Story Time at Home: Let's Visit Africa!

If you're at home with your little ones, waiting for another season of toddler/preschool story time to begin, why not try having story time at home?  For the next seven weeks, I'll be posting oodles of ready-to-use, story time outlines, which will include themed book suggestions, fun activities, and simple crafts you can make with materials you probably already have on hand.

If you get ambitious and would like to share a picture of your story-time-at-home experience (i.e. You might send a picture of a finished craft project), just shoot us an email at ozarkregionallibraryyouth@gmail.com, and it might get included on our blog!  No names will be included with submissions for privacy reasons.

So, without any further delay, let's get to the fun stuff!  Today's story time destination?  A continent across the world- Africa!

Let's Visit Africa Story Time

Books: 

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears:

A West African Tale

by Verna Aardema and 

Leo and Diane Dillion

Cover image from Goodreads.

Mama Panya's Pancakes: 

A Village Tale from Kenya 

by Mary and Richard Chamberlin

and Julia Cairns

Cover image from Goodreads.

Game/Activity: Make your own game of Mancala, a “count-&-capture” game that has roots in Africa and Asia.  Click here for great instructions from Kaboose!

Snack: Combine two popular African foods- bananas and nuts- to make this super simple snack. 

Craft: Make a baobab tree.  Baobab trees are unique; they look as though they have been planted upside down, and their partially hollow trunks can hold up to 25,000 gallons of water!  Here’s how you make your own tree:

• Gather an empty, plastic soda bottle, brown and green construction paper (or color a couple sheets of typing paper), scissors, and glue or tape. 
• Wrap the bottle base with brown paper.  
• Twist small strips of brown paper to form branches.  Attach these to the bottle’s neck.
• Cut out and attach green leaf shapes to the ends of the branches.
• Admire your recycled creation!

I hope you enjoyed this idea for how you can recreate story time at home!  Check back in a few days for more fun, travel-themed ideas focusing on a new area of the world!

Keep reading!

Shaen