Africa Speaks Project - Mural Making & Storytelling

In collaborative teams of approximately eight to a team, students used their creativity to research a geographic region of Africa (Sahara Desert, savannas, rain forests, and Mediterranean coast) and depict that region's geography, climate, natural resources, and animals in a decorative mural.  Then, in the same, teams students wrote personified poems or narratives as the land and its parts telling its own story.  Both murals and narratives/poems were presented to the class, while classmates continued their notes on each geographic region of Africa.  Enjoy the artistic work below!

Research and note-taking using a tech tool (Thinglink, Coggle, etc.):

African Geography Team Murals & Presentations:

Example Team Personified Narratives/Poems:

We are the Sahara Desert

We are wild and big

We make up 25% of Africa

We are full of sand to dig

We have a lot of salt mines

Spread across our land

Which give you your yummy bacon

And your pickles in a can

{Grace’s Part - Salt, Iron Ore, and Minerals}

I am the Sahara Desert,

I produce many things.

I can give the lifeless Earth life,

And bring kindness to a world in need.

The crunchy salt that flavors your food,

The sparkling, rocky minerals that become your jewelry,

And the delicate, spiky iron that creates your steel.

These are just some of the many things,

I give to young kids like you.

I am the Sahara.

{Ethan’s Part - Camels}

I, the camel, am scattered throughout the Sahara Desert,

ridden by travelers, merchants, and more.

I am used for carrying traded goods

across the hot sand.

With two lumps on my back,

each the size of bowling balls,

I am able to survive in the harsh conditions of the desert,

and travel across the tan sand.

{Bronwyn’s Part - Sand}

I am the sand,

full of tans and browns.

Blowing through the sky,

along the wind.

Trampled again and again,

by humans and animals alike.

My dunes tower over everything,

including the palm trees in the Oasis.

{Bronwyn’s 2nd Part - Oasis}

Speaking of me,

I bring vegetation, resources,

to the otherwise barren desert.

Plants and water to starved animals.

To help them survive.

I am the Oasis.

(Raquel’s Part - Dunes and Entire Area)

I am the the essence of the Sahara Desert,

raging towers of sand, my dunes are

constantly whipped around by the angry wind.

Always a dry, desolate wasteland,

No water to quench the thirst of the camels that trample

me constantly,

other than the lonely oasis

I am the great beast of the northwest

(Kayli’s Part - Wind)

I am the wind

I blow around sand dunes

and blow sand into your eyes

I make new dunes

so I destroy the old

When I get angry

I just blow and blow

(Kayli’s Part- Clouds)

I am clouds

I get pushed by the wind

I am white and puffy

At the desert I am white

but I can be gray

Driven away by the fierce wind.

{Dafne’s Part}

I am the Sun

I beat down and brighten the world

I make the desert hot and dry

I make it  get up to 120 degrees during the day

{Quinn’s Part - Oil}

I am Oil,

People use me for fuel.

You could find me anywhere,

Even under the dunes.

I get shipped all over the world

People make a lot of money

I get shipped out from oil rigs

To get to you in a couple of jigs

Sometimes I flow by the rocks, deep under the sand.

They say hi, and I wave back with my slimy hands

{Chris’s Part - Hamadas}

I am the hamadas

I am produced by the wind

I am a hard, rocky plateau, with very little sand because my sand been removed by deflation.

I am almost throughout the whole entire desert

I mostly have small hard rocks on me but sometimes i will have huge ones

I get walked on occasionally.

{Andres Part- Quicksand}

I am here, but you don’t see me.

Hidden by the tan colors of the sand,

I pull my prey into the depths of the dunes.

While I sweep them away

Letting them take their last breath

You guessed it I am the quickest of them all

I am quicksand that is all

I am the sparkling salt, iron, and minerals,

I am the giant camels,

I am the many grains of sand,

And the many drops of water of the oasis,

I am the dunes that cover the land,

I am the wind that blows far and wide,

I am the puffy clouds that rarely appear in the sky,

I am the sun, that beats down and brightens the world,

I am the oil that flows beneath the dunes,

I am the Hamadas, I am the rocks that are produced through the wind that make you stumble and second-guess,

I am the quicksand. The quicksand that sucks people into my liquidy lure.

We are the Sahara Desert.

I am the grasslands

The beautiful dry yellow grasslands of the african Savanna

My grass blows in the breeze

Like hair on a doll

My hills roll in the distance

Like sand dunes in the close Sahara

Trees poke up in the distance

Like three pronged forks

When the sun sets

I turn into silhouettes

When the sun rises

I am as bright as a sunflower

Some people call me a tropical rainforest

But I prefer to be called the African Savanna

I am the baobab tree

From my branches, baobab fruits

Dangle, teasing nearby animals who cannot reach

A giraffe approaches me

The wind blows through my leaves gently

But strong enough to cause a fruit to drop

As the giraffe stretches to eat a hanging fruit

A zebra approaches the fallen fruit

And grabs it with its teeth, galloping away

Before a lucky mongoose steals it

The mongoose intently watches the giraffe

Stretching towards the sky to the fruit

The giraffe peeks down at the mongoose with pity

But not enough pity to offer it a fruit

I watch the savanna with care

And offer my fruits to the animals below me

I am the giraffe

I stand tall with my spotted brown neck

I eat the top of the acacia tree

Stretching my neck strong and tall

I can be the tallest of all

I am the one who is always on top

My yellowish brown skin

And I race across the tall dry grass.

