the mythology behind Percy Jackson

The other class that I taught during co-op was for the 9-12 year olds about mythology. We spent the first 4 weeks talking about different characters in mythology and what their stories are - the gods and goddesses, the heroes, creatures and monsters. I didn't "teach" that part, so much as ask the kids what they knew about this person or that, and they filled each other in on the details.

For the other four weeks, they wrote and practiced a play to perform at Share Day yesterday. In the spirit of Rick Riordan, they chose their own mythology characters and came up with their own story. They did a really good job! I just took notes during our first "writing" session, and when we got home, Sunny put them all into a script herself. I did no editing. When we took it back to the group, there were suggestions made for additions and changes, and I inserted them to make sure everything flowed ... but it was their story. It was performed as a Readers Theater, where everyone stands in one place on the stage and just reads their scripts - much easier than attempting sets and props and blocking. The girls were really excited to have costumes and we even asked another mom to do face paint on the kids. It was a fun class to participate with!

Practicing the readers theater style in class - when Hera catches Zeus out on a date with Io, who he turns into a cow to hide her.

Ready for the Readers Theater - Medusa and Artemis

Final bows for the Readers Theater at Share Day: Metis, Poseidon, Artemis, Aphrodite, the Narrator, Kronos, Hades, and Medusa.