Emily,

You have given Shawn and the rest of us some great ideas for projects with
kids.

As an anthropologist (yes, I'm a card carrying anthropologist and I read the
anthropologist news, to quote that ancient Pete Seeger song), I have to point
out that the rain stick is from South America not Africa, but your percussion
association is great.

Also, for Africa, you can buy some African masks at arts festivals or from a
local import shop in any major U.S. city, and then, do storytelling around
the masks.   This activity is great with 3rd through 5th graders and you can
then, have the children write their own stories about the masks, as well as
try them on and look in the mirror at how wonderful and weird the masks are.
  I love to do writing across the curriculum activities with 5th graders and
use local writers to lead the workshops.
We give the writers an orientation and training regarding our museum
collections and then, have the writers take the kids through the exhibits and
do writing workshops with them.  One year, I even published the children's
writings and gave a copy to each school's library.   (The museum could not
afford to mass produce a book, but we could afford to go to Kinko's and make
several copies of a binder with the children's wirtings which were then
presented to each school in a special ceremony where the student writers were
recognized).

Anyway,  thanks for the great suggestions!

Cordially,
pamela sezgin, Ph.D.
museum consultant and itinerant anthropologist

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