I am the lion

I am the king of the savannas

I hunt for food every day

My mane flows in the wind when I run

No other animal goes near me because they are scared

I catch a zebra and bring it to my family

My family eats away

As I protect them from our predators

I am the Niger River

I flow across the African Savannas

I am the largest river in Africa

My blue green water flowing      

Specks of gold get picked up by people

My water is murky green while fish flow around me

I am gold

I sit waiting in the Nile and Niger river

People pick me up and use me to create jewelry

I make the rivers sparkle as the sun shines

I am valuable

I am beautiful

I am gold

I am the weather

When I am happy

the sun shines bright in the sky

When I am sad

I shed my tears across the land

If I get angry

I express my rage with thunder

Striking all around

When the animals need rest

I give them the great clouds to keep them cool

(Color coding here shows parts, not who wrote it)

Together, we are one

One savanna

We cover most of Africa

Our different abilities all help

This environment to survive

The grasslands

Provide food for herbivores

The baobab tree

Shades animals and carries food

The giraffe

Taking long strides through the grass

The lion

Keeping the food chain in check

The Niger River

Providing water for all animals around

Gold

A valuable resource even today

The weather

Maintaining the beautiful savanna we all recognize

We are one savanna.

I am the Rainforest.

Spread through my continent.

All of the trees live with me.

I keep things warm and humid.

My canopies keep me sheltered and out of the rain.

I give home to animals and bugs of all kind.

Dense foliage and mud keeps me strong.

I am a black leopard

I slink through the cold, black night

the wind rustling my fur

My fur shines in the white moonlight

and my eyes glow like fire

I am determined

my legs don’t stop

I hear them behind me

and without a thought

I pounce, I growl, I stand on my feet

in front of the hunters who followed me

I know it’s my end but I am calm

I will teach them the lesson

that they are wrong

They don’t own the Rainforest

as they may think

As I make my decision

I hear a clink

But before they can harm me

something falls

in between us

forming a wall

of course it’s the forest protecting me

because the hunters

showed no mercy

they learned a lesson on this cold, black night

they learned not to control and fight

the earth that protects them

and keeps them safe

watching over them

choosing their fate

it’s mother nature

but they choose to hate

and now they’ll have to accept their fate.

I am the trees

Every day my brothers and sister are chopped down by the human race for lumber

Without us both the humans and rainforest would die

I connect the land to the sky

A roof to the ground

But I am dying, slowly, the humans are killing themselves by removing me, by removing us, they they make their next generation pay the ultimate price

I chose to be the protector of animals

I was forced to be the protector of humans

I am Lumber from a pinus tree.

Everyday I get carried away in pieces

Everyday I leave my home broken, carted away by large trucks

Leaving my brethren day after day just to be reborn into the unnatural things they call a building only to be burned and destroyed over and over again

Burning to the ground I am forced to accept my fate

I am the rain forest floor

African grey parrots soar high above

They are free but I am not

it’s dark, it’s scary

The mahogany trees are a part of me

day to day I wish I wasn’t on this planet

I can’t control anything

they control me

but I control everything

over 11,000 plants grow in me

you could also say that I conquer

I am the ruler of the rain forest.

I am the African rainforest floor.

I am the streams running  through the African rain forest.

Always active, always flowing.

Running water to cool everything down in the humid heat.

I give life to the animals, refreshing their parched throats.

Slowly spreading through the ground rising with the rain retreating with the drought.

I am the thing that everyone, everything needs.

I am the streams of the African Rain Forest.

I am the rain.  

The tears of the rain forest.

Cascading  down.

Creating a symphony

Curing the Rain forest’s pain with growth.

I cool, I bring hope.

Everyday something new dies,

but I find it inside myself to regrow what is lost.

And am rewarded as I see thousands and thousands

of vines dancing across

I am an okapi

I feed on leaves and grasses and ferns,

I’m like a combo of a giraffe and a zebra, which makes me easy to spot.

I walk through the forests in the day,

But you won’t see me at night a lot.

I’m like  a combo of a giraffe and a zebra.

I am the heat and humidity

I don't go over 90 degrees but the humidity is over 70%

I cover the forest like a blanket and make the air more humid as I rest

I evaporate the lakes and streams like brewing tea

and turn them into water vapour

they become clouds

and then the rain

comes crashing down.

My African name is Ramphastos Toco

My feathers are black and yellow and my eyes are the color of the sky and  my beak has the colors of a rainbow

I am Hunted for my Feathers and meat

I fly in the air and have a long beak

I am A Toucan

I am the Rainforest (Everyone)

Very wild and very free(Vishav)

Sheltered by the canopy (Rory)

Although I have many parts (Milo or Eric)

We flow as one and don’t come apart.

