On parade
ADULT-LED
Organise a mask-making activity to start a focus on African animals.
Planned learning intentions
To encourage children to explore colour, texture and shape
To find out about and identify some feature of living things
Adult:child ratio 1:4
Resources
Paper plates; garden sticks; masking tape; markers; paint; brushes; glue; scissors; materials to decorate masks, including construction paper, tissue paper, foil, pipe cleaners, feathers, pompoms, and yarn or string; shakers and tambourines or recordings of music such as Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Sa ns; pictures of safari animals from magazines; books about African animals; video or CD of safari animals; small-world safari animals, Nursery Topics poster
Activity content
* Show the children the books, pictures and/or video of safari animals and encourage them to identify the particular features of the animals. Give the children time to look together at the different pictures and to choose a favourite animal or animal that interests them. Focus on facial features such as stripes, whiskers, horns, teeth, eyes and colours.
* Explain that they are going to help organise an animal parade and invite them to create an animal mask to wear.
* Give each child a paper plate to use for the mask-making activity. As the finished masks will be mounted on sticks, it is not necessary for the children to cut out eye holes in the plates.
* Set out the art materials and talk with the children about the different features of the animals that they have chosen.
* Together identify some of the art materials that they could use to decorate the mask. Ask the children to suggest materials that could be used to make whiskers or hair. Build the children's skills by demonstrating how pipe cleaners can be used to make whiskers and cut-up wool or strips of crepe paper can be used to make a lion's mane. Demonstrate how they can use an aerosol lid or a section of an egg carton to make a nose and use cotton wool as fur.
* Make sure that the children decide for themselves the materials they want to use, and provide enough materials so that they can make independent choices.
* Demonstrate how they can attach the stick to the back of the plate using masking tape.
* When the masks are completed, encourage the children to organise a parade and accompany themselves either with shakers and tambourines, or use taped music.
Stepping stones
A child with little experience may choose to observe others before engaging in the task. They may choose random materials to make a mask.
A child with some experience will show interest in choosing an animal and spend some time looking at the books. They will be able to use different materials to represent their animal's face.
A child with more experience will engage in the activity with enthusiasm and confidence for a sustained period. They will be able to identify the particular facial features of their chosen animal and choose the appropriate tools and material that they need to replicate the features on their mask.
Extension ideas
* After the parade, display the masks the children have made alongside the reference books and pictures they used.
* Provide additional materials such as wool and strips of paper and cloth that the children can use to make matching tails to wear with their masks.
* Invite the children to make bird masks and have a bird parade, having first looked at appropriate books and pictures. Demonstrate how to make beaks by cutting out two triangular shapes and making a slit in the plate so the triangles stick out to form a beak.
2 Under canvas
CHILD-INITIATED
Set up a safari role-play centre outdoors.
Resources
Tent or material stretched over a washing line, camping furniture, sleeping bags, mosquito nets, camouflage material, tin plates and cups, washing-up bowl, binoculars, magnifying glasses, cameras, rucksacks, protective clothing for different weather and terrains
Getting started
* Invite the children to help you set up the centre. Discuss what going on safari means and how it is a way of observing wild animals closely in their own habitats in parts of Africa. Talk about how hot it is during the day, and about how dangerous some of the animals are.
* Together put up the tent and ask for ideas on what it might be like living in a tent or outside.
* Discuss what animals the children can pretend to see when they are on safari.
* Encourage them to talk about the wild animals that they would recognise.
Provide animal identification charts.
* Decide what to pack into the rucksacks to take on safari.
Moving on
* Encourage the children to use sticks and small stones to lay arrow trails so that others can follow to where wild animals can be seen.
* Make a dried river bed by putting down a pathway of gravel, sand and small pebbles and follow it to its source which could be a spring (a suspended hose pipe).
* Suggest that the children keep their own records of any wild animals they see. Discuss what they might do if they see a rhino or lion. Initiate a conversation with the children, 'Let's pretend that we saw a lion...'
* Incorporate climbing and balancing apparatus into the safari centre.
Coming together
* Suggest the children open a travellers' club inside the classroom so that they can display their finds and tell each other what they have seen.
* Encourage them to set up a circle of chairs to resemble a club with a small display area. Identify one of the chairs as the storyteller's chair.
* Scaffold the link between the dramatic play at the outside safari centre and the the stories that the children invented in the travel club by acting as a reporter or a scribe for the group.
* Put a computer in the travellers' club and import any photos taken with a digital camera of the safaris made outside and any animals they have seen.
Extension ideas
* Create a wall story or a story map based on the children's safari adventures. Invite the parents and other children to write comments or ask questions about the stories.
* Encourage the children to send postcards from the safari centre to the travellers' club saying where they are and what they have seen.
* Develop the small-world play by providing a builder's tray with a created jungle environment for the small-world animals to inhabit.
* Resource the safari centre with taped animal sounds and rainmaker shaker tubes. Hang strips of material on washing lines or trees to replicate a rainforest environment.
Possible learning outcomes
Uses available props to support their role play
Plays alongside others using the same theme LESS THAN
Acts out a narrative as part of a group
Initiates and develops a story during play and encourages others to join in
Recalls and recreates stories using language, mime and pictures
Explores own ideas about animal habitats
Comments and asks questions about the environment
Experiments with ways of moving across different terrains
