Showing posts with label Greek mythology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greek mythology. Show all posts

Monday, March 2, 2026

Greek Mythology Class Play

We will be doing Greek Mythology as a main lesson block next school year but it won't be the topic of our annual class play because we already did a Greek Mythology Class Play in December 2021.

For those who came to our recent class play, Norse Mythology, you may recognize the sheet for Mount Olympus. It was repurposed to be Jotunheim!

I recently had someone reach out to me about the script and staging for our "Three Vignettes from Greek Mythology" so I looked back through the blog for any photos. It's so fun to see the children when they were little!

We did Echo and Narcissus, Pandora’s Box, and The Six Pomegranate Seeds.

My group of students write and put on a class play every year. Some of the topics force us to be really creative (remember "Grammar's Garden"?). In 2026-2027, it will be Fractions. I can't wait to see what they come up with!


Memories from December 2021

The Sets

painting the set for Mount Olympus

I was the narrator and co-director of all three vignettes, plus I played the part of Hades, so I sadly didn't take any photos of our play rehearsals

the electronic keyboard for the "discordant unpleasant music" as Pandora first opens up her box was hidden behind the sheet for Mount Olympus


placing wool to be "clouds" at the base of Mount Olympus

wool around the base of Zeus's throne (and Pandora's Box underneath)

to the left of Mount Olympus and Zeus's Throne was the Forest

we reused the Forest backdrop from our Ancient Hawai'i Class Play,
and placed potted plants beside it

beside the Forest was the Pool (a blue table with a mirror placed on it)


"Echo and Narcissus"

we placed a mirror on the blue table so that Kamma could gaze endlessly at her reflection in the pool of water

a child offstage provided the voice of Echo


the daffodil mask for when Narcissus becomes a daffodil

Note: the little quilted cloth covered up the mirror later on when the table was transformed into a table for Pandora to sit at as she stared at her box, and in the realm of Hades where Persephone sat before the food of the dead


"Pandora's Box"

our special effects were very simple

"Hope" was a grey felt heart tied to a string (pulled by a child offstage), which rose up out of the box after it was opened


"The Six Pomegranate Seeds"

me as Hades and Zac as Pandora

it was such great fun to pull up the cowl neck on my sweater over my head, suddenly transform from the Narrator into Hades, and pick up Persephone and swoop her away to the Underworld! sadly I didn't get a photo of Hazel playing the part of Persephone or Kai as her mother Demeter


Zac with Zeus and Hermes



The Menu


the cake plate for the Super Lemony Olive Oil Cake

our full menu is here:  Ancient Greek Foods


The Gifts

After taking a course with Suzanne Down on Needle-felted Postcards, I spent that entire Thankgiving Break crafting!


needle felting "postcard tapestries" that fit into envelopes, one for each of the legends in our Greek Mythology Class Play

these serve as clues for the parents as to what legends we will be retelling

and they are my Christmas gifts to the older students as well (each of whom planned and co-directed a vignette)

Echo and Narcissus

The Six Pomegranate Seeds

the pomegranate is actually a pocket...

so cute!

and Pandora's Box

thank you to everyone who has donated old jewelry for our art & craft projects!  those pieces live in a special bin in the Art Room and they allowed me to make something really incredible for the Pandora's Box tapestry

black cloud filled with flying things that pour out when the box is opened 

but hidden away in the bottom of the box...

HOPE



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Tuesday, September 10, 2024

Reverso Poems and NVC

Marilyn Singer has written three wonderful books of reverso poems (a unique poetry form she created) and we are using them to practice our Nonviolent Communication and using our Power Panels!

If you missed my series of posts about NVC last year, the links are below:


On Tuesday, I explained a reverso poem and then read a few examples:

    On with the Dance
    Birthday Suit
    Ready, Steady, Go!
    Bears in the News


Then we got out The No-Fault Zone Game and did Power Panels for Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It was a fun way to review the concepts!

