One Continent — Africa

2 min Magic Box hook

Today the box is flat and almost weightless, and something slides from side to side when you tip it. Whole class chants:

Tip it — slide. Sniff it — nothing at all. Peek in for a long time and let your face go serious. Then lift out the green piece with two hands and hold it up above your head.

Now reach back in for the photograph and hold it beside the green piece: “Teacher Tredoux was a little boy — in Africa.” Let them look for as long as they want. Everybody pats the floor twice: “Africa!”

4 min Teach · Africa

The green piece stays in your hands. Say it twice; the second time they do the actions with you:

Then the map. The green piece goes home into its own hole — let a child push it in and feel it drop. Now two fingers, one on each place: “We live HERE” (Asia, China, this room) “… and Teacher lived THERE.” Trace the distance between them slowly with one finger while everybody watches.

Littles pat the floor and say “Africa!” Bigs owe you the frame: “This is Africa.” “Teacher Tredoux is from Africa.”

Teacher fails: try to force the Africa piece into Australia's hole. Push harder. Turn it round. Push again, huffing. Wait to be rescued.

Chinese moment: pin the 非 card at the top of the strip — 非洲. Then the two together: 中国在亚洲，老师在非洲。 The row of 汉字 grows by one card every morning this week.

3 min Song · Africa Is Hot! — chorus + Monday verse

The one song of the week — same chorus at every circle, one new verse each morning, the whole thing on Friday. Chords and the full sheet are on the Song tab. Sing it sitting round the map, always.

3 min Game · Find Africa

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” The map is on the floor in the middle of the circle and everybody can reach it.

The child walks round, finds the green shape, stands on it (or lays one hand flat on it) and everybody else points at them and says it together: “Africa!” Then they sit down and the next one goes.

Bigs get the harder version: stand on Africa, then walk to Asia and stand where we live. Two continents, two names, one journey.

Go round until every single child has stood on it. This is a naming game, not a race — nobody is wrong and nobody is quick, and by Friday they will run to it.

1 min Close

Everybody kneeling round the map, hands flat on the floor. Whisper → normal → shout:

Got 3 spare minutes? Handa's Surprise (Eileen Browne) — a girl carries a basket of fruit on her head and the animals take it one by one. Let them shout the animal's name on every page.

2 min Magic Box hook

Today the box is heavier, and something in it does not slide — it thumps. Chant, then shake it once and let a low growl come out of you, not the box.

Sniff the lid, jump back from it, then peek in with one eye shut. Lift out the lion very slowly and stand him on your open palm, facing the circle.

Everybody opens their mouth wide: “ROAR!”

4 min Teach · Lion

The lion sits on your palm the whole way through. Say it twice; the second time they do it with you:

Then the volume dial: your hand low on the floor is a mouse squeak, your hand up high is a full roar, and everything in between is theirs to follow. Move your hand slowly up and down and let twenty voices slide with it. End with the hand on the floor.

Littles just roar — “ROAR!” — and that is a full win. Bigs owe you a sentence: “The lion is big.” “The lion says roar.”

Teacher fails: hold the wool mane round your own face, look enormously fierce, and say “meow”. Very quietly. Wait.

Chinese moment: the 狮 card joins 非 on the strip — 狮子. And remember the New Year 舞狮, the dancing lion? That one is a costume with two people inside; this one is a real animal, asleep in the hot grass in Africa. Same word, two very different lions.

3 min Song · Africa Is Hot! — chorus + Tuesday verse

Sing the verse twice: once as the lion (huge) and once as the mouse (tiny, squeaked). Same words, same tune, opposite volume — that is a whole listening lesson hidden inside a song.

3 min Game · Lion and mouse

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” Two children in the middle: one is the lion, one is the mouse. Everybody else is the echo.

Swap the pair every two turns so everybody who wants a go gets one. Littles copy the volume and nothing else; Bigs must say which one is coming before the class answers: “The lion is big!”

Always finish on the mouse. A game that ends loud leaves twenty roaring children; a game that ends in a squeak leaves twenty children listening for the next thing you say.

