Journey to Mali
Grade 3
Robin Moran
Teaching Sequence
Standards of learning addressed in this teaching sequence:
History and Social Science 3
3.2 The Students will study the early West African Empire of Mali by describing it
oral traditions, government, and economic development.
3.5a, b, c, 3.6 Locating and Interpreting Geographic Information
3.7 Producers of Goods and Services and the Influence of economic conditions:
The student will explain how resources are used to produce goods and services
English 3
3.1 Oral language Discussion
3.5, 3.4a., 3.5e Reading: Vocabulary and Comprehension of Narrative text
3.3 b& g, 3.10a., 3.10b., 3.10c.,: Reading and Comprehension of Informational text
Science 3
3.4 The student will investigate and understand how plants and animals in an
ecosystem interact with one another and with the non-living environment.
3.5 The student will investigate and understand the major components of soil, its
origin, and importance to plants and animals including humans.
3.6 The student will investigate and understand the water cycle and its relationship to
life on Earth. Key concepts include water supply and water conservation.
Visual Art 3
3.3: The student will develop art ideas form alternative sources, including print, nonprint, and technology.
Lesson 1: Where in the World is Mali?
**Before each lesson supply a graphic organizer of the material or ideas that
will be covered
Brainstorming and orientationOpen discussion with all results on chart paper.
1. Ask students about trips they have taken, where and how long it took to get
there.
2. Students discuss where they think Mali is as we bring out the globe or world
map to confirm ideas. On a large sheet of bulletin board paper, have the
students place all seven continents (pre -cut)in roughly the correct places.
Have them orient themselves with where Mali is in relation to the U.S. by
drawing a line.
3.
4.
5.
6.
-2Using a scale map have the students first estimate how far Mali is from the
U.S., record their ideas then measure the distance and multiply by the scale.
Have them explore the interactive map of Mali at
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/africana/map/- here students can
explore the climate, people, and geography of Mali .
Have students visit the library, search at home, and on the internet for
information about Mali. Have them bring what they find to class to be
displayed on the travel board as they share their finds. Any students without
computers may use resource books supplied in class or go to the library.
Have a global puzzle available to assemble in their spare time. Available
through the National Geographic Store.
History Timeline:
Visit a timeline to have students understand how long ago it was when Mali was the
center of great culture, wealth, and trade. Urban life developed as early as the 1 st
century BC and for more than 2,000 years it has been a crossroads of culture and trade
and has seen the rise and fall of great empires: Ghana (Wagadu), Mali, and S
Lesson 2 : Beginning the journey
Tell the students they will be going on a virtual tour of Mali, where they will see the
people, land, and experience how they live.
1. Each student is given an envelope with a ticket to Mali. On their ticket
have them list what they think they will see, hear, or experience.
2. Play some Kora music, West African harp music. Site for students to visit
http://www.kora-music.com/d/koraduo.htm
3. Take them on a virtual tour of Mali using the power point program.
4. Have the students think and write a few thoughts about what they learned
on their tickets to Mali. Have them share how they ideas might have
changed.
5. Have the students:
write a letter to someone, draw a picture and write about what they found
interesting, or write a poem about some aspect of what they saw in the
virtual journey. These can be illustrated and entered into their Field
notebooks.
Making connections;
At this point students may choose whether as a class they’d like to connect
with a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali a http:// www.peacecorps.gov or connect with
a school in Africa at E-Pals: http://epals.com.
Lesson 3 : Market day
This lesson helps students to identify Mali as a wealthy trading empire. A
powerful king that controlled all trade in West Africa ruled it.
-3Locate on a map the early Empire of Mali. Point out that it lies across the trade routes
between the sources of salt in the Sahara desert and the gold region/mines of West
Africa. On the large continent map made earlier have students work in pairs as they
glue on salt and golden wrapping paper scraps in those regions.
