Ancient Greek myths
This set of teaching ideas and worksheets for KS2 has been produced in partnership with BBC Teach and accompanies their series of five short animated films entitled 'Ancient Greek myths'. Each set of teaching ideas includes comprehension questions and answers, cross-curricular teaching ideas and worksheets.
The films and teaching ideas are:
1. The Olympians
2. Prometheus and Pandora
3. King Midas
4. Demeter and Persephone
5. The Odyssey
During the series, pupils will:
• write for a variety of different purposes, including writing a diary, a persuasive text, a newspaper report, a narrative and a poem
• develop their comprehension skills
• identify and use forms of figurative language
• use a range of art and design techniques
• understand how and why the seasons change.
You may also like our resource Once upon a time in Ancient Greece, also produced in partnership with BBC Teach.
A sample from the resource:
Read all about it! Ask pupils to write a newspaper report based on an element of the video. This might be Kronos killing his father or eating his children or it might focus on the war between the Titans and the Olympians and the reasons for it. Remind pupils of the features of a
newspaper report and the need for an attention-grabbing headline! A template is provided for the report.
Playing God. Prometheus and Epimetheus are asked to create creatures with which to fill the Earth. What kind of creatures would pupils create? Task them with drawing and labelling a new life form. They should consider its habitat, lifestyle and eating habits and how this will affect
its appearance and features. A template is provided for this task.
Battleships. On the grid provided, pupils plot each of the seven obstacles in The Odyssey (Polyphemus, Poseidon, the Laestrygonians, Circe, The Sirens, Scylla,
Helios). They then pair up for a game of Ancient Greek battleships, where they choose coordinates at which to fire thunderbolts to destroy their opponent’s
obstacles.
