Greek Mythology Unit 2015

Right before Christmas break, we wrapped up our study of Greek Mythology.  This is always a fun unit, as both 4th grade classes are studying at the same time, and we get to switch classrooms for different weeks of the unit!  We learn about Heracles, the Trojan War, and other minor Greek myths. Also during this unit are various projects, both art-based and technology-based.  I would like to share with you some photos of the fun we had during this unit.  🙂

Pin the Snake on Medusa…hilarious game to watch and play!!  Remember…if you look directly at her, you turn to stone!!

Some pictures from our Greek scenes.  Students were put into groups, and each group picked a Greek myth we studied out of a hat.  They then had to pick the main scenes from their myth, map out how they wanted to “illustrate” each scene, and then do the illustrations using themselves as the characters.  All props, outfits, and accessories were created by the students with their groups.  It was a fun (and messy!) project.  Once we took pictures of all the illustrations, the next day each member of the group got to write a summary of what was happening in each scene.  These summaries and the pictures were then put in order to tell the story of their myth.  Summarizing skills, writing…and crazy messy fun!  Good times.

 

 

Greek Mythology Unit 2014

In December, the 4th grade classes study Greek Mythology.  We swap teachers and all the students get to take part in the same projects, plus get some time to learn from each of the 4th grade teachers.  They study the 12 Labors of Heracles, the Trojan War, and other technology projects with Mrs. Rehwaldt.  They study four nature myths and do various projects with Miss Renzelmann.  We have a few combined projects and activity days the last week before break.  It’s a lot of fun for the students, and a lot of fun for us to teach.

Here are some pictures of the activities we did over the past few weeks.

Greek Mythology Study

We have spent the last 3 weeks studying Greek mythology with both 4th grade classes.  The students got to study different topics, projects, and activities with both 4th grade teachers, and we ended the study this week with two whole-group activities as well.  So, what have we all studied, you ask?  Here’s a recap of the past 3 weeks:

The first week, 4R studied with me.  We read and discussed the myths of Echo & Narcissus, Arachne, Persephone & Demeter, and Pandora’s Box.  We also did a few projects.  Our first project was making Greek black-figure pottery.  The pots turned out great!  It was awesome to see the creativity with these.

Our other activity was a group project, where each group chose one of the myths just mentioned out of a hat and had to map out a series of scenes from the myth.  Then, making their own props and scenery, each group posed out the scenes from their myth that told the story-like illustrations-and we took a picture of each scene.  The following day, each student got one of the pictures and had to write that part of the story to go with the scene.  When all the pictures and paragraphs are put together, it tells the whole story!

Here are some of my favorite scenes:

The second week of study, 4E did these same activities with me while our class studied Heracles (you may know him as Hercules), the Trojan War, and other assorted Greek items in the other classroom.

We had one extra day before our whole-group end of unit activities, so we had a short lesson on Medusa, one of the ugliest mythological creatures.  We talked a little bit about her, then did a small craft and played a game.  Since you can’t look at Medusa without turning into stone, our game of “Pin the Snakes on Medusa’s Head” had a bit of a twist to it:

The last two days of our study were spent with an all 4th grade movie party (watching Disney’s Hercules, of course…we kept track of all the differences we spotted from the original myth-there are quite a few!!), and with our final project: the Guess Who Toga Party.

For the toga party, each student picked one of the major gods or goddesses out of a hat.  For the project, they had to bring in a prop or item that would allow their classmates to guess which god or goddess they had picked.  Lots of creativity went into these projects, and it was really fun guessing!  We also had some Mediterranean-inspired foods for our party: pita bread, hummus, grapes, cheese, and grape juice.  One of our room moms made us some amazing mythology cookies as well.  What a fun afternoon!

Such a fun unit, I am sad to see it coming to an end.  All that’s left is to finish our computer projects about our god or goddess.  Hopefully our students have been inspired to read more about Greek mythology, as we barely scratched the surface in only 3 weeks!!  🙂

Greek Mythology- Group Projects

We started our unit on Greek Mythology this week.  Yesterday and today were spent working on group projects (Tuesday and Wednesday we made Greek black-figure pottery).  The groups were each assigned a myth we had read for homework this week.  The groups had to figure out what the best scenes were from their myth and act them out.  This involved making props, outfits, backgrounds, and more to make their scenes more true to the myths.  I took pictures of each of their scenes, and tomorrow they are going to treat the scenes like a story board, and they will have to write a summary of each scene to tell their myth.

And now, please enjoy some pictures from our day.  🙂

Don’t forget about the “Guess Who?” Toga Party project, due Wednesday, December 19th!  🙂