LEGENDS OF DAY AND NIGHT

 

Georgia Standards

 

South Carolina Standards

 

Key Vocabulary

 

Materials

• Anchor chart paper
• Paper
• Pencils

The Origins of Day and Night by Paula Ikuutaq Rumbolt (Author), Lenny Lishchenko (Illustrator)

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Classroom Tips:  Use cueing methods when directing tableau in your classroom: “3-2-1- Freeze” and “Actor’s Neutral”. Make your expectations for when students work together to craft their legends explicit and go over these before the group work begins. Write them up so that students can refer back to them if they need to during their group working time.

 

• Start with a general physical warm-up to get the students' bodies ready. Use exercises such as:
  • Stretching: Stretch all major muscle groups.
  • Shaking Out Limbs: Shake out arms, legs, and the whole body to release tension.
  • Energy Passes: Stand in a circle and pass a clap or a simple motion around to build group focus and energy.
• Introduce the art forms of storytelling and tableau with a warm-up: Character Statues.
  • Students will spread out in the room standing in a neutral position called “Actor’s Neutral”.  
  • Students will form character statues when prompted.
    • Examples of prompts: An actor surrounded by fans wanting autographs, an upset principal, a clown juggling, etc.
    • Encourage students to pair up and create tableaux of the following relationships:  A parent and child, a doctor and patient, two friends who haven’t seen each other in years, etc.
      • Be sure that students understand that a tableau is a frozen picture.

 

Work Session

• Story Whoosh: Form a class circle. Tell students that they will be reading a legend about the origin of day and night as told by the Inuit people. Review what a “legend” is as a class and show students where the Inuit people live (scroll down for map).
• Read The Origins of Day and Night by Paula Ikuutaq Rumbolt (Author), Lenny Lishchenko (Illustrator).
  • As you read, pause and allow students to come into the center of the circle to form a tableau that dramatizes that section of the legend. Say “Whoosh!” to indicate the actors in the middle returning to their places in the circle and allow other actors to come to the center.  
  • Continue this activity until the entire legend is finished being shared.
• Review the concept of how day and night are created by the Earth’s rotation on its axis so that it’s facing towards or away from the Sun.
  • Divide students into small groups. Provide each group a piece of anchor chart/poster paper and markers. On it, they should write down everything that they know about the scientific concepts behind day and night.
  • Bring the class back together to create a “master list” of facts that students know about why we experience day and night, such as:
    • The earth orbits the sun in 365 days. The earth rotates on its axis in a full circle taking 24 hours. The moon orbits the earth, taking about 28 days to orbit Earth. The position of the earth, sun and moon affect the phases of the moon and which parts of the moon we can see. The moon does not produce any light, it reflects light from the sun.  
• Tell students that each group will be creating their own original legend explaining the origins of day and night, much like the Inuit one they explored earlier.
  • Students will be merging fact and fiction in their legends. 
  • Go over the group guidelines:
    • Include at least two scientific facts about day and night in your legend. 
    • Include a clear problem and solution that explains why we have day and night.
    • Include a tableau performance with expressive narration of the legend.
  • Provide time for students to write and practice. Circulate the room to work with students and check for understanding.

 

Closing Reflection

• After writing and practicing their legends and tableaux, students will perform for the class. Discuss appropriate audience participation and etiquette prior to performances.
• After group performances, reflect using the following questions as prompts:
  • What did you like or notice about this group’s performance?  
  • What did you notice was different about your legend from the Inuit legend we read today?  
  • What did you notice was similar about your legend from the Inuit legend we read today?  
  • How did the scientific background knowledge you had about the Sun and Moon help you in developing your legend? Did understanding science make it more challenging to be creative?

 

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess students’ understanding of the content throughout the lesson by observing students’ participation in the activator, discussion of scientifically why we experience day and night, and collaboration with groups to write their own legend and create a tableau to accompany it.

 

Summative

CHECKLIST

• Students can scientifically explain why we experience day and night.
• Students can write a legend about the origin of day and night that meets criteria.
• Students can demonstrate key parts of their legend through tableaux.

 

DIFFERENTIATION 

Acceleration:  Students can turn their legend into a play with dialogue, practicing the different parts and presenting for the class. Have students do additional research on how other groups of people throughout time have sought to explain day and night.  Optional technology extensions: ThingLink.com: Demonstrate how to use the website ThingLink.com, a website that allows students to hyperlink different websites and student-created captions to an image.  Each student will find an image or a diagram of the placement of the Earth and the moon during a 24 hour period and attach various captions and hyperlinks that explain the science behind night and day.   Coordinating these images with their legends, students will demonstrate sound understanding of presented science concepts.   Using apps: Demonstrate how to use Puppet Pals app which allows students to choose characters and backdrops and record their voices to create a show.  Demonstrate the Toontastic app, which uses a 'story arc' with characters, setting, plot, and a conclusion. Coordinating with the study of elements of fiction, this app gives students the ability to create and move characters while recording their own voices to tell their stories.  Students can practice retelling the legend they created in small groups by creating dialogue for the major events in the story.  Remediation:  Write a legend as a class. Then, have groups create tableaux depicting different important parts of the story. Have students present their tableaux in sequential order as the class legend is read aloud. Provide sentence starters and/or graphic organizers to structure writing.

 

 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

The Origins of Day and Night by Paula Ikuutaq Rumbolt (Author), Lenny Lishchenko (Illustrator), read aloud Where the Inuit people live

 

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed by: Jessica Rosa Espinoza. Updated by Katy Betts.

Revised and copyright: July 2024 @ ArtsNOW