Inspiration Africa! Rectory Paddock Special School

INSPIRATION AFRICA!
Project 4
Rectory Paddock Special School
INTRODUCTION DAY

The day startd off in the hall with Sola leading the rhythmic name game. Everyone takes turns to introduce themselves with each pupil singing, mimicking or whispering their name and then adding a movement which is then repeated by the whole group to a clapping rhythm and chanting rendition of their name.

Working with Viv and Sola, rhythms were played individually and in groups with others clapping to simple patterns.

Viv then showed and talked about the African clothes and cloths from the Horniman Museum's handling collection. One of these (Adinkra cloth) had been patterned by a gourd stamp and gourds were featured in the story that Sola then told. This story was called The Woman and The Calabash and the pupils enacted it dressed up in the African clothes. (Follow the link above to read the story but don't close the window down otherwise you will lose your browser window - please use your browser back button to return to this page instead)

After this the pupils returned to their classrooms. The Senior Department was split up into three classrooms with different activities carried out in each area. Some pupils heard another story - "How the sun and moon came to live in the sky", they drew pictures about the themes, discussed the morning story above, remembered important words and wrote acrostic poems based on the following questions:

What do you like doing, eating?
Who do you like?
What are your favourite things (that make you happy)?
Who are your favourite people?
What are your hidden secrets?

Follow this link to read some of the acrostic poems in the poetry/performance section.

They also learnt, looked at and played different African musical instruments that Viv had brought with her from the Horniman Museum's handling collection and screen printed their introductory day banner.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Unfortunately, due to essential building works in the school, there was no internet access.

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.

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