Africa Week - Welcome to West Africa

It's Africa week and isn't it quite fitting since we're about to celebrate Emancipation Day! Africa is a gorgeous but complex place, and while it is tempting to focus only on it's raw beauty, and my intro video certainly sets the stage for just that, I also wanted to make sure the Imaginators knew a few basic facts. Firstly, Africa is a continent not a country. In fact it is made up of 54 different countries! Secondly, none of them speak African... lol and while we will look at lots of traditional tribal homes and dress etc, the majority of Africans get up in the morning and put on a western style shirt and pants or dress, eat breakfast in a home very similar to your own and drive to work in one of the many, many burgeoning cities across the continent!

We spent some time talking along these lines and then they took a closer look at the region we would focus on today. West Africa... which is home to countries like Nigera, Ghana and The Ivory Coast.

Our art for today is a depiction of a trio of African women set against the backdrop of a beautiful African sunset! This was lots of fun to make and the Imaginators really got into choosing their patterns for the clothing on these ladies :)

So they have a lovely 'souvenir' to start the week right!

My younger Imaginators painted African Savanna animals for their souvenir! They looked at a short clip of the type of animals found in this area and they could also name a few without being helped! We also looked at lots of pictures of Kente cloth which is a pattern used mostly in Ghana! They then recreated this type of pattern for the border of their artwork to really make their animal portraits look strikingly West African! "Eye fE" which means "It is beautiful!" in Twi a Ghanaian dialect 😍

Check out the story they did at The Reading Garden.