Here are all the story-poems included in Marilyn's books:


Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reverso Poems

    Cinderella's Double Life (Cinderella)

    The Sleeping Beauty and the Wide-Awake Prince (Sleeping Beauty)

    Rapunzel's Locks (Rapunzel)

    In the Hood (Little Red-Cap)

    The Doubtful Duckling (The Ugly Duckling)

    Mirror Mirror (Little Snow-White)

    Full of Beans (Jack and the Beanstalk)

    Bears in the News (Goldilocks and the Three Bears)

    Have Another Chocolate (Hansel and Gretel)

    Do You Know My Name? (Rumplestiltskin)

    Longing for Beauty (Beauty and the Beast)



Follow Follow: A Book of Reverso Poems

    Your Wish Is My Command (Aladdin)

    Birthday Suit (The Emperor's New Clothes)

    Silly Goose (The Golden Goose)

    Ready, Steady, Go! (The Tortoise and the Hare)

    Will the Real Princess Please Stand Up? (The Princess and the Pea)

    The Little Mermaid's Choice (The Little Mermaid)

    Panache (Puss in Boots)

    Follow Follow (The Pied Piper of Hamelin)

    No Bigger Than Your Thumb (Thumbelina)

    Can't Blow This House Down (The Three Little Pigs)

    The Nightingale's Emperor (The Nightingale)

    On with the Dance (The Twelve Dancing Princesses)



Echo Echo: Reverso Poems About Greek Myths

    Pandora and the Box

    Arachne and Athena

    King Midas and His Daughter

    Perseus and Medusa

    Bellerophon with Pegasus

    Narcissus and Echo

    Pygmalion and Galatea

    Theseus and Ariadne

    Icarus and Daedalus

    Melanion and Atalanta

    Demeter and Persephone

    Eurydice and Orpheus


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Sunday, January 21, 2024

Fourth Great Lesson - Extensions

It is so much fun to teach the Story of Written Language (in Montessori schools, this is called the Fourth Great Lesson and is done every year with children ages 6-9). The essential components are the story of written English, since this is what we use in school. These include cave paintings, Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, the alphabet (Sinaitic, Phoenician, Greek, Roman), illuminated manuscripts, and the printing press.

I've kept track of all the stories I used this year:
2024 Story of Written Language - Books & Activities


There are so many wonderful things you can bring in as extensions here. Here are some of the books I have on the shelf that would work beautifully:

Chinese - The Cloudmakers by James Rumford (a lovely book about papermaking with hemp), My Little Chinese Book of Words

Arabic - The Monster in the Alphabet by James Rumford, The Day of Ahmed's Secret by Florence Parry Heide, Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad by James Rumford, Pandora's Box by Henriette Barkow

Cherokee - Sequoyah: The Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing by James Rumford, The Apple Tree by Sandy Tharp-Thee

Braille - Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille by Jen Bryant, DK Braille: Animals, DK Braille: On the Move, DK Braille: It Can't Be True! Incredible Tactile Comparisons, Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

I also have a Rubik's Tactile Cube
(something I don't have, but want: Rubber Stamps for the Braille Alphabet)


This was the first year I realized I had several books in Arabic. At the back of The Monster in the Alphabet, Rumford shows the Phoenician alphabet with its "most famous offspring," which are English, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic.

I never knew that the Arabic alphabet was a relative of the Phoenician one!


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Monday, August 14, 2023

Notes on Greek Mythology

In the Waldorf scope & sequence, children learn Greek Mythology in grade 5 (often culminating in an Olympics) and Greek & Roman History in grade 6 as a prequel to the Middle Ages. The last time I taught Greek Myths we had a shortened month so our block needed to proceed quickly. We used Famous Myths of the Golden Age retold by Beatrice Alexander (1947) for our MLB.

