Each year during the month of February there is an extra emphasis on studying African traditions as February is Black History Month. In the past week, both teachers and students have been working diligently at acquiring a vast knowledge about various African traditions. In the art studio, students focused on the country of Ghana and have examined Adinkra Cloths. With this lesson came a rich understanding about representation and symbolism, as well as a deep understanding about another culture's work of art.
Students learned that the Adinkra cloth is a hand printed fabric created by the Ashanti people of Ghana. The cloths are stamped and patterned with traditional Ashanti symbols - each symbol has its own meaning. People in Ghana decorate the cloth by using a black dye made of bark which comes from the Adinkera Aduru (the type of tree it comes from!). Symbols are carved into gourds and the gourds are then pressed into the dye and the symbols are stamped onto the fabric. Through the years, people have decorated these clothes to tell a story or to express their thoughts or feelings.
In order for students to gain further knowledge and completely understand the idea of a "symbol" - we examined common symbols first. Students easily recognized a heart as a symbol of love, a star meaning "night time" or "good luck/wishes". We also looked at media from our own visual culture - the famous "M" symbol of McDonalds and the mouse who serves as the representation for Chuck-E-Cheese! Afterwards, students looked at the Ashanti symbols and compared them to our American ones. The symbol of hope in Ghana looks a lot like our symbol of love!
We thought hard about which symbol we would use to represent ourselves. Kindergarteners made sketches and were required to explain why they chose each design. After a symbol was chosen, we used a piece of foam and "etched" our designs into this new material. If we wanted a shaped stamp, we had to cut the foam into the desired shape. Once we glued the foam onto a cardboard backing, we were able to stamp out our design!
Ms. Kate and Ms. Leslie's class took it a step further and decided that they wanted to create a stamped alphabet. Since each letter of the alphabet symbolizes a sound, students were tasked with choosing a letter of the alphabet and drawing a picture to represent that letter. We had a lot of fun coming up with different words (and deciding which word is easiest to etch!). The students' knowledge of letter sounds and gaining understanding of phonemic awareness is phenomenal! Prek4 students will be reading if not by next month, but by the end of the year! The students were so interested in this literacy activity that they took turns identifying symbols and used inventive spelling to write what the symbol was as well as what the symbol means. Great job, PK4! :) (This became so popular that by the end of the week, PK3's were writing, too -- they definitely can identify beginning and ending letter sounds -- we are SO proud! :)
A collaborative American Adinkra will be displayed in the near future - be on the lookout!
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