GRAPES – R is for Religion

 What’s your most embarrassing classroom moment as a teacher?  Take a second to get a good visual.

Let’s compare!

When my son was in 5th grade, he had to record himself demonstrating how to do something. He chose how to throw a football. Now this was way back in the days before smartphones. So most students just reused a VHS tape from home and recorded over old content. Took it into school and they shared the video in class. Super fun.

Well, that is until one boy showed his video about how to play a saxophone. He did a great job according to my son. That is until the saxophone lesson segued into, shall we say, mom and dad mature video content.

Now that’s a teacher moment. She closed down the video in a hurry, but do you think anyone raved about the sax performance?

TEACHER RULE #1 – NEVER show a video, play a song, or let students research on the internet without fully previewing the material in advance. NEVER!!

GRAPES – R is for Religion

So what does this have to do with the R for Religion in GRAPES?

My students loved the ancient mythology in their video games and literature. Ancient gods and goddesses look cool and have cool powers. What’s not to like?

Bringing that excitement into the classroom seemed like a great break from notetaking. But when I started researching ancient mythology online I was blown away by the mature themes.  And unfortunately, the appropriate sites I found seemed a bit young for middle schoolers.  

So I decided that the best, although certainly not the easiest, way to safely introduce my students to ancient deities for each ancient culture was to write my own materials. These quickly became among the highest engagement activities of the year. It’s a great way to enhance a grade rather than assigning extra credit. It’s great to leave with subs or to use as an early finisher activity.

Click each link to preview my middle school appropriate mythology materials for Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Ancient Religion Resources

If you’re wanting to do some research on your own, these are my go to Ancient History sites. I search for “[Ancient Culture name] Religion” and follow the hyperlinks.

• World History Encyclopedia
• History on the NET
• Wikipedia (links to Ancient Egypt Religion, but search for other mythologies)
• Mythopedia.com
• Ancient Egypt Online
• University of Pennsylvania – Mesopotamian deities
• Greek Gods and Goddesses – Greece and Rome

Temples, Priests, and the Afterlife

GRAPES – R is for Religion extends beyond mythology.  I use the same resources listed above to research Temples, Priests, Everyday Worship, and Afterlife Beliefs for each ancient culture. Click on each link to preview the ancient religion overviews I created for Mesopotamia and Egypt.

World Religions

My 6th grade curriculum requires that we cover the major world religions – Judaism/Israelites, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. I cover these as 1-week mini units between cultures rather than as part of each ancient culture.  But that’s a blog for another time!

What’s Next?

Take a look at my GRAPES – R is for Religion resources. Save yourself hours and research my curated list of deities. Or, take back your evenings and weekend when you purchase any of my Ready-to-Go resources. 

Sign up for my Timesaving Teacher Tools Newsletter. You’ll instantly receive my Ancient Egypt HEX Game Activity to print out and play tomorrow! And then, twice each month I’ll make your teacher life easier with even more Timesaving Ideas.

Next up, I’ll talk about GRAPES – P for Politics and Government. Check out my prior posts about GRAPES and about GRAPES – G for Geography.

Thanks for being here. See you soon!

Mary