Age: 6-8
Submitted by teacher Amy Shapley
Objectives:
- Students will learn the history of Ghanaian Kente Cloths.
- Students will practice using geometric shapes to design their own Kente Cloth strips.
- Kente:
- Ghana:
- Geometric:
- Items for demonstration - Kente strips and fabrics, caps and key rings, etc. using Kente symbolism, pictures, great resource website http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/kente/top.htm
- 18x4 inch strips of good quality white paper
- pencils
- rulers
- red, green, blue, black, and yellow tempera paint
- paintbrushes
- water cups and paper towels
- Present lesson:
- Who: African Americans, Africans, anyone who celebrates African heritage
- What: Kente Cloths, strips of fabric woven by hand in the colors that represent Africa. Red - Life and Blood; Blue - Innocence; Green - Mother Africa, Mother Earth; Black - People and Unity; Gold - Strength and Fortune
- Strips are sewn together to make cloth. Always woven from cotton threads.
- When: Celebrations - weddings, births, graduations, ceremonies to bring in new leaders; Whenever you want to respectfully show your African heritage.
- Why: To symbolize African culture.
- Where: Most examples from Ghana, worn in Africa, America, and wherever people show African heritage.
3. Direct the students to design geometric patterns of stripes, squares, diamonds, triangles, etc. on the paper strips.
4. Distribute trays of paint, brushes, water cups, and paper towels. Remind students that the colors are very important in Kente cloth, so they should do their best to keep the colors clean and not muddied.
5. When the strips are dry, it is sometimes very effective to use a black marker to outline the shapes and stripes. It gives the paper an embroidered look. This is your choice.
*Note: This project looks really cool using pieces of colored yarn and glue instead of paint! Just substitute tagboard for the white paper.
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