Native American Legends Writing Assignment Cover Sheet
Native Americans had their own way of explaining the world’s creation, natural
phenomenon, strange happenings and special traits and abilities in animals. Today
they are called legends and myths.
Your assignment is to write and illustrate an original legend/myth. Your
legend/myth needs to explain how something happens or how something came to
be. Remember this is not scientific but a different way of understanding and
explaining the world around us. Choose topic from the list below.
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Options:
Explain why we have thunder.
Explain why we have 4 seasons.
Explain why the sun goes down and the moon comes up.
Explain how the mountains came to be.
Explain why a skunk has a white stripe down its back.
Explain why turtles are slow.
Explain why fish live in the water.
Explain why we have rainbows.
Explain snow.
Explain why wolves howl at the moon.
Explain why elk have antlers.
Your legend/myth will need to be 3 paragraphs long and each paragraph needs to
be a minimum of 5 sentences. Use your Language Arts knowledge; Introduction,
body and conclusion, use proper punctuation capitalization, comas and periods.
The illustration must be drawn and colored. A computer illustration is not
acceptable. Your picture needs to be on 8x10 blank white paper. Use the whole
page to draw a scene from your legend/myth.
This cover sheet must be attached to the back of your myth/legend. Remember to
turn in Total Quality Work.
Your final draft is due _________________________.
Rubric for grading: When your assignment is graded this is the guideline I will
grade it by.
30pts.
20pts.
10pts.
3 complete paragraphs
Instruction sheet stapled to
the back of the assignment.
All sentences have proper
punctuation.
Illustration is clean, neatly
drawn, colored and fits the
story.
2 paragraphs
Instruction sheet stapled to
the back of the assignment.
1 paragraph, No instruction
Sheet stapled to the back.
Sentences do not have proper
punctuation.
Illustration is unclear and
does not fit the story.
Incomplete sentences
Incomplete illustration, no
illustration.
Missing cover sheet is an
automatic -5pts.