Pre-K to 1st Grade Level: Africa: Africa by Fowler, Allan. (Good) Good morning, Africa by Sayre, April Pulley. (Good) dePaola, Tomie. Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile. (Good) Here is the African savanna by Dunphy, Madeleine (Good) Ten little mummies : an Egyptian counting book by Yates, Philip, (Good)
Animals: The biggest animal on land by Fowler, Allan (Good) Elephant crossing by Yoshida, Toshi (Good) Elephant quest by Lewin, Ted. (Good) Giraffes by Anderson, Jill (Good) Jungle Jack Hanna's safari adventure by Hanna, Jack (Good for pictures) Roar : a noisy counting book by Edwards, Pamela Duncan (Good) The Serengeti migration : Africa's animals on the move by Lindblad, Lisa (Good for pictures) A zebra's world by Arnold, Caroline (Good) Zebras by Macken, JoAnn Early (Good) Starry safari by Ashman, Linda (Good) A South African night by Isadora, Rachel (Good) My Christmas safari by Manushkin, Fran (Good)
People: Chidi only likes blue : an African book of colors by Onyefulu, Ifeoma (Good) Emeka's gift : an African counting story by Onyefulu, Ifeoma (Good) In a South African city by Wulfsohn, Gisèle. (Good)
"Gezani and the Tricky Baboon" is a cute book by Valanga Khoza that tells of a baboon tricking a little boy out of the bananas he was bringing to his cousins. The boy uses the baboon's greediness to teach him a lesson about not stealing.
"Chinye: A west African folk tale" by Obi Onyefulu is Cinderella-style tale of a mistreated orphan and her greedy,lazy step-mother and step-sister. Her 'fairy godmother" tests her obedience, kindness and humility -- and rewards her with a great treasure. She tells her step-sister and step-mother about her good fortune -- and they are given the same test, but becaue of their greed and disobedience, they fail and lose all they have. Humiliated, they run away. Chinye, however, stays and shares her treasure with all the people in the village -- living happily ever after.
We came across a book based on the Swahili expression "Don't judge the tea by its color" -- which is similar to our expression "Don't judge a book by its cover."
The book, "Fatuma's New Cloth" by Leslie Bulion follows Fatuma and her mother's visit to the modern market place. She listens to the various merchants trying to convince her that their products will make her tea its best. She learns not to be fooled by promises -- but to look at the character of the person.
it includes the author's note about chai tea, kanga cloth and Swahili proverbs. It also has a recipe for East African chai tea.
"My Father's Shop" by Satomi Ichikawa is about a young boy helping his father sell rugs at his store in Morocco. The father tries to teach the son the importance of being able to communicate in with customers in various languages. The little boy is not interested in learning to speak other languages so wanders off. But as he makes his way through the market, he realizes his father's wisdom when he ends up meeting tourist from all over the world and learns to communicate with them. He then brings them all back to his father's shop to see his rugs.
If you want a not-so-serious, picture book to introduce your children to African animals and geography, our children enjoyed: "Meerkat Mail" by Emily Gravett
The story follows Sunny a meerkat who decides he is bored with his life in the Kalahari Desert, so he sets out to find a new place to live. As he stops to visit his various relatives in other habitats -- he sends home 'postcards" to his family. Each one tells about that relative and why how he discovers that he does not like their habitats and food. He then returns to his family.
It has great cartoon-style illustrations. My children liked hunting for the jackal hiding in the background of each scene. information about the various species are hidden in the stamps, postcards scenes and postcard messages.
The book covers meerkats, african red hornbills, banded mongoose, liberian mongoose, malagasy mongoose, and the marsh mongoose.
Stephanie Stuve-Boden has written a series of picture books that follows the life of a young girl named, Elizabeti.
"Elizabeti's Doll" tells about her family's new baby and her desire to have a 'baby' of her own. With no money for a doll, she decides to make a baby out of a rock.
"Mama Elizabeti" continues the story where mother has another baby, and Elizabeti, now older, is expected to help care for her toddler brother while her mom cares for the new baby. She learns how difficult it is to watch a real child, versus a rock doll; but also how caring for a brother is more rewarding than playing with dolls.
"Elizabeti's Schoo"l follows Elizabeti's experiences in her first days of school.
All three books give you a good glimpse at life in Nigeria using experiences children in the US can appreciate.
Look for books by the author, Ifeoma Onyefulu. Several of her books have won Notable Book for Children awards.
We especially liked her book, "Welcome Dede!" which uses photos to let you follow along with the Nigerian African Naming Ceremony for a newborn baby.
