Students create puppet theatre based on a study of Greek mythology.
Breathing Life Into Myths
Program Summary A language arts teacher draws on puppetry techniques and help from her school’s theatre teacher to engage her sixth-graders in exploring Greek myths.
The Integrated Instruction
HELEN SCHELL, 6th-Grade Language Arts Teacher I’m trying to immerse the children in the idea that mythology and Greek culture permeate our day-to-day life. I chose puppets because any time I plan a curriculum for the kids, my first thought is “How can I draw them in?” We’re working with art, we’re working with theatre, we’re working with history, and obviously, we’re working with language arts and writing.
JENNIFER LARSON, Theatre Teacher The way I worked with Helen Schell is very typical of what we do here. It started out as a passing in the hallway and that turned into a scheduled meeting. Initially we swapped ideas, and then I tried to stay a part of the process throughout. When the mythology scripts reached the level of production I went in and served as an advisor, working with Helen to get the kids to add some theatrics to the project, and doing some critiquing.