summary of their myth and explainwhat message they feel the myth is giving. Askstudents if they enjoyed the myth they read, andwhy or why not?

A world of mythsMost countries have myths and legends. Askstudents to consider why this might be. Explain thatmost people, no matter their culture, have the samebasic emotions and desires (love, friendship,searching for answers, wanting good to triumphover evil, etc). Ask students if they think it would bepossible to learn about a culture by reading theirmyths and legends.



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Show students a map of the modern world. Explainto students that the world would not have lookedlike this thousands of years ago when civilisation(and mythology) was beginning. If possible, brieflydisplay a map of the world showing the continentswhen they were joined together. It will be lessconfusing and more useful for students to becomefamiliar with the position of the countries in theworld today. Ask students if the location of acountry can influence its myths and legends.Reasons might include climate and proximity tomore powerful countries.

People in Arctic lands (Greenland, North America,northern Russia and Scandinavia) relied heavily onfishing and hunting for food as it was too cold forfarming. Animals and weather are prominent intheir mythology.

Greek, Roman and Egyptian myths have manysimilarities because of their proximity to each other.For thousands of years they invaded and traded

with each other. In the 4th century BC theGreeks conquered countries in the NearEast and spread Greek culture and

language over the area. However, by the2nd century BC, Romans had conquered thearea and expected all the people andcountries to worship Roman gods and toadapt to Roman culture.

People in Central and South America havethe common theme of sun worship andused mythology to reinforce their power

over the people they conquered.

Allocate different parts of the world (eithercontinents or countries) to pairs of studentsand ask them to locate their area on the map.

Make sure at least one student in each pairis a competent reader. Ask them to readmyths and legends from that area. Whatdid they learn about the particularculture?

Aboriginal Dreaming StoriesAustralian Aborigines are closely linked to the landand to nature. As with other cultures, Aboriginalpeople have passed their creation stories to theirdescendants through story-telling, dance, art, etc.Read some of the creation stories to students (seeResources) and discuss how Aboriginal peopleexplained the events around them.

ThemesCreating the worldMany myths describe the creation of the universeand the formation of the Earth and of people.Different cultures all have stories explaining howthey believe the universe began. Keep students inpairs from the previous activity and have themresearch another culture to see what myths theytold to explain creation. Ask students to presenttheir findings in the form of an interview or a play.After all students have completed their presentation,discuss some of the ideas in the myths. Do studentsthink that they help make sense of the world?

The natural worldMany cultures have myths that explain howdifferent parts of the natural world got to be theway they are. For example, many cultures havemyths to explain the constellations. Explain tostudents that a constellation is the name given to agroup of stars that appear to make up a particularshape. One constellation they may know is theSouthern Cross, found on Australia’s flag.

The constellation known as the Pleiades (ply-a-deez) is also known as ‘the seven sisters’ in bothGreek and Aboriginal myths, with stories in eachculture of how the seven sisters got to be in the sky.

Distribute BLM 4 and have students research twostories from different cultures that explain how oneparticular constellation came into being.

PeopleAccording to most mythologies, people were createdby the gods, for example the Egyptians believed thatthe first human beings were made from the tears ofRa, the Sun god; the Norse god, Odin, made a manand a woman from driftwood. Ask students toresearch some myths that suggest how people werecreated. Discuss, as a class, the differentexplanations.




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Animals Common types of animals play important roles inmyths and legends. Some cultures, for example,believed that when birds migrated, they wereleaving this world for another. Some myths tell howan eagle (in Finland) or a swan (in India) laid theegg that gave birth to the world. Have students readabout myths and legends that contain animals. Doanimals play an important role in the myths? Whywere they used? Ask students to fill in BLM 5.

Extra! Extra!Explain that some myths contain unusual beasts;serpents such as the many-headed Hydra and thewinged horse Pegasus are important beasts in Greek myths. Encourage students to imagine thatthey have discovered a drawing of an unusual andfabulous beast on a cave wall. Using BLM 6, askthem to write an article about this animal, then read their article to the class. Is it believable?

Gods and goddessesWith students, brainstorm the names of some of the gods and goddesses that feature in myths andlegends. Discuss their names and their roles. Are they important and if so, why? Have studentsresearch these gods and goddesses and fill in BLM 7.

My heroIn Greek mythology, heroes are nearly as importantas gods. Heroes are usually the child of a god and ahuman. Ask students to choose a hero and to writeabout them on BLM 8. Heroes could includeAchilles, Atlas, Odysseus, Perseus and Heracles.

The message in the mythExplain to the class that many myths carry messagesthat are still relevant today. Look at some of themyths you have already examined, and discuss whatthe main message of each myth is. Distribute BLM 9 and have students complete it.

The A to Z of myths andlegendsAllocate a letter to each student. Ask them toresearch a mythical character whose name beginswith the allocated letter. If more than one studenthas the same letter, they should make sure they donot choose the same character. Ask students towrite down any relevant information they findabout their character and add an illustration.Encourage them to list the myths their charactersappear in. Are they good or evil, a god/goddess, ananimal or human? Notes can be compiled into aclass book on mythical characters, and once allstudents have looked at it, it could be donated tothe library.

Magic of myths and legendsAsk students if they have enjoyed reading the myths and legends. Group students to brainstormpossible reasons why myths and legends arepopular stories today. Why do most cultures havesuch stories? Reasons might include the universalthemes; relating to the characters, from those who squabbled, wore disguises, were vain, rudeand jealous to those who were lovely, generous, fell in love and helped people; the imaginative(real?) mythical beasts; or simply because they are good stories.

My favourite myth or legendStudents are now familiar with a variety of mythsand legends. Ask them to consider which myth orlegend they like best, and to complete BLM 10.

