Literacy study - Myths and Legends

Happy New Year!
I hope you've had a great Holiday.
I did.
I thought the POWSA Christmas pudding was delicious! And so easy in the microwave too.

Right,.. down to business. The literacy unit that the children in Year 3 will be studying when they get back is a personal favourite of mine: Myths and Legends.
We will be placing an emphasis on the myths and legends from ancient Greece.

Here is some of the guidance offered for this "topic" in the National Literacy Stategy. I will be using this as a basic approach over the next 4 weeks:

  Myths, legends, fables, traditional tales (4 weeks)


This is the second of four narrative units in Year 3. The unit builds on the use of setting and sequencing of narrative events leading to a resolution from unit 1 on stories with familiar settings. This unit can be linked to other curriculum subjects and themes.

Phase 1
Compare a range of myths. Analyse a quest myth, identifying the text structure and language features.
Phase 2
Identify how settings impact on events in a quest myth. Create an interactive story map to support planning a quest myth. Use oral storytelling to plan a quest myth.
Phase 3
Children write their own quest myth incorporating settings that provide a challenge and settings with characters that support the main character.

Overview
Read a range of myths, legends, fables and traditional tales, identify and discuss common themes, for example good over evil, wise over foolish, etc. Sequence the key events using lists, maps and storyboards and describe the key characters with reference to the text. Demonstrate how the sequence of events can be varied. Using a familiar story theme, children plan and write own stories in style of myth/legend/fable, etc.

A Mr MacBean thought
Some of those ancient tales of monsters and heroes can be a bit on the gruesome side. I do try to make sure I present the stories in an appropriately playful way so that they are not too terrifying! I am always sure to point out that this is, of course, fiction and that you're not going to bump into Medusa in Tesco. However, jokes aside, if any of the children do get scared of any of the content please do let me know as soon as possible.
(They usually love it! And the more gruesome the better!)