1. Listen to the sound of a thumb piano on the Africa for Kids section of the AFRICA Web site.

http://pbskids.org/africa/piano
The following site also contains thumb piano music:
http://www.rootsworld com/rw/feature/ tracey.html
Click on the Kalumbu bow song performed on an kalimba or thumb piano.

2. Listen to a brief audio presentation about the thumb piano at
http://pulseplanet .nationalgeographic.com //ax/archives /01_cul turetemplate .cfm?programnumber =2223

3. Visit the Web site at:
http://pbskids.org/ africa/piano
Play and record your own thumb piano music.

4. Visit the following Web site which features some of the instruments used in West African music at
http://www.masabo. com/index1 .html

5. Listen to the djembe drums at
http:// www.humansongs .com/artists .htm

6. Have your students try and replicate the rhythm of the drums.

7. Create music by combining the sounds of the thumb pianos and the drums. Record the musical presentations, and post on a class Web site if possible. The following site describes how to create a Web site at
http://www .smplanet .com/webpage /webpage.html

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Learning Activity Four: African Masks & Carvings In the following activity, two kinds of African craft projects are described. You may choose to divide the class into two separate groups and have each group work on a different one, or you may want to have each student complete both over an extended time period. 1. Ask the students to brainstorm answers to the following question: What are the different purposes of art? Record their ideas on the board. 2. Visit the site of Key Moments in Life: Africa http://www uiowa.edu /~africart/ toc/chapters /KML.html Discuss the meaning of following statement from the site: ³Africans produce art for art's sake.² 3. Visit the following sites to explore African art: http://cti.itc .virginia.edu/~bcr/r ela345_98. html#webart http://www. middlebury.edu/~ atherton/ AR325.html http://www. ethnographica.com/ ethnogra phica_site_ navigation.ht m 4. Carving: Visit the Web site at The Smithsonian Natural History Web site at http://www. mnh.si.edu/a fricanvoices/ which describes the work of Master Carver Lamidi Fakeye. Browse through the varied examples of his work which include plaques, doors, posts and figures. Give each student a block of soap and materials for carving. Ask them to use Fakeye¹s work as inspiration to create their own piece of art using soap. 5. African Masks Project: Share these examples of masks at the following sites: http://cti .itc.virginia.edu/~bcr /student work/jones/shell. html http://ct i.itc.virgin ia.edu/~bcr/African _Mask.html http://www.sas.upenn.edu/ African_Studies/Face_Masks/ 6. Dogon masks can be printed out for coloring and construction from PBS¹ Africa for Kids: http://pb skids.org/africa/mask

Continue to Activities 5 & 6