Mythology Story Time

We've been thinking a lot about monsters, creatures, mythology, legends, etc. since January.  Today, we focused specifically on Mythology.  What exactly is mythology? What do we know about it? What kind of creatures can we find? What makes something a myth? 

Thanks to a wonderful conversation with Jordan, our Rainey Room B teacher, we've expanded our mythological horizons.  Today, I introduced a story from African mythology, bought a book about mythological monsters from Greek mythology, and we were able to compare them with Eric Carle illustrations of various creatures "that never were".

What does the word mythology mean to you? 
I was reading about “What is mythology?.”  A lot of people said it was a few different stories to explain things that happen. 
Mythology is a kind of story to explain things that happen in our world. 

Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti

I’m going to start with Anansi the Spider.  It’s a story; a myth.  Let’s see if we can tell what the story is trying to explain. What is the myth about?

What  do you think the globe is supposed to be? 
“The moon.” - Giacomo, 4.4 years
So this is a mythological story about how the moon got into the sky. A story to explain how the moon got into the sky.  A story from Africa.

I also found Anansi in this poetry book i have. So, we can see two different ways to illustrate Anansi the spider.

Mythological Creatures of Ancient Greece

“That’s such a big head.  A small body, but a big head.” - Giacomo, 4.4 years
What else do you notice about the face? What are all of these? 
“Well, they are eyes.” - Giacomo 
So, this book is from Greek mythology.  We had African mythology, and now we’ll look at Greek mythology.

“Do you think that’s the guy on the front?” - Giacomo, 4.4 years

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Can you see the one-eyed cyclops? 
“He’s big!” - Giacomo, 4.4 years
“Why does he have one eye? He has one eye because cyclops only has one eye because…” - Saul, 3.8 years
“Actually, he has one eye because that’s a monster that lives up, up in space, and space monsters have only one eye.” - Giacomo, 4.4 years

Cerberus the three-headed dog.
“But I count four eyes!” - Giacomo

“Centaur!! You see that big red thing [on his bookshelves], below that, next to that big red thing is a half horse, half man.” - Giacomo

Saul, she liked riddles, and we like riddles.
“She liked riddles?” - Saul
Yes! She liked to make riddles for people to answer, just like we make sound riddles.

Giacomo's Monster Manual

“This book is a little old, and the pictures are black.  There are lots and lots of monsters. Like this one. It’s daddy’s monster manual.  It’s very old.  I think it came out when daddy was little.  Now he is  1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10..11. He’s eleven. So, when he was little this came out.” - Giacomo

“Since we did mythical stories and creatures, I want to do a Loch Ness video.” - Giacomo 
Mythological stories tell us about how something happened. Does the Loch Ness story tell us about how something happened in our world?  Or how something was created? 
I’m thinking that the Loch Ness monster might be something called a legend.
“A legend?” - Saul ​

“A legend is something that you fight it.  It’s something you pull it and fight it! The monster!!!” - Giacomo 
So there are legends and then there are the mythology stories; the one that tell us something.  Like the Anansi story told us how they thought the moon got into the sky. ​

A Dragon

Ines and Sam shared with me that they are sewing a dragon costume.
“A dragon costume? For me?” - Saul, 3.8 years
You’ll get to see it when you go to school one day.  They want to know if you want to sew a scale for the costume.
“So that we can wear it?” - Saul 
Yes.  You can wear it when you’re at school. They want to work with you on the dragon.
“With me?” - Saul 
Yes because you’re their friend. 
“We’ll work later on the dragon.”- Saul 
And here’s a different dragon! 
“What’s that one doing? It has three heads!” - Saul 
Have you ever seen a dragon with three heads? 
“That dragon loves people! It loves everyone.  That dragon loves somebody!” - Saul