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INSPIRATION AFRICA!
Project 4
Rectory Paddock Special School
INTRODUCTION DAY (continued)


On the introduction day, Viv brought lots of musical instruments from the Horniman Museum's handling collection. The pupils investigated how sound is made on the musical instruments and learnt about where in Africa the instruments come from (Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ghana). A lot of the instruments were made from or used gourds which were featured in our story on page one.

muscial instruments from the handling collection

Nigerian xylophone
Wooden slats of different lengths are beaten to make different sounds (big makes low sound, small makes high sound).

muscial instruments from the handling collection

Gourd resonators catch the sound and amplify it from underneath (gourds are dried, have the top cut off and the seeds taken out).
muscial instruments from the handling collection

Mbira (thumb piano)
A wooden base with metal tongues of different lengths to make high and low noises.

muscial instruments from the handling collection

Viv also showed a talking drum, gourd net shaker, gourd and shell shaker and gourd rattle from Nigeria and everyone joined in using the instruments to make harmonies.

muscial instruments from the handling collectionmuscial instruments from the handling collection

Unfortunately, due to essential building works in the school, there was no internet access.
pupils looking at website off-line

A computer was taken into the school so that if pupils wanted they could look at the Inspiration Africa! website offline and see the key objects from the Horniman Museum where they would be visiting the next day.

Pictures from the introduction day, taken with the digital camera, were also installed on the computer for pupils to look at over the following three school project days.

Running in conjunction with Viv and Sola's activities above but in a different classroom, Tony, after giving his introduction began screen printing the introductory day banner. Pupils drew and cut out or tore paper shapes of things they liked, referring back to their work with Sola where possible.

screen printing the introductory bannerscreen printing the introductory banner
screen printing the introductory bannerscreen printing the introductory banner
section of the introductory banner

The banner was printed in two sections representing the theme of harmony based on their selected key object, The Gelede Mask.

section of the introductory banner
the introductory bannerSenior Department with their introductory banner

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