Middle School Studio Lesson
Liz
Kaltenbach,
grade six.
S erengeti Silhouettes
Mary Coy
A Year-long African Adventure
Preparation is vital to the
success of any journey,
especially when one is dealing with a faraway land and
700 sixth graders. After making contact with people who have been to
Africa, and keeping up with the current events of the region, we were
ready for our journey to begin.
Only we didn’t
really go to Africa. Africa came to us this
Africa came to us this year in a variety of
year in a variety of theater, music, dance
theatre, music, dance and art experiences.
and art experiences;
through lessons in geography, history, and science; and through the
Lost Boys, young men who spoke
to captivated sixth graders about
their lonely and dangerous escape
at age eleven from Darfur, Sudan to
Tanzania to escape the genocide in
their country.
Field trips to local museums to
view an exhibit on African masks
and the film, Roar: Lions of the
Kalahari, preceded a trip to the
theatre for a behind-the-scenes look
at a “naked stage” and an actual
performance of Disney’s The Lion
King. What an
exciting and, at
times, exhausting
journey. But worth
every minute of
planning.
Working collaboratively with
teachers from different content
areas and the Educational Coordi-
nator of the Rochester Broadway
Theatre League, my participation
involved creating new art projects
reflecting our African journey. One
project was an extension of a previous project called Cone Heads (See
SchoolArts, October 2005), focusing
on the animals and traditional cultures within the various countries
of Africa. The other focused on life
on the Serengeti.
A Three-Stage Project
Serengeti Silhouettes, began with
learning about the annual migration of animals within the large
area between Tanzania and Kenya
known as the Serengeti. Four main
geographic areas—the grasslands,
woodlands, volcanic, and kopjes
(pronounced “copies”; large rocky
outposts)—provide food and protection for the myriad animals living there and, artistically, provide
students with distinct imagery to
incorporate into their work.
