Excellent point Michal! I clicked "send" too soon. We
do a disservice to all the people of Africa if we just
teach "African Art". With seventh grade, I did mainly
Bamana and Dogon - but I introduced other cultures as
well (we did mancala game boards too - which is many
cultures - and by many different names). I have two
videos that are great for Bamana and Dogon. With sixth
grade - I was more interested in textile design - so I
introduced several cultures - but more in depth with
the cultures of Mali (obviously - if you see my Web
site). I did different cultures with 8th grade -
Ndbele was my favorite unit I did with 8th grade.
Oh please - please Michal DO the coffins with your
students - middle school would love it! Are you going
to carve the green floral foam blocks? then put them
on top of a painted box? I think the American Cheese
boxes from the cafeteria would be perfect.
Thanks for "correcting" my post. I knew better
(smile).
Share more project ideas you do and include the
country (ethnic group too if you know it - ethnic
groups cross country borders).
Judith
P.S. We made our own little game pieces out of clay
for mancala - you can guess how much fun that was with
middle school kids. Other years I bought the glass
blobs from Dick Blick (I think). One year, I ran out
glass blobs and bought some hard candy and spray
painted it (that was a real hoot - the kids had no
idea it was candy). I also used up all of my donated
buttons one year.
> We
> didn't do "African"
> art - we did art from specific African countries. I
> still want to do the
> coffins, but with no sink I may move that lesson up
> to middle school, or
> turn it into a drawing lesson. :-)
