What projects can I do with my 6th graders on Greek Mythology?

In high school, we made home videos of Roman mythology. And I have to say, I have never had more fun doing an assignment than those videos. Plus, I remember Roman mythology better after seeing and making some hilarious videos.

You could have your students pick a particular myth, maybe in pairs or groups, then have them prepare a short skit to teach the myth to the rest of the class.

@jcs007—what components were part of the video? What were the expectations of the assignment?

What other disciplines do you want to involve in this?

You could involve drama and writing by having them create a play in Greek style about one of the myths.

You could involve English by looking at the myths that have led to words – narcissism, echo, psyche, oedipal complex – if you can find enough words that come from myths.

You can look at other art forms that draw from Greek myths – My Fair Lady, for instance, is two steps removed from the original Pygmalion.

You can have them write their own myths to explain things.

Having them tell the myths – actually participating in the oral tradition.

Creating art illustrating myths or epics was fun for me, and also authentic to the tradition.

Performing episodes could also work well.

Mmm, you could have a quiz where all of the questions are presented in the form of what to do in a certain situation from a myth. It would make the lesson a bit more personal – listen to the lessons and study the myths if you want to survive the test…

We had to pick a story to tell like Icarus or Narcissus. Then, using our video camera and anyone else who wanted to help, we acted out the story with a modern twist. For example, my group used a VW Beetle as a trojan horse. If I get a chance to, I’ll try to find the sheet that my teacher gave us. I doubt I’ll find it though.

Get them to tell the story through Puppets, so they can design the characters and the backgrounds, learning about the myth and the gods at the same time.

there is a great book very untersandable by everyone called Le monde de Sophie you might have it in America it’s written by Jostein Gaarder.It’s about a girl who get taught philosophy in general so you’ll find chapter explaining the meaning of mythology. I myself discovered it by reading Oedipe but I would rather have started reading J. Gaareer
Good luck.

When I was in the fifth grade, my class studied this. We had to do a short paper on our subject, then we had to give a speech about our character or as a character telling about the event that character was assoicated with. The fun part was, we had to dress as our character. It was great!

Pose the problem to your kids- “Lets learn about Greek Myths. Everyone gets to do a project but I’m not sure what kind of project you should do. So, you can do whatever kind of project you want (make a poster board, clothes, sonnet, podcast, video, whatever you want) but you have to work in teams of 2–3, you have to relate it to Greek Myths, and you have to document your learning process. Document where you find the information and how you got it. Extra credit for groups who use technology to connect with live people for information vs. Wikipedia. Proposals due in two days. Projects due in ten days.” Wow, can I do the project?

I think when I was in sixth grade, we had a project where we we picked a god/goddess and had a big Greek day where we dressed up like our god/goddess and gave a little speech or presentation about them. People even brought in Greek food (grapes, olives, etc.), or symbols of their god/goddess.

In seventh grade, we studied Greek myths again, and we had to do a big board game in groups of four or more. Some of them turned out pretty good, and looked professional, but it depends on how much time and money you’d be willing to spend.

If you’re short on time and money, though, skits are always good.

@bluemukaki: Puppets is a great idea! On one of the Design courses on which I teach sometimes we have the students develop their own story from a given myth, design/build the puppets and set, and perform the parts themselves. This is at a higher level, and the focus is design, but I’m always surprised as to how much insight is gained into the narratives and themes themselves.

Whatever you do, don’t belittle them. They are too big and deep and dark to be reduced to little skits and quizzes and speeches, to be studied for a few days and then forgotten. They are not those god-awful “early reader” books you get – they are not stripped down, castrated, sanitized texts. They are rich and moving and they resonate with us, and to study them in any meaningful way you must acknowledge how powerful they are and use that with your class. Because if you do it right, you have the potential to create something with them that none of you will ever forget.

I agree with Hobbes, although the best fun I ever had in class was in Religion class in Grade 10 when we made posters out of paper and we glued them together with Clag- sometimes it’s fun to just get back to childish delights with Clag!