Posted in Galloping the Globe
Africa was full of surprising discoveries for us! We chose not to do all of the countries in GtG, again because of the availability, or lack thereof, in our library's collection.
But we did find some great resources!
Literature:
- Verna Aardema is *the* children's author for Africa. Her stories, based upon African folktales from around the central region of the continent, are full of wonderful sound effects and clever characters. Most are "porquio" tales - stories that explain why things are as they are. A good bibliography of her works can be found here.
Hands down, our favorite Aardema book was Travelling to Tondo. We also read and enjoyed How the Ostrich Got its Long Neck, The Lonely Lioness and the Ostrich Chicks, and Anansi Does the Impossible.
From South Africa, we enjoyed a couple of interesting tales:
- Jubela - Kessler. The story of an orphaned baby rhinoceros.
- My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me - Maya Angelou. This is a delightful introduction to the Ndebele people of So. Africa. We were inspired to make Ndebele style art from the vibrant pictures in this book.
- Safari Journal: the Adventures in Africa of Cary Monroe - Hudson Talbott (Kenya). Twelve-year-old Casey is unhappy about being sent on a trip to Kenya with his wacky Aunt Elaine, until he encounters fascinating customs, endangered animals, and wild adventures.
- Master Man - Aaron Shephard (Nigeria). A boastful strong man learns a lesson harder than his muscles when he encounters one of Nigeria's superheroes in this Hausa tale which explains the origin of thunder. A "comic book" style that was a nice
break from our usual literature format. - Bitter Bananas - Isaac Olalaye (Nigeria). When baboons begin stealing the sweet palm sap that Yusuf sells at the market near his Nigerian village, what is he to do?
- My Great Grandmother's Gourd - Kessler. Residents of a Sudanese village rejoice when a traditional water storage method is replaced by modern technology, but Fatima's grandmother knows there is no substitute for the reliability of the baobab tree.
In Egypt, we limited our resources somewhat by avoiding most of the
mummy/tomb/pyramid books. We'll be studying Ancient Egypt this fall and wanted to save that good stuff for that time period. This really made finding literature for Egypt difficult, but a few things did surface.
- Zekmet the Stone Carver - by Mary Stolz. Chosen to design a magnificent monument for a vain and demanding Pharoah, an Egyptian stone carver conceives of and begins work on the Sphinx which still stands in the Egyptian desert today. Not the "true" story of the Sphinx, but one person's imaginative tale of how it may have been. (We'd read this tale before, so it
made the "cut" for Egypt this go around.) - The Egyptian Polar Bear - JoAnn Adinolfi. A lonely polar bear is swept away on an iceberg and winds up in Egypt where he becomes the royal playmate of Rahotep the boy king. The cover page indicates that one of the Egyptian royal tombs included plans for a burial chamber for a polar bear! This is the "story that had to be told" based on that discovery.
Science:
- The Magic Schoolbus All Dried Up video reviews how animals survive in the harsh desert. We also did the activity connected with the story on the MSB Website.
Art and Extras
- Dover has several booklets of animal stickers, including some from Africa. We created a savannah "scene" using construction paper and these stickers to illustrate the variety of animals found there.
