Mythology for Middle School
We hosted a mythology program on Monday night for our middle school students! And with 36 kids in attendance, it went really well! I created six different activities for the kids to rotate through. I have found stations lead to minimal boredom and problems within the groups. And I always try to allow kids to at least pair up with a friend before creating groups. This allows kids to feel comfortable and overall the groups worked really well.
Lesson Plan
- Thor’s Hammer Toss (Norse)
I created Thor’s Hammer using a tissue box, paper towel tube, and lots of duct tape. The kids had a goal of trying to throw it into a hula hoop. I stressed the importance of accuracy over strength and one hammer lasted through multiple tosses by all the kids. - Anansi the Spider’s Obstacle Course (Ashanti of Ghana)
Loosely based off of the Anansi tale by Gerald McDermott, the obstacle course required, balancing along a rope, leaping across “lily pads” sit-upons from storytime, leaping over some caution tape stretched between two chairs, throwing a bean bag into a bucket and crawling through a play tunnel. - Greek Mythology Trivia
We’ve done a number of programs for Percy Jackson and I adapted the trivia to be multiple choice questions the kids could answer. We went over all the answers during our snack time. - Chinese Magic Square
The Chinese Magic Square is a 3×3 square where using the numbers 1-9 only once, each horizontal, vertical, and diagonal will equal 15. A few kids solved it, but many tried a number of times to figure out the answer. The Chinese culture has a rich history of dragons and other mythical beasts. But without having a lot of time to do research, I thought it best to focus on something that was more historical in nature. - Roman Mythology Research
We used the 10 iPads we have and allowed the kids to research well-known and lesser-known Roman gods, goddesses, and more. We used the Mythology – Roman app (99¢). The kids did a great job of not straying from this app which was my biggest concern. And they seemed really excited to learn about the different gods. - Native American Word Search
Finally, I created a word search using a generator online of common Native American words often found in folk tales. An easy, and fun thing for the kids to work on.