Materials for the lesson

Large size paper

Cards with names taken from the myth

Markers

A ball of yarn

Two horns, 1 sword, 1 hammer, 1 crown (The students can make them using paper. Although these things are common accessories for carnival costumes and they are easy to find in the school or be borrowed from colleagues.

A picture showing a part of Minotaur’s body –  For example a photo of Minotaur bust

Ancient Music and epic music

Layout of the classroom

During the Phase 1, the children are seated as usual.

From Phase 2 to 6, the desks are placed near the walls and the chairs are placed in a circle to create a large space in the middle for children to move and act.

Phase 1

  The teacher places a large size paper to the school board or to a wall. After have printing a large size picture of Minotaur bust – horns and arms missing from the sculpture, he/she sticks it in the middle of the large paper.

The teacher, without revealing the identity of the creature, asks the students to imagine and complete the statue.

  You are archeologists and you have found this statue. Which parts of the statue are missing?

  The students, by 3-4, come to the board and using markers draw different parts of the statue: one continues the head while the other the right hand and the third draws a leg. There is one condition: it is not allowed to erase the previous work.

When the statue is finished, the children describe the painting taking turns.

The teacher asks the children to imagine the place where this creature lives, its food or character.

• As you are archeologists, where do you think this creature lives?

• What does it eat?

• Are people afraid of it?

• Who would dare to fight with him?

The students make assumptions and come to the board and write them inside bubbles around the drawing. All answers are written.

Phase 2

The teacher gives a card with one name from the story to 5 different children: Theseus, Minotaur, Ariadne, Minos, Daedalus.

 He/she gives them also an objet: Theseus takes a sword, Minos a crown, Ariadne a ball of yarn, Minotaur 2 horns, Daedalus a hammer.

 The teacher invites the rest of the class to make a labyrinth to house the creature they have painted using their bodies: opened arms, hands or lying down on the floor -if there is a carpet. The children may explore their imagination and make a labyrinth of different bodies shapes or postures.

Phase 3

 The children are seated in a circle.

 The teacher puts ancient music and starts narrating the myth slowly, meaningfully and expressively.

The students in role have to stand up and represent the action of the story, moving and acting silently inside the circle, in slow motion.

In the last scene, when Theseus meets the Minotaur the teacher chooses an epic kind of music.

Phase 4

The teacher and the students discuss about the character of Theseus, the role of Ariadne and the symbolic meaning of the myth.

Phase 5

 The students create dialogues and play the three last and most important scenes of the myth:

• Theseus meets Ariadne

• Theseus walks into the Labyrinth

• Theseus kills the Minotaur.

The ‘Labyrinth’ may talk too, for example, narrates the story.

Phase 6

Evaluation

The students are asked to correct the ‘bubbles’ on Minotaur’s statue. They write the names or the information they have learnt.