Our Trip to Africa

To start our new topic all about Africa, we welcomed Kwame from African Activities into our school. He brought in a selection of resources to help us get experience traditional Africa life. We started with a whole-school assembly to welcome Kwame before starting our workshop.

Our first challenge was to learn an African dance. Some of the moves were really tricky but it was all a lot of fun and the children (and staff) put their resilience to great purpose and the end product was fantastic.

While we rested from our dance workout Kwame told us a traditional African tale all about a group of animals who tried to steal a drum for the Sky God 'Nyame'. The children were really gripped and it was great to compare our own traditional tales with those from another continent.

Once we were fully rested Kwame taught us African drumming. This was a real highlight but it did make our hands hurt. Kwame showed us a little pattern and we had to copy. The most important thing was to use the right part of our hands and the right part of the drum to make bass sounds and rhythm sounds.

In the afternoon Kwame talked to us about how he and his brother used to make their own toys and models out of plastic waste. In true Blue Peter style Kwame produced an amazing bird straight from an old milk bottle. He taught us the basics and got us started with making some African masks.

 Our final activity was traditional African Adinkra printing. We used Kwame's special paint and printing symbols to make our own patterns. Our cloths will be sewn together to make a large tapestry for the hall.

We had such a wonderful day we can't wait to continue our learning all about Africa. We will be getting ready to share some of our outcomes with you at the Spring Celebration...