Did you know that there are over 50 countries in Africa? Or that there are over 1,000 languages spoken on the continent?
Key Stage 2 had a fantastic day on Tuesday learning all about the diversity of Africa. Our guides through the continent were Magda and Simon. They are both postgraduate students from Leeds University. Through a range of activities and games our visitors showed us what life in Africa is really like. We learnt that there are huge cities with skyscrapers and traffic jams!
During the morning our workshops took place in the classrooms. After lunch we headed outside to enjoy the sunshine. Simon taught us some of the games that children play in Africa.
Simon had made us a ball using old carrier bags, we were amazed how strong it was! It was great fun to play with too!
Magda and Simon had worked very hard to prepare the activities. Here we are comparing a range of maps to find the mystery country.
Our visitors shared with us stories about their life back home. Magda told us about the new government in Egypt. Simon showed us a slideshow including pictures of his university in Zambia.
The class loved the game that Magda taught us - it was tricky at first, but we got the hang of it!
Class 3 and 4 had a fantastic day - and we learnt so much! A big thank you to Simon and Magda for working so hard, we hope you'll come back and see us soon.
The items were placed in the corner while we took part in some warm-up activities to try to get those creative juices flowing! Here pupils are trying to think of as many uses for a sock as possible in just five minutes - the highest number of ideas was twenty-one! Some were very useful (e.g. an i-pod carrier) and some were quite revolting.....
The pupils then arranged themselves in order based on the number of uses they had invented for the sock. They were told they could take one item at a time and they only had five seconds of decision making time. At this stage pupils weren't told what the task was so they chose based on appeal....
Before long every pupil had a small collection of objects. They were then introduced to the task - to create an invention of their choice! The pupils has to decide on something to make from their items which was either attractive as piece of art or useful in some way, including for entertainment. There were rules too and additional materials were available but I won't bore you with rules here! Let's see some of these creations.....
Working away!
The finished product......a toy tank!
A prototype 'tv t-shirt' complete with aerial, screen shot, channel buttons and power button....and shirt!
A wonderfully decorated bat and ball set!
Introducing 'Becks' (name inspired by the bottle tops that make the eyes!) the 'Bottle buddy'!
Oi! Put that away! No...wait hang on...your invention is a sling-shot and pom-pom target range - superb! What an excellent use of the metal object.
Just add bicarbonate of soda and vinegar to see this 'Volcano' come alive - I can't wait to see this finished and in fully working order!
Wow! A direct hit on this catapult and target shooting range! Not bad for a load of old junk really! This activity has certainly made Year 5 think about how it is often possible to re-use old, disregarded items, especially if we have our creative minds in gear! Well done Year 5 - today was a tremendous success and a lot of fun.
