Lesson 03 — Many Stories of Beginnings
Learners meet origin stories from several world regions — a golden egg, the sky and the earth, water and land, the Dreaming — held side by side as treasured, equal tellings, with the scientific story from the day before as one more among them.
Objectives
- D06.S4.K.01 Listen to an origin story about the universe and retell it in their own words, knowing it is one story among many.
Essential question
What are some of the many stories different peoples tell about how everything began?
Materials
Standard materials
- Story picture cards · 1 set One simple card per origin story (cosmic egg, sky and earth, water and land, the Dreaming)
- A "story blanket" or mat · 1 A special place to sit while stories are told
- A small basket · 1 To hold the cards like treasures
Low-tech / no-cost
- Voices only Tell each story aloud with no pictures; use your hands and face
- Found-paper drawings Learners sketch each story on any scrap paper as they hear it
Enriched / lab & device
- Illustrated story cards or a world map · 1 set Show where each story's people live, to honor each place without ranking
- A short audio or video of storytellers (where available) · 1 Let learners hear a real storyteller's voice if one is accessible
Works in different contexts
- large-group Pass each card in a circle and let a different learner hold it while you tell that story, so each story has its own keeper
- self-directed The learner spreads the cards out, looks at each, and tells each story back to an adult or a stuffed friend
- outdoor-only Tell the stories sitting on the earth, under the open sky, touching a stone or leaf — so the sky-and-earth story and the land stories are felt, not just heard
Lesson 3 — Many Stories of Beginnings
Summary
Learners meet several origin stories from different peoples of the world, told gently and held side by side as equal, treasured tellings of the same question. They learn that every people’s story is meaningful and that no one story is everyone’s story — the scientific story from the day before is one among many.
Objectives
- Listen to an origin story about the universe and retell it in their own words, knowing it is one story among many. (D06.S4.K.01)
Connection
People everywhere — in hot places and cold places, by the sea and in the mountains — have looked at the same sky and asked the same question: how did it all begin? Each people has made a story to hold their answer, the way your family might tell stories about how things began for you. No one story is everyone’s story, and all of them are kept safe and treasured.
Materials
- Story picture cards (one per story)
- A “story blanket” or mat
- A small basket to hold the cards
Preparation
- Make or gather one simple picture card per story: a golden egg; a sky and an earth holding each other; water with dry land; a winding river through hills.
- Set out the story blanket and place the cards in the basket.
Facilitator note
Tell these stories with warmth and respect, as gifts from real peoples, not as curiosities. Every one of these stories has many versions, and storytellers in each place tell them a little differently; you are telling one simple version. The word “the Dreaming” is an English way to point to something many Aboriginal nations each name in their own language; it is not one people’s single story. Name the people and place of each story without ranking any above another, and without caricature. If a learner shares their own family’s story, welcome it as a treasured story too. Do not ask anyone to believe any of them.
Procedure
- Gather (5 min). Sit on the story blanket. Remember yesterday’s story — the “Everywhere Stretch.” That is one story. Today we meet more, from people all over the world.
- Hear the stories (20 min). Reach into the basket and bring out one card at a
time. Listen to each story:
- The golden egg (India): Some people in India have told of a great golden egg that floated in the nothing. When it split, the world spilled out — the sky from one half, the earth from the other.
- The sky and the earth (Aotearoa, the Māori people): The Māori people of Aotearoa tell of Ranginui the sky and Papatūānuku the earth, who once held each other so close that there was no light between them — until their children pushed them gently apart, and light rushed in.
- Water and land (West Africa, Yoruba storytellers): Yoruba storytellers in West Africa tell that at first the world was all water and sky, until a kind spirit came down and scattered soil on the water to shape the dry land.
- The Dreaming (Australia, Aboriginal peoples): Many Aboriginal peoples of Australia tell of the time when ancestor beings traveled the land and shaped the rivers, hills, and trees — and the land woke up. English speakers often call this “the Dreaming,” but each nation has its own name for it in its own language.
- Hold them side by side (5 min). Lay all the cards out together. Are any two alike? Are they all beautiful? They are all answers to the same big question, and all of them are treasures.
- Your turn to keep one (10 min). Pick the story that feels most like a treasure to you. Hold its card and tell it back in your own words to a partner.
- Close (5 min). Remember: there are many stories, and every one matters. Nobody has to believe any of them; everyone may love as many as they like.
Differentiation
- Support: Tell only two stories, slowly, with a movement for each; let the learner point to the card that matches a picture.
- Extension: Invite learners to add a story they know from their own family or place, and to wonder what all the stories share (many begin with light, water, or the land).
Assessment
- Formative (observation): Can the learner hold more than one story in mind and say they are all meaningful, with none ranked above the others?
- Performance: Retelling a chosen story in their own words.