On Friday we celebrated Africa Day – all about this fascinating continent with vibrant colors, lively music and rhythms and exciting wildlife! The children watch informational clips of a wide range of different animals and birds, such as giraffes, elephants, lions, ostriches, zebras, antelopes, parrots and eagles and danced to lively drum rhythms.
Thank you for letting your child bring books, photos or souvenirs associated with either of our events!
Baby Acorns had a super-fun African party, danced to drum beats and created their own music on handmade drums. In creative, they painted paper plates with orange as lion masks, made their own African rain sticks and had fun making lion paws prints on a giant paper!
Shiny Stars started by learning about the Safari environment and the animals living in it by reading the story of ‘What’s that nasty whiff?’. After this, they connected one of their favorite game (“follow the leader”) with the African version called Ampe, they danced, explored different kinds of drums and made an African mask full of colorful textures!
Rainbows learnt that drums served as an early form of long distance communication, went on an magic hot air balloon ride over Africa and talked about landscapes, plants or animals they might have seen. They also learnt ‘Here Come Our Mothers’ – a song from The Zulu Tradition which is about a group of mothers from a small village and the children waiting for them with gifts. This will offer them the chance to relate with children from other cultures and see that they have the same needs as them.
Early Explorers learnt about where Africa is on the world map, they watched information clips about African wildlife and discussed the climate and why it is suited to certain types of animal. They learnt about how drums are a traditional instrument used for communication and celebration and they practiced tapping out rhythms as they ‘read’ simple musical notes. Afterwards, they drew their own African village scene, created an African line art picture and a traditional African necklace.