Weather Gods

Zeus rules the gods of Mount Olympus.  He also rules over the humans.  He rules with a mixture of love and reward as well as control and punishment.  For when the humans do bad things, such as fight wars (get the children to offer some examples of bad things), he throws down large bolts of lightning and causes big thunderstorms to happen, that flood their homes and wreck their crops, as punishment.  When the humans are good, such as… (get children to help again), which is actually most of the time, he brings out the sun and the people are warm and happy.  Sometimes he also brings the rain to help the crops to grow.

Task Question:

• When there is a thunderstorm, do the humans know they are being punished?

Nested Questions:

• Are they being punished?
• Are thunderstorms bad?
• Is it fair to punish everyone?
• Does Zeus control the people (in this way)?

Task Question:

• If you were Zeus, what would you do to punish the humans when they were bad?

Nested Questions:

• What is bad weather?

Eventually the humans get fed up of all the thunderstorms and control that Zeus seems to have over them, and someone decides to build a huge shelter (here I use the prop of an umbrella, and put it up in the circle – can cause a bit of noise, UNLUCKY FEARS etc, but gives something provocative for younger groups to focus on) like a huge umbrella over the city.  Now whenever there’s a thunderstorm, the people don’t get wet and their homes don’t get flooded.  But because they can’t take the umbrella down, they also never feel the sun anymore either as it too is blocked by the shelter.  But it’s OK because they can make fire and keep warm.

Task Question:

• Do the humans control the weather?

Nested Questions:

• Do the humans in the story control the weather?
• Do humans today control the weather?
• If this is not controlling the weather, what would it be like to control the weather?
• Should humans try to control the weather?
• Can humans control making the planet hotter?
• Can humans control making rain happen?

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