Social Fun

Today Aidyn spent the better part of the day playing with his cousins Julia and Susie. They talked, laughed, played hide-n-seek, and poked around on Mother Goose Games. Aidyn showed Julia all his favorite games including Jack Be Nimble, Babies Tap 'n' Type, and the Cow that Jumped Over the Moon. At one point, we all watched the classic Sesame Street African Alphabet song. Throughout the day, Ladysmith Black Mambazo played on the cd player. Right now, Aidyn is going down for a late nap while watching Anansi. We plan on going to our mini-goal destination this Saturday, and I have an idea to end Africa month with a diarama of our craft animals.

I also need to plan out next year's curriculum. With a wonderful adventure-destination in mind, next year is sure to be a blast!

African Books

Today Aidyn and I got some couch time and read through some new books. First we read two zebra books entitled Naughty! and Gorgeous! by Caroline Castle and Sam Childs. The illustrations were adorable and the storylines were very understandable to a preschooler. We also read Shanti by Maartje Padt and Mylo Freeman, and I found it to be such a touching little story. Aidyn enjoyed the suspense of what animal was "popping out" next. Finally, we read an African story called Honey...Honey...Lion! by Jan Brett. The illustrations were superb and realistic, so Aidyn and I took the opportunity to name some African animals while reading the story. Embedded in the tale was a also a lesson on the importance of sharing and karma. Throughout our reading, we were reintroduced to Aidyn's new vocabulary word, savanna, and a host of animals that live there.

For the remainder of the week, I have similar-themed coloring pages for him to color and more African music to listen to. I also picked up an Anansi dvd collection to further familiarize him with that tricky spider character.

Prize for Reading

Since Aidyn completed five books of required summer reading, he was awarded a little prize for his efforts: a cute couple of coloring pages and crayons. When we went grocery shopping afterward, he proudly tucked his crayons in his back pocket and made several references to them. First thing when we arrived home, he colored his pages and showed them to his grandma, his daddy, and I. I'm so glad that he has artistic interests. Moreso, I am delighted that he's practicing the early stages of handwriting and letter-writing through creative art. Soon enough, his little finger muscles will be ready for tracing! Interestingly enough, he's still ambidextorous; he uses both hands at different times to do everything from coloring to painting to digging. He comes from a family of mainly right-handers, but it is true that David's father is ambidextorous as well and even used to (and perhaps still does) draw identical pictures with both right and left hands simultaneously.

African Crafts and Books

This morning, Aidyn and I worked on an elephant craft. I had saved a toilet paper roll and found elephant templates. First we had a mini-lesson about how white makes colors lighter. In this instance, we changed black to gray. Aidyn painted the tp roll gray while I cut out elephant body parts such as the head, legs, "hands," tail, and I also cut out an added peanut. When Aidyn finished painting, he colored all the body parts while we talked about where some elephants live and referenced picture books. While still waiting, we read We All Went on Safari by Laurie Krebs and Julia Cairns. It was such a sweet little counting-adventure book and, in the back, were pages filled with Tanzanian facts and animal words translated to Swahili. I added those words to our Swahili poster along with our Swahili numbers. Afterward, we read Anansi's Party Time by Eric A. Kimmel. The story of Anansi has its roots in African folklore. We also flipped through Look Book by Tana Hoban for our picture book requirement for summer reading. Finally, when everything dried, Aidyn glued on the body parts and I helped direct. We talked about elephant characteristics and their special appearance. When we were done, Aidyn ran and showed his grandma and proceeded to "teach" her all he learned.

Later, Aidyn made a savanna picture. Yesterday I created a base for the project. On a sheet of construction paper, I added yellow construction paper grass and drew an acacia tree in the background. I found some African animal templates, printed and cut them out. So Aidyn colored them and glued them in the scene where he saw fit. Meanwhile we talked about a certain kind of landscape in Africa called the savanna and how they have these tall, thin acacia trees. We also hunted for Africa on our globe and ran our fingers over the mountain ridges.

He went down for a nap while watching How the Leopard Got His Spots, narrated by Danny Glover. It's also a folktale from Africa. During the last week, Aidyn also watched Africa-related videos such as Children's Stories from Africa, The Lion King, and Tarzan.

Video Staple

Everyday since launching African Month, Aidyn and I have sat down, watched, and sang with this video. Aidyn's mama is a vintage video nut, and this one fits our theme as well as the respect for nostalgia. I find Kermit's ABC song amazingly beautiful, and I hope that translates into wonderful memories for Aidyn in the future.
Lyrics:
Amazing,
Beautiful
Creatures
Dancing
Excite the
Forest
Glade, in my
Heart how
I do
Jump like the
Kudu
Listen to the
Music so
Nice the
Organ
Plays.
Quietly
Rests the
Sleepy
Tiger
Under the
Vine tree at the
Water's side and
X marks the place 'neath the
Yellow moon where the
Zulu chief and I did hide.

Virtual Safari

The other day, Aidyn and I went on a "virtual safari" thanks to our special edition of The Lion King. Within the second disc is a cute interactive program featuring Timon and Pumbaa reeling through the African safari. So we played along. Aidyn decided all the turns to make, and he named all the animals we encountered along the way.

He also watched The Lion King, and I reiterated where lions are from. He has also seen Go, Diego, Go: Safari Rescue, and he brushed up on already-familiar African animals such as elephants, prairie dogs, and hawks.

I picked up more African books at the library and have a zebra craft idea to work in.

African Dunk

This morning, Aidyn and I made a lion craft to officially kick off Africa month. Basically I took an old soap box, taped it shut, and showed Aidyn how to paint it. While he painted the box, I cut out shapes for the lion's head, legs, and tail. We waited for the paint to dry and Aidyn glued the limbs on the box thus creating a soap box lion. He decided to name him "Babu," and we talked about how he lives in Africa and grew a mane when he became a daddy. Looking at pictures of younger male lions and lionesses, we discussed who has a mane and who doesn't.

Afterwards, we read many Africa-themed books such as The Sleepy Litttle Lion by Margaret Wise Brown, Moja Means One by Muriel and Tom Feelings, Emeka's Gift by Ifeoma Onyefulu, Kente Colors by Debbi Chocolate, and we browsed through the Eyewitness: Africa text. With Brown's book, we were able to bring up the subject of manes again, as our sleepy little lion had yet to develop one. With Kente Colors and Emeka's Gift we absorbed some African culture and words unfamiliar to us. With Moja Means One, we test-drove some Swahili words. In these books and with our globe at home, we identified the continent of Africa as well. All of these activities were done while we listened to Putumayo Kids: African Dreamland on the cd player.

I am excited to have started off African month so positively and creatively. So far, Aidyn seems enthusiastic about the subjects we've covered. We can't wait to learn more!