Other books by her include:
-- A is for Africa -- Emeka's Gift: An African Counting Story -- One Big Family: Sharing Life in an African Village -- Chidi Only Likes Blue: An African Book of Colours -- My Grandfather is a Magician (about the role of traditional healers) -- Ebele's Favourite: A Book of African Games -- A Triangle for Adaora: An African Book of Shapes -- Saying Good-bye to Mam Nkwelle
Another Nigerian-based picture book that we enjoyed was "Catch That Goat!" by Polly Alakija. It's about a little girl who is suppose to look after the family's goat while her mother is gone. The goat gets out and runs through the market. As the little girl looks for her goat, you get to follow her shop to shop -- seeing the various things for sale and meeting the vendors.
-- "Home Now" by Lesley Beake. Tells the story of a young girl who is orphaned and finds consolation when she meets an orphaned elephant at the zoo.
-- "Ashraf of Africa" by ingrid Mennen and Niki Daly describes a boy's life in the city.
Niki Daly also has a great series of books about a character Jamela: "A song for jamela" "Where's jamela" "What's cooking Jamela" "jamela's dress" (The stories and illustrations are humorous -- and helped my children really identify how in many ways their lives are similar to those of children in South Africa.)
-- "Not So Fast Songololo" also by Niki Daly is a sweet story about a little boy helping his grandmother with her errands.
--"The Day Gogo Went to Vote: South Africa, April 1994" by Elinor Batezat Sisulu is another sweet story of a child and her 100-year grandmother's determination to exercise her right to vote for the first (and perhaps only) time in her life. The story is told by her 6-year old grand-daughter.
"Pharaoh's Boat" it is written illustrated by David Weitzman. (ISBN: 978-0-547-05341-7)
This is an excellent book about Ahmed Youssef Moustafa and his work to restore an ancient boat from Pharoah Cheop's tomb. (I like that it is true-life example of how the virtues of perseverance, inquisitiveness, attentiveness and patience helped a man do his job.)
The book has great illustrations and tells the story of the boat from it's original construction to its being found thousands of years later; and then the struggle to discover how to re-assemble it.
Oxford University Press has a very interesting and detailed book called "The Mystery of the Hieroglyphs: The Story of the Rosetta Stone and The Race to Decipher Egyptian Hieroglyphs." It is by Carol Donoughue. (ISBN:0-19-521553-2) It covers Egyptian writing, the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, Thomas Young and Jean Francois Champollion, and reading hieroglyphs. Filled with many interesting facts, photos and drawings.
A good picture book about the life of jean Francois Champollion is "Seeker of Knowledge: The Man who deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs" by James Rimford (ISBN: 0-395-97934-X). In addition to telling his story from a child to adult, it shows various hieroglyphs, their meanings and how they are used in words. it then uses these hieroglyphs within the text of the story -- to help the children see the connection between the words and the story.
Tamara Bower has a picture book called, "The Shipwrecked Sailor: An Egyptian Tale with Hieroglyphs." (ISBN: 0-689-83046-7). This story is based on an actual tale found on ancient papyrus scrolls. An interesting feature of this book is that it highlights a sentence on each page, and then shows the Egyptian translation, pronunciation and Hieroglyphic writing of the same phrase on the page border. The illustrations are all in the style of ancient Egyptian drawings. The back of the book has an author's note about the real story, a map of the journey, and an explanation of symbols used in the artwork.
"Pepi and the Secret Names" is a book by Jill Paton Walsh and Fiona French. In this story, a young boy helps his father draw realistic images for the Pharaoh's tomb by getting real animals (a lion, crocodile, hawk, etc.) to come with him to the tomb. In order to do this, he must first guess the animals' secret names. As he guesses their names, he gives the answers in hieroglyphs -- so the reader then has to use the key in the back to translate and find out the secret name.
"The 5000-year-old Puzzle: Solving a Mystery of Ancient Egypt" by Claudia Logan. This is a fictional story told from a young boy's view point (based on the archeological work of Dr. Reisner). it takes place in 1924, two year's after the discovery of King Tut's tomb. A young boy, named Will Hunt, travels to Egypt to help explore the site Giza 7000X. The story combines Will's journal entries, his postcards home to his friends, and fascinating sidebars about ancient Egypt. It is a fun way to see what it is like to live at a dig site, what archeologist do, and how they take their information and try to figure out what it all means.
We just did this unit again. My children are pre-school through 4th grade. I posted the books we used this time around at http://www.squidoo.com/north-africa-lesson-plan . If you scroll down toward the bottom, you can see the lessons we did each week along with the books we enjoyed for each of those weeks.