The Ancient Mali empire was a major worldwide trading center attracting
merchants from Europe and the Middle East. Salt, gold, silver, ivory, honey, jewelry,
tools, metal, leather goods, rare birds, livestock, horses, and cloth were traded in the
marketplaces. Old Mali’s biggest export was gold. Old Mali’s biggest import was salt
from the area just to the north in the Sahara Desert. It was used to season and
preserve food, and an important part of the diet of people who lived in such a hot, dry
climate. At one time salt was traded for equal amounts of gold.
Tell the students that Mali, today, is no longer rich in these resources and the markets
are filled with goods that are made from recycled materials.
What are the natural resources in the community. Have the students list them in
order of importance in their field notebooks.
Have students collect old containers, cereal boxes, plastic milk tops, or other
objects they would normally throw away. Have the students choose some objects and
come up with a plan to transform their trash into treasure. They can barter their
objects in their own market where they conduct business on the floor as they do in the
markets in Mali.
Word processing assignment
Have the students work in groups to create an advertisement in the Daily Mali
Newspaper (or title of their choosing) for their market day activities.
Lesson 4 : Sundiata: Lion King of Mali
After reading Sundiata: Lion King of Mali, explain the role of the griot and
how this tale descends from that unbroken oral tradition. Griots today as then record
information from meetings in their heads and repeat it to the group in the form of a
poem, song, or theatrical production.
Masks were used in performances at festivals that used music and dance to teach
children and remind adults about significant people and events from the village’s past.
Show video tape of the Dama Ceremony (available from the Virginia Museum’s Media
recourses (804/204-2681) and the video Africa’s Animal Oasis (National Geographic ).
Have the students record what animal motifs they saw in the ceremony and what
personalities the animals seemed to display.
Have the students see the video, Africa’s Animal Oasis, (National Geographic) to have
an idea of Africa’s vast animal life.
-4Have the students work in small groups to design a group dance or pantomime that
retells a section of the story. Have one person as the drummer, that works
rhythmically with the actors’ movements. Have students design animal masks, using
I gallon plastic water or milk containers, that portray their character.
Have the students research their animals on the internet and in the library. Have
them use a Venn diagram to compare their animal with the character they will
portray in their presentation and to help them as they construct their masks. World
Book Encyclopedia Online:
http://www.worldbookonline.com/na/thm/zone/stm/1200/sun/suno2.htm
Video tape the production to share later.
Lesson 5: African Garden
Students will explore how Mali’s environment supports plant life.
Student’s will choose from a list of plants used in Malian cuisine and crafts:
Rice Millet Peanuts Okra Baobab Onions Cassava Potatoes Ginger Eggplant
Maize Carrots Acacia Tomatoes Yams Wheat Cucumbers Cram-Cram
Cauliflower
As they work in pairs the students will construct a mobile that is composed of these
elements:
1. What the plant looks like above and below the ground
2. A map of Mali with the region in which the plant grows is highlighted
3. The name of the plant
4. An animal that uses this plant for food
5. Ways the people in Mali use this plant.
6. Find a place to display the mobiles
Resources:
Attenborough, David. Atlas of the Living World. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.
Brown, Leslie. Africa: A Natural History. New York: Random House, 1965.
Ogundanya, Dokpe. My Coking: A West African Cookbook. New York: Dupsy,1998.
Kingson, Jonathan. Island Africa: The evolution of Africa’s Rare Animals and Plants.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1989.
West African Vegetable Homepage:
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~mathewsc/Link.htm
USDA Plants Database: Http://plants.usda.gov
-5Bibliography
Mali Interactive Project:
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~anth/arch/mali-interactive/
National geographic:
http://nationalgeographic.com
Smithsonian National Museum of African Arts:
http://www.nmafa.si.edu/educ/mali
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Mali
http://fp.thesalmona.org/lynn/wh_mali.html
http://danheller.com/images/Africa/Mali/People/Slideshow/img9.html
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts:
http://www.mfa.state.va.us/mali_geo_histl.html
WorldNet Virginia-Virginia department of Education-Prince William County
Schools:
http://mali.pwnet.org/index.htm