Tag: Dance

Telling the Stories:

1. Explain that today you will be sharing two stories with a similar message about friendship, each from different regions within the continent of Africa.
2. Each story involves friendship. “Have you ever been sorry for your actions towards a friend? Let’s learn an important phrase in Swahili, ‘samahani’ which means ‘I’m sorry.’ In the stories, ‘samahani’ might be an appropriate thing for certain characters to say after their actions.”
3. Encourage your students, when appropriate, to use their new word “samahani” throughout the day.
4. Suggested Class Discussion: When is it appropriate to say I’m sorry?
5. When sharing the 1st story, from Central Africa, use “The Friendship of Tortoise and Eagle” Resource and be creative!
6. Use different drum beats to represent each character (e.g. slow/steady for turtle and fast/bouncy for frog) while you read or listen to the story as a class.
7. You may also invite your students to create unique rhythms for each character and quietly drum them on their laps (or desks) as each character is referenced during the story.
8. When sharing the 2nd story, from West Africa, use “Anasi and Turtle” Resource and choose 2 students to stand in front of the class. One of them will pretend to be Anansi (the spider) and the other Turtle. Invite them to act out the story for the class as they listen to it.
9. After hearing each story, remind them that “These stories happened in different regions in Africa. They happened with different kinds of characters, but with similar outcomes.”
10. Use the Golden Questions below as a writing activity, encouraging students to answer each question with a complete sentence. Consider having them use a Venn Diagram to map out their ideas.

Prospecting for Gold: How have you treated your friends when they haven’t treated you well?

Singing the Song:

1. This song is best learned as a call and response activity. “In Africa, the drum is central to many customs and daily norms. The drum can be compared to the heartbeat of the group.” Optional: Teach students about the form of songs (verses, chorus, bridge).
2. “The song we will be learning is called ‘hiyo ni imani yangu’ which means ‘That’s My Belief’ in Swahili.” Invite students to say ‘hiyo ni imani yangu’ with you. Start by demonstrating a rhythm on a drum or use “Golden Rhythms” Resource and have the students create the same rhythm on their desk or lap (depending on sound level preference). Continue teaching students different drum patterns, by improvising simple or complex rhythms.
3. After several different rhythms, lead students to a steady, unified rhythm. Once unified, speak or sing the lyrics to the first and second verses one line at a time. After you present each line, have the students respond in the same fashion, repeating the lyrics (speaking or singing).
4. Now familiarize them with the chorus. Cue music to the chorus (start at 0:42) and invite them to listen to the lyrics and play their “drums” quietly, so they can still hear.
5. Now that they are familiar with the song, play it from the beginning and invite them to drum along. The first chorus is shorter than the second chorus. We recommend only presenting the first 2 verses and 2 choruses for starters. You might consider playing the song during the school day, for a brain break, so they can gradually learn the song.
6. Once finished, turn off the recording and play a steady rhythm on your drum. Invite your class to beat along, getting quieter and quieter, and visually encouraging the class to do the same.
7. Once silent, model a deep inhale for your class, encouraging them to do the same, and then exhale together.

Prospecting for Gold: Were you able to share your thoughts with others and listen to others in return?

Reading the Script:

1. “Our bodies communicate our feelings and opinions everyday. We can use our bodies to send out specific messages.”
2. Invite two students to stand in front of the classroom. Invite one student to stand in place while the other walks closer, slowly. Pay attention to the way the student standing in place reacts as the other gets “too close.”
3. Discuss: What did you observe about their body and facial expressions? What did those expressions tell you about how they felt?
4. This experience is all about movement and making certain “animal characters” come to life!” Encourage students to have fun and be outgoing with their movements. “In acting, the most important things are telling the story and communicating messages to the audience.”
5. Start with a game of charades, 2-3 students acting like the animals in the story (Mr. Tortoise, Frog, Mrs. Tortoise, Eagle) while the rest of the class guesses which animal they are acting like.
6. Ask your class to share what the acting students did with their bodies to help show which animal they were (crawled, hopped, wiggled, facial expressions, etc.).
7. “Our bodies constantly communicate messages and we should be mindful of the messages we are sending.”
8. Choose four actors (Mr. Tortoise, Frog, Mrs. Tortoise, Eagle) to communicate the story through facial expressions, whole body movement, sounds, and interaction with other actors as the class reads “Eagle’s Big Mistake” Script Resource. Choose a reader for each character and encourage them to read slowly, accurately and with expression. “The way you read will influence the way your classmates move or act.”
9. Optional: As a class (or in small groups) create new names for each character and decide on 2-3 characteristics that are unique to the animal, but can be acted out as a human (voice pitch, movement style, facial expression, etc).
10. Invite 4 students to act out the roles again as humans (if in groups, one person from each group to act out their group’s human character). You can choose to have your class read the script again or simply have the 4 students act out the story from memory.

