Advice for developing your own kit on Africa

Dear educators,

For an artifact kit, I have many ideas. Let me start by saying that I developed 2 diff. kits--the Kenyan Kids Kit and Ghana Today--for the Boston Children's Museum, both of which circulate nationally in multiple copies. You can view them here on our website. http://www.bu.edu/africa/outreach/materials/kits/index.html

For a kit my first and strong recom is that it have a focus--textiles & clothing from around the continent, for example, or a country study. I personally lean toward country studies as they fit well with the elem. curriculum and they help disabuse kids of the 'Africa is a country' notion. But acquisition of materials might be a problem.

In a kit I like to see:
* visuals of your topic so that kids can imagine themselves there
* a description of all items as a few might be obscure
* a language arts book or two--fiction preferably as they help "take" the child into the new environment (See www.africaaccessreview.org or our website for reading recommendations by topic) Good books from the US on the topic of course are fine
* items and visuals that help kids experience Africans as similar to them. It's tempting to include just what is unique or special about Africa. For ex you might want to include in a clothing & textiles box. a school uniform, a t-shirt and western style skirt & blouse or shirt & pants.
* a list of where to find other resources, such as a short list of topical videos & books. Also our website (or on our website: "Outstanding Websites for Teaching about Africa")
* a teaching guide

You might consider giving an honorarium to an elem teacher to help you develop the kit. I did this w/ both kits and am forever grateful--both for the final quality of the kit and for all that I learned from working with this teacher.

Good luck. This can be a lot of fun.
Barbara