[ SPREADING STORIES ACROSS THE WORLD ]
Aperte o PLAY +
Embedded Files
Here you will find: ► Illustrations ► Story (text, audio, video) ► Lesson plan
THE DAY HAD COME WHEN THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE STORY LEFT TO BE TOLD ON EARTH. But where had the stories gone? They were in the possession of Nyame, God of Sky. Unhappy about this situation, old Ananse decided to buy the stories from Nyame so that he could tell them to the people in his village. Like a spider weaving a web, Ananse started weaving a rope from the earth to the sky just to be able to speak to the god. And he made it! When he arrived there, he explained his wish:
— I want to buy your chest of stories.
Unable to control himself, Nyame laughed at the old man’s boldness and said:
— Since you want my chest of stories so badly, I’ll give you my price: bring me Osebo, the leopard with dreadful teeth; Mnboro, the hornet that stings like fire; and Moatia, the fairy no man has ever seen. Ananse listened to him attentively and made a promise:
— I’ll be back with everything you want!
The elder descended back to the earth and started hunting Osebo right away. To catch this leopard with dreadful teeth, he set a trap in the woods and waited. When Osebo appeared, he blurted out, showing an ulterior motive:
— Ananse, you’ve shown up just when I’m starving.
When Osebo was about to strike, he fell into the trap Ananse had prepared. The beast got entangled in the vine, and Ananse said:
— You are ready to meet Nyame.
Ananse then set off to fulfill his second task: to look for Mnboro. He found him during a storm, and Mnboro was looking for a place to take shelter from the rain. As he watched the scene, Ananse said:
— Get into my bag and stay there until the rain stops.
Mnboro got into the bag and waited, but when the rain stopped, Ananse said:
— You’re ready to meet Nyame.
Then the elder went searching for Moatia, the fairy that no man has ever seen. What a daunting task! He knew that fairies used to dance in the shades of the flame-of-the-forest trees. That was the only clue he had.
Ananse walked to the foot of the largest flame-of-the-forest tree, covered the ground with melted wax, hid himself and waited.
All of a sudden, he heard cries and ran to check what was happening. When he got to the flame-of-the-forest tree, he saw a few fairies stuck on the ground.
He grabbed Moatia and said::
— You’re ready to meet Nyame.
Ananse climbed up the rope he had woven, taking Osebo, Mnboro and Moatia with him. When he got to the Sky, he gave them to Nyame.
Nyame was a man of his word, so he gave Ananse the chest of stories. Ananse returned to his village and from that day on he told his people all the stories in the chest. The stories spread across the world, taking joy and lessons to people.
What stories do we want to put in our chest?
[ LESSON PLAN AND RESOURCES ]
[ LESSON PLAN AND RESOURCES ]
PEDAGOGICAL AIM
PEDAGOGICAL AIM
TO TAKE CARE OF ONESELF
To develop personal interests and a sense of purpose.
Socioemotional Skills
I develop personal interests and a sense of purpose because:
I am open and curious about the wisdom and scientific, historical, and mathematical artifacts of African origin;
I see myself as powerful and recognize that the lives of black people are a possible and relevant existence;
I recognize and value historical and sociocultural elements of blackness to account for the national identity of the Brazilian individual;
I recognize and value historical and sociocultural elements that constitute the identity of people of African descent;
I value the black contribution to the construction of society and recognize the potentiality of the different ways of black lives that exist in the world.
Maker Skills
I use planning and organizational skills and take initiatives for the anti-racist cause;
I am curious and willing to learn about how to positively impact the world;
I value experimenting, testing, making mistakes, learning, and creating in an unusual way with the materials available.
The environment
The school as a guardian space of ancestral knowledge.
1) ACTIVATE TO ENGAGE:
Discover incredible games in the children's book Kakopi, kakopi! – Brincando e jogando com as crianças de 20 países africanos!' (‘Kakopi, kakopi! – Having fun and playing with children from 20 African countries!' - Melhoramentos, 2019), written by Rogério Andrade Barbosa and illustrated by Marilia Pirillo.
Get ready to start the project by creating spaces for connection with nature; play and explore the senses. Look around and find some spaces to intervene and improve — see Inspirações | Desemparedar as crianças na escola | Criança e Natureza do Instituto Alana.