Dramatising a myth or legendHave students perform a play of a myth at schoolassembly. Ask students to write down theirfavourite myth or legend. List all their choices onthe board. Ask students to convert this informationinto a bar chart (an excellent visual method ofviewing results). When graphs are completed,choose the most popular story and base the play onthis. Devise a simple script; have students createcostumes and make-up; choose roles (remember toinclude a prompter); discuss and locate appropriatemusic (if necessary); allow time for rehearsals andmake invitations for parents, teachers and studentsto attend the performance.



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My mythWith students, brainstorm a list of themes thatmyths explore, for example good against evil;creation myths; the afterlife; animals; naturalhistory, such as floods and droughts. Encouragestudents to choose a theme and write their ownmyth. Remind students that the myth does not haveto be a scientific fact but a way of explaining whysomething may have happened. When studentshave drafted and revised their stories have themtype them on the school computer (or at home forhomework) and then bind them into a class book onmodern myths. Allow students to read these mythsin their quiet reading time.

Urban mythsThough today’s culture doesn’t have as strong anemphasis on oral storytelling as ancient cultures did,storytelling in different forms persists, and oneexample is the urban myth. Urban myths involveordinary people, and often an element of thegrotesque. An example is the story of the man withdreadlocks who fell ill, it being discovered later thathe had a nest of redback spiders in his hair. (Thisstory is also found in the United States, with theblack widow spider featuring instead of the redback.Urban myths are often found in several versions.)

Urban myths often point a moral or give a warning,but tend not to tackle the larger themes that othermyths embrace. One characteristic feature of anurban myth is that the teller will usually assure thelistener(s) that the story actually happened tosomeone they know of, but usually not personally,e.g. the sister of a friend, someone they work with’ssecond cousin...

Discuss the subject of urban myths in class. Do students know any of the myths that circulate?Have they heard the one about the baby alligatorsbought as pets and later found to inhabit New York sewers fully-grown? Or the woman eating fried chicken who discovered she was eating abattered rat?

Interesting imagesMyths and legends have given us stories offeringexplanations about our world, and have alsobestowed us with wonderful words and images, forexample Cyclops, the one-eyed giant; Pegasus, thewinged horse; Medusa, with snakes in her hair; fire-breathing, winged dragons such as Fafnir; Chiron, acentaur (half man and half horse). Have studentsresearch and choose one interesting character frommythology, then draw a picture of their character,labelling its unusual features. They can add a shortexplanation explaining what this character did.

Advertising mythsHave students look for mythical images inadvertising, on TV and in magazines andnewspapers. Have a class brainstorming session onbrand names based on myths. Students may beunaware that Nike (nigh-kee) shoes are named afterthe Greek goddess of victory, usually represented asa winged maiden, and that the Apollo spaceprogram was named after the Greek and Romangod of light, prophecy, music and healing. Ajax floorcleaner is named after a Greek warrior who was ahero in the Trojan war, and Vulcan heaters arenamed after the Roman god of fire. Consider whythese products have been associated with thoseparticular myths. In advertising, words used todescribe products could often also be associatedwith mythological figures, e.g. a ‘powerful’ cleanserthat ‘cleans like magic’.

Have students invent their own product and name itafter a mythological or legendary figure, keeping inmind what they want the brand name of theproduct to suggest, e.g. Mercury Speedy Couriers,named after the Roman messenger god with wingedcap and shoes, could suggest speed ofcommunication. Have students design anadvertising campaign for their product.


© Blake Education – Myths and Legends Integrated Unit© Blake Education – Myths and Legends Integrated UnitThis page may be reproduced by the original purchaser for non-commercial classroom use.

BLM1

Name: ......................................................................................Date:......................................................................................

Multiple mythsCountry myth is from............................ Message................................................................................................................

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BLM 2

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

Heroes around the worldHero’s name Country Brave deeds

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BLM 3

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

Hero/Heroine material!Heroes and heroines of old showed many amazing or admirable qualities, such asstrength, courage, determination. Choose two heroes/heroines and fill out their ID cards, saying how this quality could be shown by someone today (perhaps you!).

Name: Demeter

Feat: Searched for a year for her daughter

Persephone

Quality: persistence

How shown today: Practising on roller-blades till you

can balance

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Feat: ..............................................................................................................

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Quality: ................................................................................................

How shown today: ................................................................................................

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Constellation:.........................................................................................

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© Blake Education – Myths and Legends Integrated UnitThis page may be reproduced by the original purchaser for non-commercial classroom use.

BLM 4

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

Find stories from two differentcultures that tell the story of thecreation of the same constellation.Some possible constellations toresearch would be the Pleiades (the ‘seven sisters’), or the Milky Way...

Star stories!




BLM 5

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

Amazing animals!Animal Country Purpose of animal Any unusual characteristics?

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BLM 6

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

Extra! Extra!



BLM 7

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

Gods and goddessesResearch these gods and goddesses and fill in the table.

The first one has been filled in as an example.

Name Country God or goddess God/dess of? Appearance

Aphrodite Greece goddess love very beautiful, wore

a magic girdle that

inspired others to

love her

Zeus

Thor

Gaia

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BLM 8

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

My hero!Name:..................................................................................................

Parents (if known): .............................................................

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Description:...................................................................................

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Good at: ..........................................................................................

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Famous for:...................................................................................

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BLM 9

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

And the message is...Story Idea or message Example from today

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Robin Hood robbed the rich Rich people should share People with more money

to give to the poor their wealth with poorer who give their services as

people volunteers to help those with

less eg. the Smith Family


© Blake Education – Myths and Legends Integrated UnitThis page may be reproduced by the original purchaser for non-commercial classroom use.

BLM 10

Name:................................................................................................................Date:............................................................

My favourite myth or legend

Name:.....................................................................................................................................................................................................

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My favourite part:......................................................................

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