Learning to Swim in
Swaziland
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Author: Amanda McFarland
Grade Level: Early Elementary
Objectives:
1. Students will learn about everyday life in Swaziland and
compare and contrast it to their own everyday life.
2. Students will be able to represent Cache Valley (or any other
area) by showing what makes it unique from Swaziland
Materials:
1. Map of World or Globe.
2. Copy of Learning to Swim in Swaziland by Nila K. Leigh
3. Lined poster paper
4. Markers
5. Paper for each child
6. Crayons and colored pencils
Anticipatory Set:
1. Tell students to pretend that they are leaving to go for a
trip to live in Africa for one year. Ask them, "What things would you
expect to be different than your home here? Write comments on poster
paper of blackboard
.
Procedure:
1. Have a student come up to the map and point out where
Swaziland is. It should be easy since the book is on the board with a
string showing where it is. Still, this just points it out to
students again.
2. Read from the children's book Learning to Swim in
Swaziland to students. Before starting explain that a student not
much older than them wrote it. Ask students to look and see if their
expectations would be correct. Take a few comments on what ideas were
incorrect.
3. After reading the book, explain that we are now going to find
differences and similarities in where we live and where Nila visited.
Encourage students to go beyond the obvious such as different
clothes. Ask how they are different. If they say that the food was
different ask them how it was different.
4. Have a large sheet of lined paper to write student's comments
on what in the story was similar to Cache Valley and what was
different.
5. First model a comment and then allow students to come up with
their own.
6. Tell the students that the class will be writing their own
book about Cache Valley. The purpose is to give students that might
live in Swaziland an idea of what it is like here. They will be
following some of the ideas of Nila. Each student can write one page.
They should also include some illustrations.
Some things the students may want to write about are:
The money used
Location
Animals
Schools (what we learn, who goes to school, what we wearÖ.)
Languages spoken
Clothes
Hairstyles
Chores
Toys
Games or sports
Houses
Families
Foods
7. Give the students an example by making a page in front of the
class.
In Cache Valley the main language spoken is English. Some people
speak other languages like Spanish. This is how you count to ten in
Spanish.
1. Uno
2. Dos
3. Tres
4. Cuatro
5. Cinco
6. Seis
7. Siete
8. Ocho
9. Nueve
10. Diez
8. Let the students have time to make their pages. As good
examples are done show them to the class. Encourage students who say
they cannot think of anything to either look through the book again
or talk with their neighbors to come up with ideas.
9. After students are done collect the papers to compile. Once
the book is finished the class can come up with a title.
Evaluation:
Students will be evaluated on the responses they give after
reading the book and the writing and pictures in the pages they
make.
· Do they give correct similarities and differences?
· Do the pages they make represent Cache Valley correctly?
Extension:
Students may spend another day creating their own books about
Cache Valley just as was done in Learning to Swim in Swaziland.
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Great Links for Teaching About Africa
by Amanda Morgan
lesson plans about Africa for early
elementary grades