12 comments:
Pre-K to 1st Grade Level:
Africa:
Africa by Fowler, Allan. (Good)
Good morning, Africa by Sayre, April Pulley. (Good)
dePaola, Tomie. Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile. (Good)
Here is the African savanna by Dunphy, Madeleine (Good)
Ten little mummies : an Egyptian counting book by Yates, Philip, (Good)
Animals:
The biggest animal on land by Fowler, Allan (Good)
Elephant crossing by Yoshida, Toshi (Good)
Elephant quest by Lewin, Ted. (Good)
Giraffes by Anderson, Jill (Good)
Jungle Jack Hanna's safari adventure by Hanna, Jack (Good for pictures)
Roar : a noisy counting book by Edwards, Pamela Duncan (Good)
The Serengeti migration : Africa's animals on the move by Lindblad, Lisa (Good for pictures)
A zebra's world by Arnold, Caroline (Good)
Zebras by Macken, JoAnn Early (Good)
Starry safari by Ashman, Linda (Good)
A South African night by Isadora, Rachel (Good)
My Christmas safari by Manushkin, Fran (Good)
People:
Chidi only likes blue : an African book of colors by Onyefulu, Ifeoma (Good)
Emeka's gift : an African counting story by Onyefulu, Ifeoma (Good)
In a South African city by Wulfsohn, Gisèle. (Good)
pre-K- 4th grade
African Folk tales:
"Gezani and the Tricky Baboon" is a cute book by Valanga Khoza that tells of a baboon tricking a little boy out of the bananas he was bringing to his cousins. The boy uses the baboon's greediness to teach him a lesson about not stealing.
"Chinye: A west African folk tale" by Obi Onyefulu is Cinderella-style tale of a mistreated orphan and her greedy,lazy step-mother and step-sister. Her
'fairy godmother" tests her obedience, kindness and humility -- and rewards her with a great treasure. She tells her step-sister and step-mother about her good fortune -- and they are given the same
test, but becaue of their greed and disobedience, they fail and lose all they have. Humiliated, they run away. Chinye, however, stays and shares her
treasure with all the people in the village -- living happily ever after.
pre-k through 4th grade
Swahili proverbs:
We came across a book based on the Swahili expression "Don't judge the tea by its color" -- which is similar to our expression "Don't judge a book by its cover."
The book, "Fatuma's New Cloth" by Leslie Bulion follows Fatuma and her mother's visit to the modern market place. She listens to the various merchants trying to convince her that their products will make her tea its best. She learns not to be fooled by promises -- but to look at the character of the person.
it includes the author's note about chai tea, kanga cloth and Swahili proverbs. It also has a recipe for East African chai tea.
Morocco --
"My Father's Shop" by Satomi Ichikawa is about a young boy helping his father sell rugs at his store in Morocco. The father tries to teach the son the importance of being able to communicate in with customers in various languages. The little boy is not interested in learning to speak other languages so wanders off. But as he makes his way through the market, he realizes his father's wisdom when he ends up meeting tourist from all over the world and learns to communicate with them. He then brings them all back to his father's shop to see his rugs.
African Animals and geography (silly)
If you want a not-so-serious, picture book to introduce your children to African animals and geography, our children enjoyed: "Meerkat Mail" by Emily Gravett
The story follows Sunny a meerkat who decides he is bored with his life in the Kalahari Desert, so he sets out to find a new place to live. As he stops to
visit his various relatives in other habitats -- he sends home 'postcards" to his family. Each one tells about that relative and why how he discovers that he
does not like their habitats and food. He then returns
to his family.
It has great cartoon-style illustrations. My children liked hunting for the jackal hiding in the background of each scene. information about the various
species are hidden in the stamps, postcards scenes and postcard messages.
The book covers meerkats, african red hornbills, banded mongoose, liberian mongoose, malagasy mongoose, and the marsh mongoose.
Pre-K through 4th grade
Stephanie Stuve-Boden has written a series of picture books that follows the life of a young girl named, Elizabeti.
"Elizabeti's Doll" tells about her family's new baby and her desire to have a 'baby' of her own. With no money for a doll, she decides to make a baby out of
a rock.
"Mama Elizabeti" continues the story where mother has another baby, and Elizabeti, now older, is expected to help care for her toddler brother while her mom cares for the new baby. She learns how difficult it is to watch a real child, versus
a rock doll; but also how caring for a brother is more rewarding than playing with dolls.
"Elizabeti's Schoo"l follows Elizabeti's experiences in her first days of school.
All three books give you a good glimpse at life in Nigeria using experiences children in the US can appreciate.
Nigeria
Pre-K through 4th grade
Look for books by the author, Ifeoma Onyefulu. Several of her books have won Notable Book for Children awards.
We especially liked her book, "Welcome Dede!" which uses photos to let you follow along with the Nigerian African Naming Ceremony for a newborn baby.