Celebrating African ancestry! Take the class to a cozy place, preferably in nature, and let the children play freely.
After a while, call the children and ask for the names of all the games they know. Tell them that you've selected some for them to play today; after playing, they will need to answer a question together: What do the games have in common?
Divide the group according to the number of games you want the children to try. Here are some suggestions for games of African and Afro-Brazilian descent:
Bate-Pé:
Challenge - 'Follow my feet' (Zaire). All participants must form a circle, except for the leader. The leader sings and claps their hands; at the end of the song, the leader challenges one of the children in the circle to a dance. If the selected child can perform the steps proposed by the leader, they become the new leader. If not, the leader chooses another participant and repeats the dance.
Hula Hoop:
Challenge - How many children can we have spinning the hula hoop at the same time? It is important to ensure that the hula hoop is of an appropriate size for the children.
Gutera Uriziga:
Challenge - All players stand shoulder to shoulder in a straight line, holding their sticks. The leader rolls the hoop. Players try to throw the sticks through the moving hoop. See the game here.
Set a time limit for the children to participate in a small circuit - 15 minutes per game. However, reserve some time for them to play freely with the freedom to choose their own way of playing.
At the end of the activity, ask the students:
Which group was the most fun?
Which one was the most challenging? Why?
What do all the games have in common? Why do you say that?
When the children start to get tired, tell the group that you will tell the story “Spreading Stories Around the World!”
>> Before the story
Explain to the children what you intend to do: draw inspiration from the story you're going to tell to turn the school into a guardian of African ancestral knowledge. Look for materials and music from various parts of Africa with them. Note them down and create an inspiration board by sticking paper to the wall with the ideas presented/found.
Find a space where they can play near nature. Look around and find a variety of objects and materials that you don't normally use, such as fabrics, ropes, braids, shells, beads, scarves, music, and instruments. Look for natural materials like twigs, pinecones, shells, clay, stones, and other natural materials to be transformed into play forms.
“Did you know that the 'Território do Brincar' (Territory of Play) mapped various games, many of them of African or Afro-descendant origin, that tell the stories of diverse people in Brazil? Shall we explore them?”
What are stories? Where do they come from? How many do we know? Who tells them to us? Show some covers of the class's favorite books. Point to one and ask:
What do you notice?
What is the title?
What is the author's name? What about the illustrator's name?
What type is it (poem, story, fable, comic, etc.)?
What are the illustrations like? What about colors, lines, and textures?
The Ananse Tale is a story from the West African tradition. Anansi was charming and very clever and smart, resembling a spider. He noticed that humans were sad because they didn't have anything that could make their lives happier. He remembered that Nyame, the God of the Sky, possessed magical things called stories that could make humans happy:
Who was Ananse? How do you imagine him?
How about Nyame, The God of the Sky, who possessed magical things called stories? What do you think he looked like?
What do you think happened when they met?
Let’s sit down because here comes a story!
Show the children the illustrations of the story which are on the site Aperte o PLAY+. Choose between telling the class the story or presenting the audiobook with the dubbed version of the story. These are different challenges to the readers: listening to the audiobook without the images, or holding a story-telling session performed by the teacher with illustrations. There is a third option: press play for the story, either in English or in Portuguese, and at the same time present its scenes. Choose the option that will suit your class best!
>> After the story:
Faça novamente provocações com perguntas:
Were the stories we imagined similar? Or were they different?
How does Ananse meet Nyame?
What challenges were posed?
How did Ananse manage to capture Osebo, the leopard with dreadful teeth, Mnboro, the hornet that stings like fire, and Moatia, the fairy no man has ever seen? The answer is: he captured Osebo in a trap; Mnboro was caught with a bag during a storm; and Moatia got stuck in melted wax. Then Ananse climbed back to the Sky and delivered the fulfilled tasks to Nyame, who gave him the chest of stories. Ananse took the stories to his village, and they spread around the world, bringing lessons and joy to the people.
2) PLAY TO CREATE:
2) PLAY TO CREATE:
Hang on! We’ve just got a chest! What’s in it?
Allow the students to explore and try to guess. If possible, allow the children to peep inside through little holes:
What could it be?
Why do you say so?