    The Flame-Giver

    Pandora's Box

    The Gorgon's Head

    The Story of King Midas

    The Sun-God and the Mortal

    How Phaeton Drove the Horses of the Sun

    The Golden Fleece

    Cupid and Psyche

    The Labors of Hercules

    The Six Pomegranate Seeds

    The Wanderings of Ulysses


I loved her retellings; the biggest downside to her book is that she refers to the Greek characters by their Roman names and my students found that very confusing. The next month, while we were writing and putting on our Three Vignettes from Greek Mythology Class Play, we then read The Odyssey for Boys and Girls retold by A.J. Church (1936) as our lunchtime read aloud (available here as a FREE PDF).


This time around I have the luxury of taking my time, working remotely on Zoom with a student who wants to go through the D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths slowly. So here I am sharing the Table of Contents and some notes.


In Olden Times


Gaea, Mother Earth


The Titans

    the Hecatoncheires (meaning "hundred-handed ones") were named Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges

    Titan is a moon of Saturn

    modern word Titanic

    modern word titanium

    modern word rhea


ZEUS and His Family

    Roman equivalent Jupiter, name of a planet

    modern word iris

    find "Ida Mt., Childhood home of Zeus" on map


Hera

    Roman equivalent Juno

    Io is a moon of Jupiter

    find "Egypt" on map

    this is a great time to go see peacocks at the zoo or Cabin on the Hill!


Hephaestus

    Roman equivalent Vulcan

    modern word volcano

    find "Lemnos, Hephaestus' forge here" on map


Aphrodite


Ares

    Roman equivalent Mars, name of a planet and a month

    also, the two horses that pulled his chariot (Phobos "fear" and Deimos "terror") are the names of the two moons of Mars

    Eris is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt

    modern word phobia


Athena

    Roman equivalent Minerva

    modern word arachnid

    find "Athens" on map

    this is a great time to taste different types of olives or make Super Lemony Olive Oil Cake (our kitchen spoon is made of olive wood!)


Poseidon


Apollo

    find "Parnassus Mt., Oracle of Delphi" on map


Artemis

    Roman equivalent Diana

    constellations: Orion, Scorpius

    find "Orion was blinded here" on map


Hermes


Hades


Persephone and Demeter

    the Roman equivalent of Persephone is Proserpina

    the Roman equivalent of Demeter is Ceres

    modern word cereal

    find "Persephone kidnapped here" on map

    this is a great time to open and eat a pomegranate!

    Persephone
    retold by Sally Pomme Clayton


Dionysus

    Roman equivalent Bacchus

    Ganymede is a moon of Jupiter


MINOR GODS, Nymphs, Satyrs, and Centaurs


Prometheus


Pandora


Deucalion


Eos

    Roman equivalent Aurora

    modern word Eocene


Helios and Phaëthon


Selene


Pan


Echo


Syrinx


The Wild and Vulgar Centaurs


Asclepius


The Nine Muses


Orpheus

    find "Thrace, Orpheus born here" on map

    find "Lesbos, Orpheus buried here" on map


MORTAL DESCENDENTS OF ZEUS


Europa and Cadmus


Tantalus and Pelops


Danaüs, Perseus, and the Gorgon


Clever and Vainglorious Kings


King Midas


Sisyphus


Bellerophon


Melampus


Heracles


Theseus


Oedipus


The Golden Fleece

    find "Golden Ram flew to Colchis from here" on map

    modern word harpy

    modern word siren


The Calydonian Boar Hunt

    find "Calydonian boar here" on map


The Apples of Love and the Apple of Discord

    Eris is a dwarf planet

    find "Troy" and "Sparta" on map


Everything Must Come to an End


It's really helpful to have pictures handy of the different celestial bodies that have been named based on Greek mythology. I love The Photographic Card Deck of the Solar System by Marcus Chown (with 158 amazing images).

If you're also a part of Art History Kids, Lotus Stewart is doing Ancient Greek Art & Architecture as her August 2023 topic. That's a great resource as well!


This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

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