creation myths

What role could clay and vomit play in creation? Find out by reading excerpts from Tony Allan, Fergus Fleming, and Charles Phillips' "Voices of the Ancestors: African Myth." For more enlightenment, turn to the Native American myth retold by Donna Rosenberg: "Raven and the Sources of Light."

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 7 Unit 1's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: The Road Not Taken, Choices, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Dust Tracks on a Road, Bad Boy, Why Couldn't I Have Been Named Ashley?, Phaethon, Daedalus and Icarus, Arachne, The Lion, the Fox, and the Stag, A Note from the Author, creation myths
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. dwindle
    become smaller or lose substance
    He cared for it lovingly, creeping out each dawn to feed it, but his parents noticed the dwindling supply of milk.
  2. distraught
    deeply agitated especially from emotion
    That evening Huveane discovered that his precious creation was missing; distraught, he slumped glumly with his parents at the fire.
  3. distressed
    afflicted with or marked by anxious uneasiness or trouble
    Distressed by his low spirits, his mother asked him to fetch some logs
  4. caper
    jump about playfully
    whereupon he discovered the unharmed baby and capered with joy.
  5. eruption
    the sudden occurrence of a violent discharge
    The Kuba, who live in the abundant rainforest of Central Africa, call their creator god Mbombo and picture creation as a sudden eruption from his mouth.
  6. stricken
    grievously affected especially by disease
    Then in the deep, dark hours of the first day, Mbombo was stricken by a sharp stomach pain and vomited.
  7. convulse
    contract involuntarily, as in a spasm
    Again Mbombo's stomach convulsed, this time sending forth a wonderful and various stream of life
  8. lithe
    moving and bending with ease
    the tall sky, the sharp-forked lightning, deep-rooted trees, animals in all their lithe power and the first man and woman
  9. Haida
    a member of a seafaring group of North American Indians who lived on the Pacific coast of British Columbia and southwestern Alaska
    Raven was sad for his people, for he knew that without the sun the earth would not bring forth the food the Haida needed to survive, and without the moon his people could not see to catch fish at night.
  10. transform
    change or alter in appearance or nature
    So Raven transformed himself into a seed and floated on the surface of the nearby stream.
  11. disguise
    an outward semblance that misrepresents something's nature
    The woman became pregnant, and in time she gave birth to a son, who was Raven in disguise.
  12. drift
    be in motion due to some air or water current
    The bag immediately rose to the ceiling, drifted through the smoke hole, and flew up into the heavens.
  13. possession
    anything owned
    When I open this box, I am giving you the last and dearest of my possessions, the sun.
  14. nestle
    lie in a sheltered position
    Inside the large box a second wooden box nestled in the wrappings of a spider's web, and inside that box, a third wooden box nestled.
  15. brilliant
    full of light; shining intensely
    As soon as the chief removed the sun from this box, his lodging was flooded with a brilliant light.
  16. fiery
    like or suggestive of a flame
    Raven would point to the sun's box, play with it until he tired of it, and then watch as his grandfather put the fiery ball away into its series of boxes.
  17. grasp
    hold firmly
    The child resumed his Raven shape, grasped the ball of light in his claws, and flew up through the smoke hole into the sky, traveling in the direction of the river.
  18. alight
    settle or come to rest
    When he spied people fishing in the dark, he alighted on a tree and said to them, "If you will give me some fish, I will give you some light."
  19. procedure
    a particular course of action intended to achieve a result
    Day after day they repeated this procedure, until Raven tired of eating fish.
  20. exclaim
    utter aloud, often with surprise, horror, or joy
    "Now my people will have light both day and night!" he exclaimed.
Created on Fri Aug 22 21:48:18 EDT 2014 (updated Fri Aug 22 22:43:07 EDT 2014)

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