The chest comes with a message. In it Ananse is asking us for help. He would like the children to help him by thinking of ways in which the younger generations could beat off the challenges with the materials available. Now that he is an elder, he must ensure that Nayme will never return to take all the stories humanity holds back to his realm in the Sky. After all, adults need to be happy as they have been tired and sad.
Here we go!Let’s face the challenges that will enable us to open the chest!
[ Challenge #1 ]
Osebo, the leopard with dreadful teeth: Ananse needs braids. How can we make braids? How can we make braids???
[ Challenge #2 ]
Moatia, the fairy that no man has ever seen: Ananse needs to figure out a way of seeing tiny little things. Place some scraps of various materials, show the children a video from Manual do Mundo, and work with them in order to create. Let them look for the fairy in nature - she likes to disguise herself as little animals.
[ Challenge #3 ]
Osebo, the leopard with dreadful teeth: Ananse needs to find out how many traps he will need. On the ground, preferably on sand, make several small holes. Use pebbles or twigs to make the leopard. Use other materials to position the traps. Count how many traps you think you will need and tell Ananse.
[ Challenge #4 ]
Mnboro, the hornet that stings like fire: Use clay to make small bowls to capture Mnboro. Then count how many you have made. You may ask them to make a number of bowls in different shapes; next, have them list how many bowls of each shape have been made.
3) REFLECT TO SHARE:
3) REFLECT TO SHARE:
Shall we open the chest? Wow! So many stories we can share!!!
Imagining - What if we made a book tree in our school ABOUT THE STORIES IN THE APERTE O PLAY CHEST? What kind of resources, information, advice, materials, and instructions will we need to create this space?
Prototyping and testing - Creating models and testing; experimenting with things to see what works in order to make a book tree in our school.
Planning (and implementing) - Identifying stages; outlining how things might look and how they might work; illustrating ideas and processes.
Celebrating - Having finished building our book tree, how can we spread the stories? Who are we going to invite? Which stories are we going to hang on our tree? Who could contribute more stories? How can our book tree become the heart of a space celebrating diversity? What kind of music would we like to listen to? What kinds of games and activities do we want to bring here? How can we keep this space organized, safe, and enjoyable?
[TAKING IT FURTHER]
The Gallery Hour - Children in School
“It's time to blacken the references," as stated by Lélia Gonzales, philosopher, anthropologist, intellectual, and activist in the black and feminist movements. That's why we've created a GALLERY for children, bringing in prominent black figures and references that need to be present in schools. We come from a Eurocentric education, and decolonizing is a complex process. It's important to see and recognize your body, your hair, and your peers; to see successful black individuals; to understand their potential. Every time you, as an educator, are building a project, choosing a story, introducing new references, how about reflecting on these questions:
What representations do we present to our children when we tell them a particular story?
Do the stories I tell portray black characters in secondary or supporting roles? Have I ever told a story with black people as protagonists in prominent positive roles in society?
With these questions and the urgent need to enrich children's repertoires and references with black representation in mind we created Aperte o Play. And the Gallery is one of the actions we developed.
Click >>HERE<<
to download the Gallery Kit.
Inside, you'll find the scenery to set up with the children. The scenery, of course, is the school, the space we want to transform! The kit includes various toy art characters. Each illustrated personality allows the children to play with it, introducing and valuing new representations.
Print the toy art from our kit and build Mandela's little doll with the children. They will be collectible toy arts, and each student can have their own. The teacher may also suggest that it be a collective collection.
Present the toy to the class and ask if anyone knows that personality. Encourage conversation by asking if they can imagine what he does in life. What does he work with? Why is he important?
Right after that, present the real story of the character in question, always valuing his contribution to the world.
With this activity, we want to put into practice, in a playful way, what the Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais para Educação das Relações Étnico-Raciais e para o Ensino de História e Cultura AfroBrasileira e Africana (National Curricular Guidelines for Education in Ethnic-Racial Relations and for the Teaching of Afro-Brazilian and African Culture) say:
[...] “to strengthen, among blacks, and awaken, among whites, the sense of black awareness. Among blacks, they can offer knowledge and security to take pride in their African origin; for whites, they can allow them to identify the influences, contributions, participation, and importance of the history and culture of blacks in their way of being, living, and relating to other people, notably blacks.” (2004, p. 16-17)
Page updated
Report abuse