Prospecting for Gold: How have you used your body language to send messages that are inviting and build trust?

Dancing the Dance:

1. “The dances of Africa are full of earthy movements that use hands and legs to imitate things in nature. Dancing is a way to bring people together and experience happiness through movement. We are going to create our own dance and call it “Mchezo wa Furaha” meaning Dance of Happiness in swahili (“Mchezo wa Furaha” Audio Resource).
   1. You may consider showing short video clips of traditional dancing from different regions in Africa, encouraging students to use full body movement.
2. In the song “That’s my Belief” (“That’s My Belief” Music Resource), there are a variety of descriptive words. Read the  lines from the chorus and have the group create a movement for each line.
   1. For example: “We’ve got sun shining on our faces…” ask students individually to create a movement that shows “sun” as it shines “on our faces”.
   2. As you watch your students create, pick one of their movements and show it to the group, acknowledging the student who created it.
   3. Try to get a wide-variety of styles and input from your students, there really is no wrong movement, just having fun and using full body movement!
3. Once they have created movements for the chorus, split the class into two groups. Each group will now create movements for every other line of the verses. You will need to provide the lyrics and assign the lines from the verses (“That’s My Belief” Lyrics Resource).
4. When ready, sing and dance the entire song as a class. Watch “Mchezo wa Furaha” Dance Video Resource for an example of a final product.
   1. During the verses, they will take turns doing the movements they created in their groups.
   2. As you reach the chorus, the students will dance the movements they created as a class.
   3. Encourage them to keep singing while doing the movement.

Prospecting for Gold: What do you enjoy about interacting with students that have different interests or hobbies than you?

Creating the Art:

1. “Each character in a story is important. In our two stories, how did each character have an important role to play?” (Reference the two stories of Turtle, Eagle, Tortoise, and Anansi).
2. “Just like in a story, each person in our classroom has a part to play. Sometimes we act in different ways at different times, just like the characters in our stories. Our actions can be helpful or they can be hurtful.”
3. Pass out the Turtle template (“Turtle Template” Visual Resource) and West African symbols (“West African Symbols” Worksheet Resource). Look at the symbols with your students and ask what they think each of the West African symbols mean?
   1. Use the “Africa Symbols Teacher Guide” Worksheet Resource to share the true meaning of each symbol with your students. Have them write down the name of each symbol.
4. “We will be using symbols from West Africa to describe the actions of the characters in our two stories.” Have students select a character from one of the stories and write it on the top of their “West African Symbols” worksheet. Invite them to circle the positive and negative symbols that describe the character they chose.
   1. Have students explain in 1-2 sentences why they chose those symbols to represent their character on the “West African Symbols” worksheet.
   2. Optional: Discuss what a symbol is and guide your students in creating their symbols to describe their own personality or character traits.
5. Have students cut out the turtle shape from the “Turtle Template” and trace it onto their brown bag, with the shell divided diagonally.
6. Using earth tone markers (red, black, yellow and white) have students copy the symbols they chose onto their turtle.  One side of the turtle’s shell for positive symbols and the other side for negative symbols. “Every person has positive and negative traits, it’s how they choose to act them out that matters.”
7. When finished, lightly wet the paper and crumble it to give it a rustic, weathered look. Display the turtles in your classroom and consider making a class turtle to track different character traits (positive/negative) that you notice in your classroom.