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 Learning Activity Two: African
Culture Chart
In this lesson students will collect information about the
culture (attitudes, beliefs, customs, habits, and values
shared by a society and transmitted from one generation to
another) of each country in Africa. The information will be
placed on a large class chart.
1. Creating the Chart
Place the names of the African countries across the top of
the African Culture chart. The following site provides a list
of African countries:
http://www.yahooligans .com/Around_ the_World /Regions/ Africa/Co
untries/
The following is a list of headings to go on the left-hand
side of the chart:
Political Information
 Type of Government
Suffrage (Who has the right to vote.)
Other
Economic Information
Agriculture
Industries
Natural Resources
GDP
Other
Historical Information
Background of Country (You may need to provide more space
for this information.)
Other
Geographical Information
Climate
Elevation Extremes
Natural Hazards
Current Environmental Issues (You may need to provide more
space for this information.)
Other
Social Information (Pertaining to the life, welfare, and
relations of human beings in a community.)
Literacy Rate
Languages
Life Expectancy at Birth
Other
Values/Beliefs (What is held in high regard.)
Religion
Other
Aesthetic
What is valued in the sense of beauty and art?
2. Learn more
Assign each student one or two countries to research.
These sites may
link to more detailed information, and students may find
more information for the social, esthetics, and
values/belief categories than is provided on the CIA World
Fact Book Site.
3. Provide time for students write in their journals before
and during their research.
4. Students will place the information on the class chart.
(If possible you might choose to have students post their
information on the chart in a typed format.)
5. Each student will prepare a report on his/her country to
share with the class.
6. Provide time for students to present their reports to the
class. As students are giving their presentations, other
class members will be asked to write down information that
they find particularly interesting, as well as questions that
they want to ask the presenters after they have finished
their report.
7. Use the students' journals as a jumping-off place to
generate a list of questions to be used to compare the
various countries. (i.e. Which country has the highest/lowest
literacy rate? Compare these two countries GDP. What do you
notice? How might countries GDP affect the literacy rate?)
8. After the last of the reports have been given, and
students have compared and contrasted the countries, have
students address the following topics in their journals:
Write a list of the most interesting things you have
learned during this lesson.
What do you still want to learn about Africa?
Why is it important to ask the "Where" question when
you are talking about Africa.
If you could pick one country to visit on the
continent of Africa which one would it be? Why?
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Learning Activity Three: Daily Lives
In this lesson students will learn about the daily lives of
youths by reading true accounts of young people living in
various African countries.
1. Involve students in a class discussion about what they
imagine daily life might be like for kids living in Africa.
Remember to keep asking the "Where" in Africa question.
2. Provide students with time to write in their journal. Ask
students to write questions that they would like to have
answered about daily life in different African countries.
Also have students reflect on what they think daily life
might be like in some African countries.
3. Decide if you want your students to work alone or in small
groups for this activity.
4. Have students choose a country from the following online
resources: (make sure all nine countries are utilized)
OPTION ONE
The Africa for Kids section of the AFRICA Web site contains
photo essays by young people from Ghana, Republic of South
Africa, Kenya, and Uganda.
http://pbskids .org/africa/ myworld
Tell students to go to the site and click on the country they
want to read about. Tell students to record interesting
pieces of information about the student's life in their
journal.
OPTION TWO
The following Web site contains information on the five
African countries Togo, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Algeria:
http://www.on theline. org.uk/ index.htm
Tell students to go to the site and click on the country they
want to read about. Read the "Daily Life" section of the
site, and take notes in your journal. Then ask students to
click on the following categories in the menu section of
their country's site and record a minimum of three
interesting pieces of information in their journals:
Sports
Arts & Crafts
Music & Dance
Food
Speaking Out
Guide Book
5. Write a brief synopsis of the daily life of the person, or
class-group from your country. Include as many of the
following items as possible:
Description of the homes/surrounding area
Family life
Daily routines
Food
What kind of activities make up leisure time
Interesting details
Descriptions about photographs
6. Select a volunteer, one from each of the nine countries,
to share their information with the class.
7. After the information has been presented for all of the
countries, discuss the similarities and differences between
the different countries. Refer to the class map and chart
during the discussions. (i.e. When schools are mentioned you
might want to look up literacy rate. When the youth talks
about being cold in the morning or hot at school you might
want to look at the climate or elevations.)
10. Using the information on the Web sites, choose one of the
following activities to complete:
Create a travel brochure.
Students may refer to
additional resources such as
http://www.pbs.org /africa
And
http://all africa.com/
Write and perform a play. Include details from all of
the categories on the site.
Write a short story about a person from one the
countries. Incorporate information and details from
the other categories on the site.
Make a craft, song or dance, and a food dish based on
the traditional arts, music and food described on the
site.
Teacher's Note
My World section of the Africa for Kids
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/africa/kids.html/myworld
Has an area for students to e-mail questions to students from the feature.
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