Description
What our Greek Mythology lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Greek Mythology introduces students to Greek mythology. Many students have heard some of the myths and stories, yet they do not know their source. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to define myth and identify various Greek myths and explaining their purpose. This lesson is for students in 4th grade, 5th grade, and 6th grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the yellow box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand. The supplies you will need for this lesson are Internet access, colored pencils, scratch paper, final copy paper, word processors, and the handouts. To prepare for this lesson ahead of time, you can pair students for the activity, find myths to share with the class, and copy the handouts.
Options for Lesson
Included with this lesson is an “Options for Lesson” section that lists a number of suggestions for activities to add to the lesson or substitutions for the ones already in the lesson. One optional adjustment to the lesson activity is to compile the completed stories into a classroom book of myths. You can also assign a Greek god or goddess to each student for the activity instead of letting them choose their own. Students can also vote on the best new myth, most creative myth, and more. You can research other cultures’ myths and read them to the class. Finally, you can plan a “Greek Week” where students dress up as gods or goddess, you read myths aloud each day, and you serve Greek food.
Teacher Notes
The teacher notes page includes a paragraph with additional guidelines and things to think about as you begin to plan your lesson. This page also includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.
GREEK MYTHOLOGY LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Greek Mythology
The Greek Mythology lesson plan includes three content pages. The lesson begins by telling students that the names of the planets, as well as mermaids and dragons, originate in stories that were passed down through history. Each of them are based in different traditions.
We call traditional stories that are related to the early history of a group of people or culture a myth. They explain natural or social phenomenon and many include supernatural beings or events. Most people know at least a few myths.
Myths aren’t true. They are imaginary and might relate to religious beliefs or rituals. People use them to explain things such as fire, the seasons, lighting, thunder, and more. We use them to teach people how to behave and live with each other. The characters in myths might be gods, goddesses, monsters, or heroes.
Different people have created myths, like Native Americans, Egyptians, Romans, Indians, and more. However, Ancient Greek mythology is the most prominent kind. We still tell Greek myths to this day.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece existed before the Roman Empire and influenced Roman culture. Most Western cultures have their foundations in Ancient Greek government, philosophy, science, art, math, and more. Ancient Greece existed from about 800 BC to 146 BC, when the Romans conquered Greece.
Many Greek people believed in the myths that helped them understand their world, the environment, the passage of time, and more. They wanted to understand where their people came from. They turned to myths for advice, information, connections to their ancestors, and for education. Not all people believed in them, however.
Lots of Greek people worshipped the gods and goddesses from their myths. The term Greek mythology includes all of the stories and tales about the various gods and goddesses. They appeared in different stories, but their characteristics remained the same across different myths and stories. These gods and goddesses had one or multiple magical powers, which they used for good, for trickery, and for adventures. Ancient Greek storytellers recited myths rather than writing them down, and they often told them differently.
We have thousands of stories and many gods and goddesses across Greek mythology. All of these stories aimed to capture the imaginations of people for thousands and thousands of years.
Greek Gods and Goddesses
Lots of Greek gods and goddesses were related to each other. Hercules was the son of Zeus, and Zeus’ wife was his sister, Hera. We have many more examples of this. The gods and goddesses were each patrons in Ancient Greece. For example, Zeus was the the god of sky and lightning. Each god or goddess also has their own symbol, myths, and stories. Some Greek gods were Titan, who ruled the world. Other were Olympians, who defeated the Titans. Some were relatives of one or both groups.
The lesson includes a chart that lists many Greek gods and goddesses. It lists what they were the god or goddess of, some information and symbols related to them, and their related myths or powers. For example, Cronus is the god of time, leader of the Titans, and his related myth is the creation of the world. Oceanus is the goddess of motherhood and fertility, is the wife of Cronus and queen of the Titans, and is the source of all rivers. The lesson lists 17 gods and goddesses in the chart for students to review.
Greek myths also contained monsters and creatures like Centaurs, Cerberus, Cyclopes, Griffins, Hydra, Satyrs, and Medusa. Lots of these monsters are part-man and part-creature. Medusa, for example, was a Gorgon with a woman’s face and snakes for hair. Looking into her eyes would turn you into stone.
We have many more Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, monsters, and creatures. Lots of these became common names in myths and stories from throughout the world. People remain fascinated by Greek Mythology to this day. The stories contain tales of romance, adventure, battles, and power for people of all ages.
GREEK MYTHOLOGY LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Greek Mythology lesson plan includes three worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.
NEW MYTH ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
Students will work with a partner to complete the lesson activity. Each pair will create a new myth with a minimum of four and a maximum of six characters. They will use the Internet to read examples of different myths, taking note of how the characters interact. Their myth must include dialogue, scenery, action, and other common features of myths. They should include images. Each pair will create a rough draft of their myth before creating a final copy.
Students can work with alone or in groups of three for this activity if you’d prefer.
MATCHING PRACTICE WORKSHEET
The practice worksheet asks students to complete two short exercises. For the first, they will determine which god or goddess each person would most likely turn into in Ancient Greece. For the second, they will decide if different statements about Greek Mythology are true or false.
GREEK MYTHOLOGY HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
For the homework assignment, students will first match creature descriptions to their names. They will then create a new Greek mythology monster or creature, including a drawing, description, and a name.
Worksheet Answer Keys
This lesson plan includes answer keys for the practice worksheet and the homework assignment. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
