Creation stories and myths are stories that tell how the universe and the Earth began as well as explaining how humans came to exist. For some religions, their creation stories are part of a holy book or text.
Year 6 have enjoyed exploring this unit and have made comparisons between the Judeo-Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Sikh creation stories. They have also looked at how these stories compare to those which are not considered religious (including the Mayan civilisation, the Maori and the Yoruba creation story.)
Judeo-Christian 
Islam 
Hindu 
Sikh 
Maori 
Yoruba
After looking at some of these stories in depth during our class discussions, the children worked together to review the stories and then classify them. The children learnt that creation stories can be classified into 5 broad categories:
- Creation from chaos.
- Earth diver.
- Emergence.
- Ex nihilo (out of nothing)
- World parent.
The Judeo-Christian and Islamic creation stories can be classified as ‘Ex- Nihilo’ which means ‘out of nothing.’ God created the world from nothing and used speech, breath and thought to bring the world and humans into existence.
The Yoruba creation story is an ‘Earth diver’ story: a supreme being sends someone or something to find material to create the world, whereas the Maori Creation story is a ‘World Parent’ story: creation occurs through the union of two world parents.
Year 6 were asked to share their own thoughts about creation:
