Interactive African Drumming workshops and African Art & Craft workshops for schools.

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Workshop

Price List

African Art & Craft Workshops for schools and community groups

Workshops are suitable for all ages and can be tailored to suit your requirements. All artistic materials are supplied and each pupil will have the opportunity to create their own work of African art, for example: African mask, batik effect picture, Adinkra print, Kente cloth, African jewellery, wall hanging or clay pot (further details).

All workshops will display genuine African artefacts and photographs and also provide information sheets, PowerPoint presentation and follow-up worksheets for teachers. The workshops will also combine African storytelling in connection with the artistic activity.

Facilitator: Dr Helen Chebe

Helen was a VSO volunteer teacher at Kanton Secondary School in Ghana

African Arts and Crafts for Schools

African Drumming Workshops

The drumming workshops are simple and do not require prior knowledge of drumming or musical skills. Everyone is given their own djembe drum and within minutes children are able to progress from simple notes to more complex beats.

A full day workshop can provide sessions for each class in your school (max 7 classes). A morning or afternoon workshop can normally cover 4/3 classes. The workshops also include African songs and chants and other percussion instruments. Our workshops are designed to encourage creative learning as part of the new Curriculum of Excellence. They are very informative about African culture and children are encouraged to ask questions.

African Drumming Workshops for Schools

Africa Day Experience

A fun way of getting children involved in learning about Africa and contributing to their understanding of global citizenship. Two facilitators will come to your school for a combined cost of £650. We can concentrate on 2 or 3 classes and provide a detailed range of activities or provide individual sessions for up to 12 classes.

Our Africa Day Experience activities include:

● Whole school introductory assembly (includes PowerPoint)

● Djembe Drumming workshops

● African Art & Craft workshops

● Traditional African Storytelling

● African village display

Africa Day Experience for Schools

Fair Trade Day

Choose from a variety of the following activities (7 classes for a morning £385 or 12 classes for our Fair Trade Day £650). Fair trade day can also include an assembly introduction to the day, display of fair trade products and also some bunting and posters to decorate the school hall. Click here for more information.

Djembe Drumming workshops
Fair trade art & craft activities (fair trade necklace, collage posters, clay pots, wall hanging etc)
Learn to play Oware (African board game)
Make a fair trade banner (learn fair trade products, producers and countries of origin)
Daily Life in Ghana
Fair trade Chocolate Bean to Bar
Market Trading Game
Fair trade Quiz

Fairtrade Experience for Schools

Price List: African Workshops for Schools & Clubs

Half day morning workshop - £285

Half day afternoon workshop - £250

Primary School Full Day - £385

Africa Day Experience Primary (two facilitators) - £650

Fairtrade Day (two facilitators) - £650

Secondary School Full Day (one facilitator) - £550

Resource box hire; one week £100/two weeks £150

Youth Club workshop - £250

Travel expenses are also added (please email for details)

African Workshop prices start from £250

Benefits of African Drumming Workshops

African drumming is fun, energising and inspirational to young people of different backgrounds and abilities.

Playing the djembe drums improves co-ordination and motor skills. It also requires concentration and focus to learn the different drum beats.

African drumming encourages creativity and self expression. Drumming circles help to reassure young people of their own abilities and talents.

Drumming together and creating music as a group encourages bonding within the class and makes pupils much more appreciative of each other.

Significantly enhances pupil understanding of the global village and improves their understanding of cultural diversity both locally and globally.

Cockermouth Secondary School enjoying an African drumming workshop

Workshops can take place anywhere; assembly hall, classroom or open air.

Primary School

P1-2 Children concentrate on basic co-ordination skills and learn Start and Stop, Loud and Soft and a steady beat. Elements of story telling and call and response singing are also introduced.

P3-4 Pupils move on to working around a steady beat and working together as independent teams with different roles.

P5-7 Pupils progress to weaving up to 6 separate rhythms together. Teachers are particularly appreciative of the way children with difficulties at school are drawn into the drum workshop and show high levels of concentration and focus.

Secondary School & Colleges

High School Students respond excellently to working as a whole class with drums. This can be part of a music class or an element of a Personal and Group development course. A drum circle is a superb tool for uniting groups of people and can be used to counter bullying or issues of racism.

College & Youth Groups are encouraged to work as a group and not as individuals, teambuilding and collective responsibility is the emphasis at this key stage. Self-confidence and respect and patience for other members of the group are some of the achievements at the youth level.

African instruments

Front (left to right): calabash drum, hand drums, shaker, xylophone.

Back (left to right): talking drum, Sam playing djembe drum, Suleman playing kpanlogo, djembe.

African Musical Instruments

We supply all the African musical instruments for the drumming workshop. Everyone will have an African djembe drum to play during the workshop and will also get the chance to play other instruments like shakers, hand drums, talking drum, calabash drum, kpanlogo drum and xylophone. All these African instruments are illustrated in the photograph.

You can organise a visit to your school as part of a fun day, a multicultural day or just a simple opportunity for your school to experience the joy of an African drumming circle.

African Art & Craft Workshops for Primary Schools

Aim: To respect the cultural heritage and traditions of others and to learn the role and purpose of craftspeople from a different culture.

Objectives: To promote creativity, explore art and design, to investigate textiles, printing, sculpture and to apply a variety of techniques and materials.

The school day will normally allow 5 or 6 sessions of between 45 to 60 minutes. We provide all the artistic materials required for the workshops (only old newspaper and aprons required for messy activities). Each pupil will have a finished art work to take home. To allow time for creativity and design the pupils may have to finish their activity with guidance from the class teacher (clear and precise instructions will be provided to the teacher). Each class can choose their own activity in advance so that the materials can be prepared for the day. The activities will be adapted for the class level, for example Mask Making for Primary 1 will involve mainly colouring and sticking a mask template whereas Mask Making for Primary 7 will involve designing your own mask, layering for a 3-D effect etc.

Primary Level

African Art & Craft

1-7

Mask Making

1-7

Batik effect

1-7

Adinkra Printing

1-7

African Jewellery

1-7

African Wall Hanging

1-3

Kente Weaving (paper)

4-7

Kente Weaving (loom)

4-7

Drum Making

5-7

Ashanti gold weights

5-7

Clay Pot Making

Smaller schools with fewer classes are able to choose more than one activity per class or larger schools may select activities for specific classes. All activities will display genuine African artefacts, photographs and PowerPoint presentation (if suitable). There will also be worksheets and handouts for follow-on work by the class teacher.

Adinkra stamps