Emmoni:  Swoosh.  Blows the wind trying to cool me down, but it is no match for the powerful sun.  The clouds are too scared to rain until winter, for they know if they do the sun will get angry and dry them all up. With her short temper she causes heat waves all the time. Swoosh, the wind finally break the clouds and they start to rain on me.  I am now free tuning in to mud and moving slowly down to the water. Sorry sun you're no match for me!

Jet (Ocean/Mediterranean Sea): As I flow toward the harsh desert sand, my waves beat down upon the arid, barren surface. I am intertwined with the rich history and culture of the mysterious land, crashing blindly against the shore. The beating of my waves and the rays of the sun are upon me.  Blistering heat, blinding vision, I push forward, making high tide. The bright white sands are no longer visible. Looking across to the coast from afar, the majestic Atlas Mountains of the Mahgreb, tower over the glaring, vast, stony desert.  

As I stare below, a range of colorful, vivid sea creatures dwell within my waters, such as the basking shark, white spotted octopus, trumpet and parrot fish, providing an abundance of food for the locals.

Harsh void deserts form North Africa from Morocco, across Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, as far as Egypt. People, for thousands of years, including the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans have traveled across my waters for trading from Africa to Europe and beyond.

Billy:  I am a fisherman one day while fighting for a meal at my favorite spot on the rock in the ocean I felt a huge bite on the end of my line. I held the fishing rod slightly so the fish would not escape, suddenly a strong force pulled on my line and I almost fell into the ocean.  i knew I couldn't lose that fish because I haven't caught a fish yet this day so I pulled the fish towards me.  As I saw the shadow of this great fish I saw that it was a large shark.  I pulled the whole shark up  and I saw that it was large enough for lunch and dinner for my whole family.  I cut  the shark until it would stop moving so I could gut it. as I put my knife threw the shark's body blood splat over my shirt and the dirt in the back of my house.  once I was done with gutting the shark I put the meat onto a fire where I cooked it then prepared it to eat.

Atticus:  Slowly I raise my head, another day of running through the underbrush, ya I wish, crud. Slowly I crawl outside of my small hole. He’s right above me. I’m scared, instinct has taken over and I can barely move. Slowly I crawl backwards maybe I can hide away for long enough. This is kinda how things go around here, the bigger eats the smaller and so on. But c’mon an entire five days, I meen seriously don't these Spanish Imperial Eagles got something better to do than to chase around a helpless little Ibiza wall lizard. You're probably wondering who I am, a description would probably be a better example, I grow to a maximum snout-to-vent length of 7 cm (3 in) but adults are usually a little smaller than this. My tail is about twice as long as the body. It is robust with a short-head and rounded body with relatively coarse, slightly keeled scales. My dorsal surface is usually green but can be grey or brownish. There is usually a well-defined pale dorso-lateral stripe and there may be a row of dark spots or a dark line running along the spine. The underside of my stomach is white, cream, grey, orange or pink and the throat and occasionally the belly may be blotched with darker colour. I really like it hear, the humid climate make a perfect home, and there's plenty of ants too, yumm. Slowly I poke my head out again. “Yeah, oh yeah, in your face eagle. ” A huge cloud is drifting over my hole. It is sagging with rain. A eagle can’t fly in that. “Oh yeah.” I walked over and watched ant climb up a rock, and then I ate it, yeah I know cruelty to ants, but hey I am hungry, slowly I chomped on the ant, life is good when you got an ant to eat.    

 

Thea - I AM A CLOUD: It’s almost December I thought, feeling droopy with the weight of the all of the water I was holding. This was almost the worst time of the year for me, second only to July, where I almost non-existent in the dry heat. In the middle months, I am the perfect weight. Free to float around wherever I want to go without carrying much weight. Now, however, I am weighed down, barely able to move, grunting with the effort. Suddenly, the weight becomes too much. As I release my heavy load, water comes rushing down from me, splattering on the ocean water, and running like small rivers on the rocky cliffs. I smile because I am free to float around for a short time, just until the next day, when I will slowly gather my heavy load, and release it again.

Brooke: I fly high above everyone else, soaring through the crisp morning air. It’s getting cold, dark clouds hovering over the Mediterranean Coast. Some animals look up at me, those awake, some don’t even notice i’m there. It doesn’t matter, I don’t expect them to. I am but an eagle, plain and simple, like all the others. I don’t have any special colors like some, I don’t make a special call, my feathers are ruffled and plain, there is nothing special. I do have a special beak. Its bright like no others. I guess that makes me special, but it’s nothing compared to all the other eagles. Wait, is that a Ibiza wall lizard? I think I see a lizard down below, the one i’ve seen before poking its head out of its hole. I’m feeling a bit peckish, i’ll be right back.

Lizbeth (P.O.V is Sun): It’s that time of the year where it starts to rain and I’m still here. I see the clouds beginning to turn gray and get filled with water. I beam down at the sand, making it hotter. Sometimes, when I’m angry, I create heat waves, but even when I’m calm, I still seem to get stronger. I am the sun and I am powerful, no matter what you do I will always shine down on you.