AFRICA DAY!

Pippa
May 8, 2013
Africa / Books / Expressive art and design / EYFS / Literacy / music / Understanding the world
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Today we explored Africa. From the comfort of our own home! I collected all these bits from the car boot sales last year and thought I would bring them out and see what the children made of it all.

I also put together a little story basket for Handas surprise. We haven’t read this story for a while so I thought it might be nice to bring it back out and it fits so well.

I gathered up all the Africa instruments we have and our village Pre school lent me some of theirs too which was fantastic They also lent me a CD of African music which we played and they danced too and played instruments too.

We brought out our Safari set again. This is a big hit at the mo and it was welcomed back again after a few weeks away. The animals joined in with our Handas surprise story as well.

The girls acted out a lot play scenes and made the Giraffes have kisses. Very cute!

Little “R” gathered them all up in our Giraffe bowl and transported them around the house. We had a lot of transporting going on today. All 3 of the little ones, filled bags and bowls with items and moved them around the house and out in to the garden. My bottom step of the stairs was full of bags and bowls by the end of today!

We spent a lot of time this morning, dressing up, playing instruments along to African music and dancing. The different sounds that each instrument made was tested and tried again….. They returned to some instruments more than others. Mainly the very noisy ones! We talked about loud sounds and quite sounds.

We also borrowed some dressing up clothes and fabrics. The Pretty purple dress was “R”s Favourite.

We made some Tribal people by drawing around each other and then using potato prints of the symbols used by real African tribes to decorate our people. I even drew some masks on the faces of each one.

During snack time the pictures were taped up in the kitchen to dry. They Prompted a lot of conversation and discussions between the little ones. They talked about each one and picked out the one that they had lay on the paper for.

When the children woke up from their naps, I had cut out each person and blue tact them to the hall wall. They were so excited to see them and keen to show parents when they came to collect this evening. Each child took theirs home to stick on their own walls!

Before lunch, we settled down to enjoy our story. Each child had a turn at wearing the basket hat and making an animal pinch some food! We looked at the bowl of play food and identified each one. They recognised quite a lot!