Writing Myths: Resources and Videos

For our new unit, Where We Are in Place and Time, grade 5 is exploring how people learn about the past. We have already put the puzzle pieces together for what makes a civilization and are exploring how places change over time.

Central Idea: Historical evidence helps us connect today's way of life with the past. 

Lines of Inquiry:

• Processes involved in collecting, analyzing and validating evidence
• How people build upon previous understanding
• Ways in which our understanding of the past has evolved over time, and shapes the future. 

We are also looking into mythology and writing our own myths. To help us get some instruction on how to write myths we watched these two videos.

How To Write Myths
What Is A Myth?

After watching the videos, we began our pre-writing task. In table groups, the students wrote ideas about what we could write about to explain the natural world. Some of my favorites were "Why do snails have shells?" and "Why do hounds have long ears?" Next, we brainstormed words associated with the topic to go in a word box and then plotted out several story possibilities. Our next step this week will be to learn about different Gods and Goddesses so that we can build them into our myths.

I will let you know how they progress, but until then, here are some other websites that might be useful.

Characteristics of Myths
Creating Your Own Myth
Scholastic Writing With Writers: Jane Yolen
Greek and Roman Gods and Goddesses
Scholastic- Myths, Fairy Tales and Folktales
Write Your Own Myth
Myth Story Examples

Also, the Mythic Warriors series shows are great for learning about the Gods and Goddesses. Youtube has a ton to watch.