Painted houses

This was on my wish list to teach for some time and today was the day!!

I put together a little PowerPoint to show images of the actual houses in Botswana, South Africa. Then I read Elsina's Clouds by Jeanette Winter. The Basotho women traditionally care for home and crops while the men care for the animals. The women  speak to the ancestors and forces of nature by painting on their houses. Each color and pattern is meaningful, but I didn't get in to the symbolic side with Kindergarten. The paintings are prayers or wishes for safety, prosperity and rain most often.

The students added doors and windows to their paper and then started their designs. The patterns and images were delightful. A great follow up activity to this would be to have them write a wish/prayer. Just one sentence to display with the houses would cement the idea that the images on the house have meaning to those who paint them.