1 min Close

Everybody up on their knees, mane hands round their faces. Whisper → normal → shout:

Got 3 spare minutes? The Lion Inside (Rachel Bright) — a tiny mouse goes to ask the lion how to roar and finds out the lion is frightened too. It is the loud/soft game in a story.

2 min Magic Box hook

Today the box is heavy — make a real effort lifting it — and when you set it down it lands with a thump.

Shake it: one slow, heavy roll. Peek in and say nothing at all. Then lift out the elephant with both hands, like something precious and enormously heavy, and walk him slowly round the inside of the circle.

One arm swings down from every face: “Elephant!”

4 min Teach · Elephant

Your arm is the trunk from here on. Say it twice; the second time everybody swings with you:

Then the real thing: the tubing goes in the basin, you suck up a mouthful of air and squirt water out of it. Do it once, badly, all over your own feet. Then every child gets a turn to make the trunk pick something up — a scarf, a bean bag — and put it down again.

Littles swing the trunk arm and say “Elephant!” Bigs owe you a sentence: “The elephant is big and grey.” “The elephant has a long nose.”

Teacher fails: try to pick up a block with your ear. Lean right over. Try the other ear. Look genuinely puzzled that it will not work.

Chinese moment: the 象 card joins 非 · 狮 — 大象, and the 大 is the whole joke: the big animal. Then 鼻子, and everybody points at their own nose and then at the elephant's, which is very much longer.

3 min Song · Africa Is Hot! — chorus + Wednesday verse

Sing this one slowly — elephant speed. Everything else this week is fast; a heavy, slow verse in the middle of it is a rest, and they will lean into it.

3 min Game · Elephant trunk walk

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” Everybody stands, one arm hanging as a trunk, knees soft.

Walk, squirt, walk, squirt. Then the hard bit, which they love: the herd walks in one line, each child's trunk arm holding the hand of the child in front, all the way round the room without breaking.

Half speed is the lesson. Ask them to walk so heavily that you can hear it, then so heavily you can hear it and nobody bumps — that is body control dressed up as an elephant.

1 min Close

Everybody standing, trunk arms hanging, ready to swing. Whisper → normal → shout:

Got 3 spare minutes? Elmer (David McKee) — the patchwork elephant who is not grey. Hold the book open at the last page and let them find Elmer in the crowd.

2 min Magic Box hook

Today the box booms. Do not shake it — tap the side of it once with one finger and let the sound do the work.

Tap it again, twice. Put your ear right against it. Tap it a third time and let your eyes go wide. Then lift the drum out and hold it flat on your palm without playing it at all — wait until the room is completely silent — and hit it once, hard.

Everybody pats their knees twice: “Drum!”

4 min Teach · Drum

Hands, never sticks. Say it twice; the second time everybody plays their knees with you:

Then every child gets the real drum for three beats, counted out loud by the whole class — one, two, three — and passes it on with two hands. Loud is allowed. Longer than three is not, and they will police it for you.

Littles pat their knees and say “Drum!” Bigs owe you the frame: “I can hear the drum.” “The drum is loud.”

Teacher fails: try to play the drum with your elbow. Then with your head. Then put it on like a hat and look round for it.

Chinese moment: the 鼓 card joins 非 · 狮 · 象 — 打鼓, and the sound in Chinese: 咚咚咚. Africa has drums and China has drums, and both of them say the same thing: come here, something is happening.

3 min Song · Africa Is Hot! — chorus + Thursday verse

Hand the drum to a different child for every repeat of the chorus. Playing the beat for twenty people, even for four bars, is the proudest ten seconds of a three-year-old's week.

3 min Game · Drum says

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” Everybody stands with space round them. The drum gives the orders; you say nothing at all after the rules.

Fast, slow, silence, over and over, and the silences get longer and longer. Last round, the drum goes to a Big and they run the room while you play in it like everybody else.

Three speeds only, all week, no new instructions. Matching a whole body to a sound is the same skill as hearing the difference between two English words — which is what the Friday phonics sound needs from them.

