Ancient Africa

Although there is not much information about the peoples in Africa during ancient times (other than the Egyptians), we discussed the movement of people around the continent because of changes in climate (expansion of the Sahara desert) and stories passed down in African folklore.

We read a few of the stories about Anansi, the spider; the kiddoes enjoyed his stories a great deal because he is a bit of a trickster and a dreamer.  We just read the ones in SotW, but there are other books with these stories and some videos as well.

For a fun activity, we used the suggestion from the activity guide of painting hands with geometric designs.  The kiddoes traced their hands onto a piece of construction paper, then used markers (instead of paint since I wanted an easier medium for them to make their designs-- you could also use pencils like the family from Creekside Learning) to add whatever designs appealed to them.

Hulk knew exactly what design he liked and he added it big and bold on both his hands to start out.

Goblin got hooked on the idea of putting rings on all his fingers, which added something fun and funky to his hands.

Athena wanted a little bit of everything for her designs.  She spent a lot of time getting them each just right.

After the designs were finished, they cut their hands out so they could display them in their rooms.  Later on, I might glue them into their history journals so they don't get lost (if they haven't already disappeared when the time comes).

 

 

The kiddoes had a lot of fun with the stories and art from ancient Africa.  I would really have liked to try out some of the great recipes listed in the activity guide (fried plantains sounds so simple and delicious), but the imagery was so fun that we couldn't pass it up, even for food!

--Little Miss Crazy