In Reception this week, we have taken a trip to the continent of Africa. The children have learned about some different countries in Africa, such as Kenya and Tanzania. In the classroom, the children enjoyed the various activities that simulated aspects of Africa, for example, an African hut in the role play area, where the children could use binoculars whilst on safari, scrubbing muddy animals in the water tray and making traditional tribal necklaces using paper plates and mixed media.
In Topic, we explored the artwork of Edward Tinga Tinga, an artist from Tanzania. He creates pieces of artwork using silhouettes of African animals. The children had a go at colour-washing a sunset using powder paints, before printing the silhouette of an African animal on top. There are a series of tales called ‘Tinga Tinga Tales’ that are inspired by stories of how African animals got their attributes, for example, why elephant has a trunk, or how parrot got his beak. We also had the illustrator Liz Million in. She was excited to share how to draw African animals, such as a rhino, elephant, crocodile and many more. The children thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and had the opportunity to create their own illustration of a lion or leopard.
