On Friday, April 5th, LSP celebrated One World Day.  Third Class had been studying Ghana. We used a cross curricular approach to this study and integrated many curricular areas into our study. 

 We read many picture books about life in Ghana. 

We also read many stories about Anansi,  an Akan folktale character. He often takes the shape of a spider and is considered to be the spirit of all knowledge of stories. Taking the role of trickster, he is also one of the most important characters of West African and Caribbean folklore.  The stories originated in Ghana.  We created dioramas based on favourite Anansi stories.  We made oral presentations in class based on this project work where we referred to – ‘why I chose this story, materials use, my favourite part and a challenge I encountered and had to overcome’.  

Mildred’s mom, Vivian, came to visit and we interviewed her about life in Ghana.  We composed the questions and wrote up reports based on her visit.

We learned about Kente Cloth, a beautiful woven cloth from Ghana.  We wove our versions of Kente Cloth.

We also learned about Adinkra Symbols and Adinkra Cloth.  We created printing stamps and made our own version of a ‘Talking Cloth’.

We painted pictures of an African Elephant.

We completed a comparative study on Ireland and Ghana.  We studied both the History and Geography of Ireland and Ghana.

We learned about Kakum National Park in Ghana and created our own mini Rain Forest in class.  

We explored cocoa bean production in Ghana and learned about the importance of supporting Fair Trade.

We listened and responded to many pieces of African Music, learned to dance the Kpanlogo and to sing the song ‘Tse ‘Tse Koolay’.

We played a great game in class ‘Ireland or Ghana? We looked at twenty photos of places in Ireland or Ghana and had to decide where we thought the photo was taken.  We really had to study the photos for clues.  This exercise made us realise that we have way more in common with people in Ghana than we would originally have thought. 

 

We thoroughly enjoyed learning about Ghana.  After presenting our work to our families we got our passports and took off on our travels around the other classes where we had a fabulous time learning about Germany, Canada, Itlay, India, Morocco, Poland, Ireland and the Rest of the World.