Other books by her include:
-- A is for Africa
-- Emeka's Gift: An African Counting Story
-- One Big Family: Sharing Life in an African Village
-- Chidi Only Likes Blue: An African Book of Colours
-- My Grandfather is a Magician (about the role of traditional healers)
-- Ebele's Favourite: A Book of African Games
-- A Triangle for Adaora: An African Book of Shapes
-- Saying Good-bye to Mam Nkwelle
Another Nigerian-based picture book that we enjoyed was "Catch That Goat!" by Polly Alakija. It's about a little girl who is suppose to look after the family's goat while her mother is gone. The goat gets out and runs through the market. As the little girl looks for her goat, you get to follow her shop to
shop -- seeing the various things for sale and meeting the vendors.
South Africa (picture books)
Pre-K through 4th grade
-- "Home Now" by Lesley Beake. Tells the story of a young girl who is orphaned and finds consolation when she meets an orphaned elephant at the zoo.
-- "Ashraf of Africa" by ingrid Mennen and Niki Daly describes a boy's life in the city.
Niki Daly also has a great series of books about a character Jamela:
"A song for jamela"
"Where's jamela"
"What's cooking Jamela"
"jamela's dress"
(The stories and illustrations are humorous -- and helped my children really identify how in many ways their lives are similar to those of children in South Africa.)
-- "Not So Fast Songololo" also by Niki Daly is a sweet story about a little boy helping his grandmother with her errands.
--"The Day Gogo Went to Vote: South Africa, April 1994" by Elinor Batezat Sisulu is another sweet story of a child and her 100-year grandmother's determination to exercise her right to vote for the first (and perhaps only) time in her life. The story is told by her 6-year old grand-daughter.
Egypt -- Archaeology/Shipbuilding
4th grade+
"Pharaoh's Boat" it is written illustrated by David Weitzman. (ISBN: 978-0-547-05341-7)
This is an excellent book about Ahmed Youssef Moustafa and his work to restore an ancient boat from Pharoah Cheop's tomb.
(I like that it is true-life example of how the virtues of perseverance, inquisitiveness, attentiveness and patience helped a man do his job.)
The book has great illustrations and tells the story of the boat from it's original construction to its being found thousands of years later; and then the struggle to discover how to re-assemble it.
Rosetta Stone/Hieroglyphics/Egyptian Tombs
4th grade+
Oxford University Press has a very interesting and detailed book called "The Mystery of the Hieroglyphs: The Story of the Rosetta Stone and The Race to Decipher Egyptian Hieroglyphs." It is by Carol Donoughue. (ISBN:0-19-521553-2) It covers Egyptian writing, the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, Thomas Young and Jean Francois Champollion, and reading hieroglyphs. Filled with many interesting facts, photos and drawings.
A good picture book about the life of jean Francois Champollion is "Seeker of Knowledge: The Man who deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs" by James Rimford (ISBN: 0-395-97934-X). In addition to telling his story from a child to adult, it shows various hieroglyphs, their meanings and how they are used in words. it then uses these hieroglyphs within the text of the story -- to help the children see the connection between the words and the story.
Tamara Bower has a picture book called, "The Shipwrecked Sailor: An Egyptian Tale with Hieroglyphs." (ISBN: 0-689-83046-7). This story is based on an actual tale found on ancient papyrus scrolls. An interesting feature of this book is that it highlights a sentence on each page, and then shows the Egyptian translation, pronunciation and Hieroglyphic writing of the same phrase on the page
border. The illustrations are all in the style of ancient Egyptian drawings. The back of the book has an author's note about the real story, a map of the
journey, and an explanation of symbols used in the artwork.
"Pepi and the Secret Names" is a book by Jill Paton Walsh and Fiona French. In this story, a young boy helps his father draw realistic images for the Pharaoh's tomb by getting real animals (a lion, crocodile, hawk, etc.) to come with him to
the tomb. In order to do this, he must first guess the animals' secret names. As he guesses their names, he gives the answers in hieroglyphs -- so the reader
then has to use the key in the back to translate and find out the secret name.
"The 5000-year-old Puzzle: Solving a Mystery of Ancient Egypt" by Claudia Logan. This is a fictional story told from a young boy's view point (based on the archeological work of Dr. Reisner). it takes place in 1924, two year's after the discovery of King Tut's tomb. A young boy, named Will Hunt, travels to Egypt to help explore the site Giza 7000X. The story combines Will's journal entries, his postcards home to his friends, and fascinating sidebars about ancient Egypt. It is a fun way to see what it is like to live at
a dig site, what archeologist do, and how they take their information and try to figure out what it all means.
We loved:
- Stories From Africa (Sonlight)
- I've Heard Good News Today (Sonlight)
We just did this unit again. My children are pre-school through 4th grade. I posted the books we used this time around at http://www.squidoo.com/north-africa-lesson-plan . If you scroll down toward the bottom, you can see the lessons we did each week along with the books we enjoyed for each of those weeks.
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