1 min Close

Everybody sitting, hands raised over their knees, ready to play. Whisper → normal → shout:

Before home time: hide the animals for tomorrow's safari walk — one per child, some in plain sight at knee height for the littlest ones. Count them into the basket tonight so that tomorrow's count comes out right.

Got 3 spare minutes? Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain (Verna Aardema) — a cumulative rhyme that grows a line at a time. Beat the drum softly under it and let them join in on the repeats.

2 min Magic Box hook

The box comes out bulging, wrapped in the printed cloth, and will not quite shut.

Pull each thing out and hold it up in complete silence. They will supply the word before you can.

The green map piece → “Africa!”  The lion → “ROAR!”  The elephant → “Elephant!”  The drum → “Drum!”

Last of all, the jar of sand. Open it, pour a little into every open hand, and let them feel it. “HOT!”

4 min Teach · Hot, then the whole week

Everybody stands. We tell the whole week with our bodies, twice — slow, then fast:

Then hot and cold, done with hands and not words: one bowl of warm sand, one bowl of cold water, and every child puts a hand in both. “Hot!” “Cold!” Africa in the day is the first one; Africa at night is the second one, which is the surprise of the week.

Littles fan their faces and say “Hot!” Bigs owe you a whole sentence each: “It is very hot in Africa.” “The sun is hot.” “This is Africa.”

Teacher fails: get ready for Africa by putting on a winter coat, a scarf, a woolly hat and gloves. Announce that you are ready. Start fanning yourself. Wait.

Chinese moment: the 热 card completes the row — 非 · 狮 · 象 · 鼓 · 热, the whole week on the strip, and 非洲很热 is the sentence. Then this Sunday: 春分, 21 March — 昼夜平分, day and night exactly the same length, here in China and in Africa, on the same round world we found on Monday's map.

3 min Song · Africa Is Hot! — Friday verse, then the WHOLE song

The finale: chorus → Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday → chorus, sitting round the map with the drum going and every animal home on the green piece. They learned it one verse a morning without ever noticing, and this run-through is the review of the whole week.

3 min Game · Safari walk

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” The animals are hidden round the room, one for every child, and the woven basket sits in the middle of the circle.

Everybody comes back, sits down, and one at a time holds theirs up and names it: “Lion!” “Elephant!” Bigs give the sentence — “I found a big elephant.” Then it goes in the basket and we count the whole basket out loud together.

Quiet feet, on purpose. A safari is the one hunt where you find more by being silent, and after four loud days they can feel the difference.

1 min Close + awards

Every child gets a “You are a STAR!” award to take home. Then, standing round the map with the drum, all four gestures:

Got 3 spare minutes? Sing the whole song one more time with the drum, then tell them what is coming: next week we zoom right in from the whole green continent to one country at the very bottom of it — Teacher Tredoux's own country. Do not name it yet. Let them wonder all weekend.

The four chords

Tempo: steady and marching, at drum speed, with a big rest before “a whole lot!” so the roar lands clean. Am is one finger — the same finger as C, moved to the other side — and it appears once per chorus, on the drum line. Chant it without the uke first; add the chords once they know the actions.

Chorus — sing it every single day

Sing the chorus twice each time. The actions are the whole point — a two-year-old who fans their face, roars, swings a trunk and pats the beat has understood the week, whether or not a single word comes out.

One verse a day — every verse is just C and G7

The build: each day sing chorus → today's verse → chorus. By Friday they know five verses without ever “learning” the song — and Friday's finale, sung round the map with the drum going, doubles as the review of the whole week.

If you're brand new to ukulele

Practice this loop for five minutes tonight: C (4 strums) → F (4 strums) → Am (4 strums) → G7 → C. That is the entire chorus, and the whole song is those four shapes. C is one finger, Am is one finger, F is two, G7 is three — learn them in that order, and notice that C and Am are the same finger on two different strings, so the swap is almost free. Every verse is only C and G7. If your fingers get stuck, put the uke down, give one child the real drum and do the finger-play instead: the class will not notice, and the actions carry the meaning either way.