National Museum of African Art
950 Independence Avenue, Southwest
Washington, D. C. 20560
(202)357-4600
Instructional Unit:
Life in Central and Southeastern Africa. My husband and I toured Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia this past summer for three weeks and explored Kenya in-depth three years ago for the same length of time. We brought native artifacts back from both visits that I shared with my third-grade class in an informal manner.
Curriculum Unit:
Grades 3,4,5
Art
Unit Objectives:
1. The students will identify and recognize three dimensional objects that are utilitarian and used in the everyday life of the people of eastern and southern Africa.
2.The students will think about the conception, planning, and skillful execution that went into each object beside its mere function.
3. The children will appreciate the design, form, color and materials used to create the object.
4. The children will be able to draw their own personal design for a stool, pottery container, carved animal box, or bead.
Pre-Visit Activities:
Content/Sequence of Events- Outline for a complete unit of four to six weeks.
1. Share my utilitarian and artistic objects from Africa with the students to generate discussion in school before the field trip.
2. Talk about the purpose of the field trip. Purpose: Students will learn about materials, techniques, and function of useful, everyday African objects. Unit objectives will be discussed with purposes in mind.
3. The children will be introduced to artifacts that I brought from Africa, which include wooden bowls and cups, baskets, spoons, and jewelry. The children will be asked to handle the objects. An informal discussion about shape, color, design, and purpose will be generated. How did the African people use these objects?
On-Site Activities:
1. The students will take the one hour tour of "Hands On! The Art of Daily Life" at the museum.
2. Worksheets will be completed. The tour will last about one hour.
3. For a museum visit, the children will be part of the "Hands On! The Art of Daily Life" group, as indicated on page two of the museum directory. If museum guides are not available, I will conduct the tour. The children will receive a worksheet and pencil at the museum. I purchased the book, "The Art of the Personal Objects," as a guide.
4. The children will work in cooperative groups of four, with paired partners. Each group of four will have a parent volunteer that will help the children complete the attached worksheet. Museum guides will be used in addition to the parent volunteers to lead the pupils throughout the exhibits on "The Art of the Personal Object" and "Purpose & Perfection."
Follow-Up Activities:
1. The children will return to school and share experiences and talk about questions on the worksheet.
2. The children will have several follow-up art lessons with the art teacher and classroom teacher to create pots and beads over several weeks.
3. The animal stories in the Heath Reader will be taught.
4. The science unit on animals will be taught. I will show my slide show on my African safaris and share my experiences.
5. Appropriate films, filmstrips, and slides will be shown.
6. Animal stories, sunken animal poems, pots, beads, and other projects that could be generated from the units would be shared in halls and classroom.
7. The children will bring back their completed worksheets, and we will discuss the items that are viewed on the tour. Part or all of the worksheet can be used as part of a quiz at a future date.
8. The children will form a finger pot or vessel from clay in art class. Students may choose a design that they copied at the museum. They will have a series of choices. They will think of a purpose for the vessel before they shape it. They may cut intricate patterns into the clay's surface with a wooden or metal blade; create a textured surface by impressing patterns with a fiber or wooden cylinder called a roulette (use a wooden mallet); burnish the surface smooth; or alter by adding handles, clay shapes or stripes. A colored wash can be used to decorate the pots or the students can color the entire surfaces.
9. Clay beads will be decorated in the same fashion as the pots. After they are dry, the beads will be painted and strung on raffla to be worn as jewelry.
10. The principal and community will be aware of our class visit, because the art teacher and I will put up a display of the jewelry and pots.
11. Creative stories will be written by the pupils about our visit.
12. The student designs and worksheets may also be displayed.
Appendices:
African Art Worksheet
Bibliography:
Ravenhill, Philip, The Art of the Personal Object , University of Washington Press. Seattle and London, 1992.
National Museum of African Art , Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 1991.
The Exploring African Art series by the National Museum of African Art.
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