Title of the resource
Title of the resource in english
Publisher
University of Cambridge
Original language
Target and Age Group
Key Stage 2 (ages 7-11), teachers
Link to resource
Accessed on 25 June, 2020
Contents & Purpose
Primary Ancient Greeks is aimed mainly at primary school teachers. The website provides teaching guidance, printable materials and lesson plans for teaching Ancient Greek literacy and history through Greek myths. The website contains thematically-organised modules prepared to be realized within 6 weeks. The crucial idea of the authors is for each of the topics to introduce to the student 2-3 chosen Greek myths weekly and present connected ideas and concepts from the ancient civilization and/or adequate historical and cultural knowledge.
The stories for each week are linked by a common theme and provide an introduction to a historical topic which contains 4 tabs: Main topic, Key ideas, Making the link and Teaching the topic.
All the stories told in this collection are versions of myths taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It is interesting that Roman texts are used to tell Greek myths. Each of them is presented in the form of an audio material long about 5-13 minutes (on the average 7-8 min.) told by professional storytellers in an artistic interpretation with an attached summary and a transcript. Some of the myths are accompanied by a storyboard drawn in black-and-white shadowed layers by Laura Jenkinson-Brown.
Week 1 introduces myths of King Midas and the Golden Touch and Phaethon (theme: choices); week 2 - Midas and the ears of an ass and Actaeon (theme: punishment); week 3 - creation myths (theme: creation); week 4 - Demeter and Persephone, Orpheus and Eurydike (theme: love and loss); week 5 - Baucis and Philemon, Arachne (theme: piety); week 6 - Daidalos and Icaros, Theseus and the Minotaur (theme: the hero). Each of them is followed by resources for teachers providing guidance on how to teach and what is to be taught in adequate tabs: Starting-points, Pause points, Questions for discussion, and Suggested activities.