The first day following the visit to the Horniman Museum, Sola joined the project to talk about scriptwriting (see the literacy page) and to work with Ayo and the children in the hall. The afternoon session began with a warm up name game with movements. Everyone had to take turns in the centre of the ring - even the teacher!

The class was then split between boys and girls, with Sola leading the girls group and Ayo leading the boys group. They learnt Nigerian call and response songs and movements - one for the male procession, one for the female procession and a Coronation call and response song.

The words and melody were then put on a call and response songs webpage for the children to learn between sessions as they would be used in their final performance.

You should be able to hear Ayo singing these songs on this page also - the first is the male procession song, followed by the female procession song and finally the Coronation song.

The children then enacted the Nigerian story of 'Pai and Zanfa' with Sola, incorporating their songs into the story, with musical accompaniment from Ayo and Tony.

THESE IMAGES SHOULD CHANGE IF YOU ROLL YOUR MOUSE OVER THEM.

The Tortoise and the Elephant
The remaining project days were spent rehearsing Year 5's adaptation of The Tortoise and the Elephant. This started with the individual groups reading out the scenes they had written as described in the literacy page. Ayo also started practising with children who wanted to take part in the band.

Many roles had to be cast : King, Priest, Oracle, Elephant, Tortoise, Tortoise's wife, Narrators, Villagers and also the band. Parts were decided between the teacher, team coordinator and the children themselves. (Read the script in the literacy pages. YOU SHOULD ALSO BE ABLE TO HEAR A SECTION FROM THE BAND PRACTISING ON THIS PAGE.)

African cloths and garments belonging to the African Worlds handling collection, Sola and Ayo were used in the production along with a fantastic Tortoise costume found in the school library and of course the ijele PRIDE mask taking the role of the Elephant.

THESE IMAGES SHOULD CHANGE IF YOU ROLL YOUR MOUSE OVER THEM.

The children practised very hard - rehearsing with their teacher also inbetween project days - until finally they were ready for their performance. You can read about this in the PERFORMANCE page.