African Resource Box for Primary and Secondary Schools

Ghana Flag

African Resource Box

Teachers Pack

Links with the National Curriculum

Web Resources for Teachers

Africa day at primary school

African Resource Box

for Primary and Secondary Schools

The resource box contains a huge variety of information and artefacts from Africa that can be used with many areas of the national curriculum. It also contains worksheets, quizzes and schemes of work specific to Primary or Secondary level (list of contents). The resource box can be hired on a weekly basis allowing the whole school to benefit.

Some items from the African Resource Box

Details of African Resource Box Hire

The cost of hire is £100 for one week hire and £150 for two weeks hire. For further information or to hire the resource box please email or phone (01236 823869).

Students are able to get a real feel for African culture and traditions. They are able to use all their senses in the experience; see the wide range of photographs covering landscape, family life, food and school; hear the lively highlife and reggae music, traditional drumming and xylophone; touch the texture of the wooden crafts and masks, woven fabrics and wide selection of beads and jewellery; smell the variety of dried African foods that are used in stews and taste African dishes (Ghanaian recipe booklet is included), exotic fruits and experience the taste of fair-trade chocolate. The children will even be able to try on different African costumes, national dress, hats and head scarves.

Hire the resource box for one or two weeks and then culminate the experience with an African Drumming or Art & Craft workshop.

The children can showcase their own work from the resource box and ask any questions. The whole African experience will increase awareness of this diverse world and encourage respect for all.

Primary School Teachers Pack

Please download our Teachers Pack (Adobe Acrobat) with information on family life in Ghana, word search (foods found in an African market), market crossword, music decode worksheet, colouring sheets and Ghana quiz:

Links with the National Curriculum

The resource box can be used in all subjects of the national curriculum especially in the area of inclusion and respect for all.

Some examples from the QCA are listed below:

Masks and batik work (key stage 2)

Respect for all: African arts (key stage 3, years 7 to 9)

Citizenship (slideshow African School)

Music: ages 11-14

QCA - innovating with geography

Children from the village Pulima, near Tumu, Ghana

Useful website links for teachers:

Oxfam's Cool Planet for Teachers

Oxfam's Cool Planet for teachers has lots of information about Ghana and issues such as fair trade and sustainability. The children and diversity section has Wake Up World! which compares the daily lives of children in Ghana, Russia, Brazil and India.

www.globalgang.org.uk/planetteacher/fairtrade Christian Aid website for teachers discusses the fair trade of chocolate from Ghana and also snail farming: www.globalgang.org.uk/planetteacher/health

www.afro.com/children/myths/myths.html stories from around the world including three anansi stories (Anansi and the turtle; Anansi firefly story & Anansi tries to steal all the wisdom in the world)

Journey through Africa and learn about the animals and people of the desert, savannah and rainforest.

www.pbskids.org/africa/ My world shows a secondary school in Accra, Ghana; play a thumb piano; make an African mask and folktale.

www.pbs.org/wonders/Kids/kids.htm Anansi website with an on-line game.

Pupils at Kanton Secondary School

Pupils at Kanton Secondary School, Ghana

Cape Coast Castle in Ghana

Cape Coast Castle used by the British during the slave trade.

List of Contents of Resource Box

African arts and crafts: selection of wooden masks and crafts, fertility doll, pottery figure and batik pictures.

African jewellery: stone necklaces, bangles, earrings and a selection of African glass trade beads with information sheets on how the beads are made.

Clothing: head scarves and hats worn by Muslim women and men, selection of African outfits for pupils and teachers, smock dresses worn in the north of Ghana and samples of kente cloth the traditional material of the Ashanti tribe in Ghana. Folder and activity sheets for Ghanaian cloth.

Music: small hand drum, calabash shaker, basket shaker, selection of cd’s and tapes on African music (traditional drumming, xylophone, highlife, reggae, and popular Ghanaian artists and bands).

Languages: List of the most common Ghanaian languages and some text books in Sissali (language spoken by the Sissala tribe in Northern Ghana)

Books and educational materials: Activity folder (Daily Life in Ghana, Market Day, African Beads, African Masks, Chocolate and Fair Trade) map of Ghana, pictures for photocopying, selection of Ghanaian textbooks and story books for schools, Ghana The Bradt Travel Guide by Philip Briggs.

Food: List of common goods found in an African village market, Ghanaian recipes, selection of dried African foods, grinding bowl, cooking pot, washing cloth, key soap.

Photographs: wildlife, traditional dress, music and dance, types of housing, village markets and foods, schools and education, arts and crafts, farming and crops, other types of employment, beaches and fishing, castles, tourism in Ghana. Click here for photos of life in an African village.

African Arts for Scotland, 80 Stirling Road, Kilsyth, Glasgow, G65 0PT

For further information or to book a workshop please phone or email:

Tel: 01236 823869

Email: info@teachingdrums.com