A Visit from Monsieur Davi

This half term we have been enjoying learning about Togo, so we were absolutely delighted when we were able to welcome a special Togolese visitor to our classroom. Monsieur Davi was a fantastic guest, who taught us lots about life in Togo and about the many languages spoken there. As a linguist and former teacher, he was able to share lots of knowledge about Africa with us.

Monsieur Davi also brought some Togolese foods to show us and even set us the challenge of designing some posters to advertise Togolese food such as cassava, cocoa beans, coffee beans, palm nuts, okra and corn.

He was very impressed by the children's knowledge and interest in Togo. Thank you for coming to visit us, Mr. Davi!

Togo Art

Last week, we learned about Adinkra cloth- a beautiful textile art from West Africa. We looked at some of the symbols and their meanings, then designed some of our own. We then carved our own stamps from potatoes and printed some Adinkra cloth. What do you think?

We also experimented with watercolour paints last week, and made some lovely reverse silhouettes with a Togolese theme. We designed our stencil and cut it out carefully, then held it in place on the paper while we painted the background around it using watercolours. Then, when we removed the stencil, we were left with these stunning pictures:

A Look Around Our Classroom This Week

This week in St. George's Class, we are continuing our One World focus on Togo. Here is a quick tour of some of the new work on display in our room.

Our One World Pledges- what will we do to protect our planet and all of those who live on it?

Our fantastic information posters about Togo. Our mad scientist was very impressed by them! Can you tell?!

Our beautiful artwork, in the style of Togolese artist Joseph Amedokpo:

Our story maps. We retold the story of 'Akimbo and the Elephants', without any words!

Our focus table for Togo- we are collecting lots of models and books about elephants, as we learn more about elephant conservation and welfare:

The Fire Children

Source: Amazon.co.uk

As we continue to learn about Togo, we have enjoyed a West African story this week. We all enjoyed the simple and positive story of 'The Fire Children' and we particularly loved the beautiful illustrations.

We read about how the sky god Nyame hung a basket in the sky, which he filled with earth and nature and animals. Then he made a trapdoor and holes in the sky to let the light through.

We drew what we imagined this would look like:

Then, we learned about fronted adverbials and how they can be added to the beginning of a sentence to make our writing more interesting. Here are some great examples of using fronted adverbials to write interesting sentences about 'The Fire Children':

Yesterday afternoon, we made our own Fire Children from clay.
Here we are making our sculptures:

 Here are the finished masterpieces:

Delicious Cooking

This week, St. George's cooked some delicious banana and plantain, with Mrs Herrera, Mrs Cook and Miss Robertson. Everyone enjoyed cooking and tasting the scrumptious food- all of the children have been talking about plantain this week!

Beautiful Lantern Art

When we visited the Horniman Museum, we were blown away by the beauty of the painted lanterns hanging in the main lobby. We decided to make some of our own, but with a Togolese twist!

Source: tripadvisor

Each group designed their lantern, to include images or symbols of Togo.

Then we carefully and gently painted the lanterns, using watercolour paints and very thin brushes. The lanterns are very fragile so we had to be gentle to avoid tearing the paper.

The completed lanterns will be illuminated and on display at the School Art Exhibition in the hall tomorrow (Friday). Do come and see them!

Ewe Weaving

Last week, Mrs Herrera taught St. George's Class about a textile art form made by the Ewe people of Togo. These beautiful fabrics are made by weaving, often in colourful stripes.

Take a look at some of the wonderful weaving created in St. George's Class:

Fun Map of Africa Games!

Have a try at these fun map games. The first game is to learn where all of the countries in the continent of Africa are. When you have completed that, try the challenge game. The challenge game asks you to click on certain countries in each region of Africa. Let me know how you get on!

Learning Game:

 http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Africa/Africa_GL_1024_768.html

Challenge Game:

 http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Africa/Africa_G0_1024_768.html

One World Week- Togo!

Source: shutterstock

This week is ONE WORLD WEEK at school. Each class is learning about a different country and the children will be visiting each classroom to learn about the country they are studying and get a stamp in their special passport. We will be taking lots of photos to share on the blog.

Source: 123rf

In St. George's Class we are learning about Togo. We will be finding out all about Togo for the next month. So far, we have used ICT to research and complete a fact file about Togo, found Africa and Togo (and many of its neighbouring countries) on a map, we have been reading and writing about 'Akimbo and the Elephants' and we have started some artwork in the style of Togolese artist, Joseph Amedopko.

Source: pictify

Keep an eye on the blog for lots more updates and photos as we learn more about Togo.

This week is a very busy week- today you walked for Africa in our annual fundraising event, tomorrow we will be participating in the annual One World Week Football World Cup, on Thursday we will be visiting all of the classes in the school to learn about their countries and get our passports stamped and enjoying International Evening from 3:45-5:00pm and on Friday we will enjoy St. Patrick's special One World Week assembly. A very exciting week ahead!