AFRICA: Serengeti Silhouettes

Here is an awesome art project I found on Pinterest to go with a unit study on Africa, or even grasslands in an ecology unit. I was pleased with how they turned out.

First, with watercolor paper and watercolors, paint a sunset background with warm colors.

After the paper is dry, and using silhouette examples if needed, draw the outlines of your silhouettes with pencil.

Then trace over the pencil with a black Sharpie and fill it in.

AFRICA: Akhwari--Greatest Last Place Finish Ever

Have you ever heard of John Stephen Akhwari? If not, you should find out who he is, and you should share his story with your children. Let me help you.

John Stephen Akhwari is a marathon runner from Tanzania. He was the African champion runner and he competed in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Even though Akhwari had previously beaten the man who would win the gold medal in the men's marathon that year, Akhwari is mostly known for having the worst marathon finishing time in the history of the Olympics. But really, the time isn't the important part--the finishing is. 

Here is the quote he is most famous for:

"My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 5,000 miles to finish it."

Akhwari's Olympic marathon finish is nothing short of heroic given all the circumstances and given his tenacious grit. He is an amazing example! I like everything about the following video except that at the end it categorizes Akhwari's finish as one of the "strangest." I disagree. I think it's one of the best and most inspiring.

Years later, Akhwari was called upon to be honored and participate in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, carrying the torch. Here is a good follow up article on Akhwari's life since his famous finish. 

Whether you're studying Africa, the Olympics, focusing on biographies, working on character development, or need a story for a Family Home Evening lesson on enduring to the end, John Stephen Akhwari from Mbulu, Tanzania, Africa is someone to talk about.

AFRICA: The Sahara

It's not like my kids don't know anything about the Sahara. Much of what we've read and watched has included it. But I did want one specific activity regarding it. And because it's good to mix things up, I created a crossword puzzle on the Sahara.

There are many puzzle generators on the internet; some are free, some are not, and some are more user friendly than others. I tend to use Puzzlemaker at Discovery Education most often for creating puzzles. I also tend to copy/paste what's on the screen to Microsoft Publisher so I can manipulate things better for printing, too.

For this particular puzzle, I had the kids read a Live Science article on the Sahara first and then gave them the puzzle. All the answers were inside the article. It was quick and informative.

Here is my Sahara Crossword if you'd like to use it.

AFRICA: Literary Comparisons and Essays

Even though we are doing a unit on Africa for the sake of geography and social studies, I am going heavy on the writing with this unit, learning and/or refining (depending on the child) the writing process and different types of essays. Two picture books have been tools for writing comparison essays. 

The Egyptian Cinderella is obvious:  compare the traditional "Cinderella" with this African cultural version.

After reading Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, which some people call an African Cinderella tale, I felt there were more possibilities with this book. I left it wide open with no suggestions whatsoever. I told my kids to independently read the story and then think of some other story they knew that was similar and write a comparison essay on the two stories. I was pleased with how that assignment turned out. One compared it to "Cinderella," one to The King's Highway, and one to "The Princess and the Pea."

In my opinion, you're never too old for picture books. I love them! Also, I like introducing concepts with picture books, like comparison essays. Rather than beginning with two huge literary works that may be overwhelming, it's good to start building those writing muscles with something smaller where kids can be clear and successful before tackling something bigger.

AFRICA: Swahili

Jambo is "hello" in Swahili, an important language in Africa. Though the official language of only three African countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) it is widely spoken throughout East Africa and elsewhere. Swahili is a lingua franca, or a common language between speakers whose native languages are different.

We learned a little Swahili while learning about it. The following video was fun to watch, like a cultural exchange.

The highlight of our learning about Swahili was being introduced to "Baba Yetu," which is The Lord's Prayer in Swahili, put to music, written by Christopher Tin. It's hard to say which of the following two versions is our favorite.

(I loved one of the comments on the feed:  "a song written by an asian guy sung in an african language about the lords prayer by a white guy in africa now thats how this world should be together fam")

I created two notebooking pages to go with our lessons on Swahili. The first was to write a summary of the history of and facts about the language (top) and two write some basic English words and the Swahili translation (bottom) like numbers, greetings, family members, etc. The second notebooking page is for writing the words to "Baba Yetu." Over the top of the globe showing North America, the kids wrote The Lord's Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13 in English. Over the top of the globe showing Africa, the kids wrote the "Baba Yetu" lyrics.

Baba yetu, yetu uliye (Our, our Father who are)
Mbinguni yetu, yetu, amina (In heaven, our, our, amen)
Baba yetu, yetu, uliye (Our, our Father, who are)
Jina lako litukuzwe (Let's glorify your name)

Utupe leo chakula chetu (Give us today our food)
Tunachohitaji utusamehe (We need you to forgive us)
Makosa yetu, hey (Our errors, hey)
Kama nasi tunavyowasamehe (As we do forgive those)
Waliotukosea, usitutie (Who did us wrong, don't put us)
Katika majaribu, lakini (Into trials, but)
Utuokoe, na yule, milele na milele (Save us, with him, for ever and ever)

Ufalme wako ufike utakalo (Your kingdom come that it be)
Lifanyike duniani kama mbinguni, amina (done on earth as in heaven, amen)

Baba yetu, yetu, uliye (Our, our Father, who are)
Jina lako litukuzwe (Let's glorify your name)
Baba yetu, yetu, uliye (Our, our Father, who are)
Jina lako litukuzwe (Let's glorify your name)

Christopher Tin - Baba Yetu Lyrics | MetroLyrics

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As a side, if you're thinking you've heard the song before, or you're wondering when and why it was written, it's kind of an interesting situation. Christopher Tin wrote "Baba Yetu"  for the "Civilization" video game. 

You may or may not want to tell your kids that. We had a discussion about what The Lord's Prayer, Swahili, and the history of the world's civilizations might have to do with each other but it led to my kids telling me that playing "Civilization" was perfectly acceptable "homework" the next day.

AFRICA: Maps, Maps, and More Maps

I'm not sure which is more exciting: a blank map waiting to be marked or a brilliant, colorful, already informative map. I love maps!

A great way to get geography down is to spend a lot of time with maps, especially making them. You don't have to do the same type of map over and over--there are lots of things to map! Every time my kids mapped something new, they had more countries and their locations memorized.

Here are some of the continental maps we did with Africa:

Political map - countries
Physical map
Map of major rivers
Natural resource map
Map of products/exports
Political map - capitol cities
Map of average temperatures
Map of official languages
Map of predominant religions
Map of LDS missions
Map of LDS temples
Latitude and longitude with worksheets

After marking some of these maps, it was good to put them side by side and analyze.  For instance, looking at all the maps having to do with religion and churches, it's pretty obvious why the LDS church doesn't have anything going on in North Africa.

Map making leads to familiarity.