West Africa Unit Study
West Africa
Is it really Medieval if Africa was experiencing its Golden Age? It was an age of exploration, wealth, power and civilization. This unit study on Africa covers the time period of about the 900s to the 1400s, and focuses on the empires of Mali, Ghana and Songhai. While putting together our history unit studies and main lesson blocks, I like to look for books and resources for a rich experience. I add picture books, historical fiction, project books, cookbooks, folktales, biographies, and history books as well as projects and outings if possible.
For this unit, I ran into a problem I couldn't find a single premade activity or project kit. Not one. Granted, I only looked at Amazon and Rainbow Resource. So if you know of pre-made kits for an African unit, please let me know. Instead, we made our own projects using raw materials as well as repurposing other kits.
We loved heading to the kitchen to enjoy some Ghanaian and Senegalese recipes. We purchased two books to help us on our culinary journey and some recipes are ones we still enjoy a year later, long after our unit was over.
Many of the books we purchased for this unit were from Amazon. I also dipped into my own resources and pulled a number of picture books that are African in nature, but not exactly relevant to our location or time period. I included them as well because this unit was a little sparsely populated with picture books and folktales. The additional resources were for the Sahara or east Africa or for other time periods. While I do believe there would have been enough resources for the time period we were exploring, I chose to add these pictures books. In the end, our Sahara interactive animal book was a huge hit as it was one that provided hours of imaginative play for my 9-year-old daughter.
Our game 10 Days Across Africa was the perfect addition to this unit as it was a fun, interactive geography game that helped orient ourselves on this continent and identify the countries. While this is a modern political map, it was helpful nonetheless. We did look at an atlas for a physical map, and our chalk drawing was as close to a historical map we were going to get.
West Africa
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Resources & Chalk Drawings
For our West Africa Unit, we included a variety. of resources from non-fiction books and picture books to hands-on projects to cook books. One thing we could not find were pre-made kits for our projects. I couldn’t even find a craft book (though I’m certain one is available). So we resorted to making our own projects from scratch which we do from time to time.
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Projects & Activities
Our lessons are more hands-on when the students are younger as these activities serve their learning in an engaging way. Often I like to include pre-made kits to our hands-on approach. I love the options available and often kits include materials or products I cannot source otherwise. For this unit, we could not find any kits so we made came up with our own projects and interactive lessons
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Recipes
We love to include recipes when we do our history units as its a great way to experience the culture from afar. For this unit, we purchased modern cookbooks rather than historic cook books. And while we could have chosen recipes that were a bit more historical or included more local ingredients, we decided on a variety. And with the Silk Road and Spice route, many foods and spices made their way all to West Africa.
West Africa Resources
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Medieval Africa Unit Study | How To Plan A Unit Study
Is it really Medieval if Africa was experiencing its Golden Age? It was an age of exploration, wealth, power and civilization. This unit study on Africa covers the time period of about the 900s to the 1400s, and focuses on the empires of Mali, Ghana and Songhai. While putting together our history unit studies and main lesson blocks, I like to look for books and resources for a rich experience.
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Lesson Plans
Our main lesson blocks and unit studies are book rich which means you don't need to buy a curriculum to do them, but you will need books. Many of these books can be found at the library, and if not, I share with you how you can swap out books and other resources for the materials you have.
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Setting the Educational Scene
For our West Africa unit, I ordered a number of books online. For the particular location and time period we were focused on, mainly Mali and the history before and after Mansa Musa, it was a little bit challenging finding the resources we needed.
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West Africa SandStone Masjid Chalk Drawing
When I do a chalk drawing for a new main lesson block or unit study, I usually use our large 4'x6' chalkboard which hangs in our homeschool room. However, this time around, I made our chalk drawing on a smallish chalkboard from Paper Scissor Stone from Waldorf Supplies which measures about 2'x3'. I love these chalkboards!!
West Africa Projects & Activities
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Teaching Vlog | West Africa Unit Study | Medieval Africa
Join me as we travel back in time to the grand empire of Mali in West Africa. For this lesson, we are making a map of Africa that is both physical and historical. This lesson accompanies our West Africa or Medieval Africa unit study which spans from the 900's to the 1300's.
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Hands-on Projects in Unit Studies
I can’t do a homeschool unit without at least one hands-on project. I’m thankful my 13-year-old is still willing to do them and even finds joy in most of them.
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Doing Projects & Activities in Unit Studies
There were very few resources available when I searched for materials for our West Africa unit & I could find zero kits. Before I share what projects we did for our unit, let me share a secret wish...
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How To Make A West African Sand Clay Mosque
I’m really happy with the projects we did for our West Africa unit. With few resources to choose from, I came up with my own ideas. I got to flex my creative muscle and it was so satisfying creating the projects from scratch. We made a sand/mud masjid in west African style.
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West African Sand Clay Mosque
I’m super proud of the projects we did for our West Africa unit! There were no kits that I could find, so I came up with my own ideas & it was so satisfying creating the projects from scratch. We made a sand/mud masjid in west African style.
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Lip Balm Tutorial
Making lip balm is more simple than I thought. With a few basic materials, you can make dozens of lip balms in just the right consistency and flavor. Plus, you can mind your ingredients so you're using the best ones available.
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DIY Historic Kaaba
While working through our West Africa main lesson block, we learned about Mansa Musa and his great pilgrimage to Makkah to perform Hajj. He is reportedly the wealthiest man in recorded history and carried so much gold to give as charity that he crashed the markets in Egypt with in the influx of gold.
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Peg Dolls for our Africa Unit Study
For our West Africa main lesson block spanning the years 900-1400 and the empires of Mali, Ghana and Songhai, we did several projects, cooked regional recipes and read books. While these peg dolls don’t represent West African tribes of Mali, Songhai and Ghana, they are being included as we added books from other parts of Africa into this unit.
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West Africa Unit Study Review
At the end of each of our main lesson blocks and unit studies, I like to share what we did, what books we read, what things we liked and what things we didn't like and didn't get to. When putting together a unit, I often don't know how our resources are going to work out. Sometimes these books and projects are brand new to me.
West African Cuisine
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Ghana Mushroom Stew
Whenever we do our history main lesson blocks for homeschooling, we always do our best to include some historical or regional recipes to enhance our lessons. While I attempted to look for historical Malian food, we ended up buying two modern cookbooks, one on Ghanaian food called The Ghana Cookbook and one on Senegalese cooking called Senegal by Pierre Thiam.
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Senegalese Banana Coconut Fritters
This delicious dessert is sure to impress you. It's simple with ingredients that are readily available. We got this recipe from the book Senegal by Pierre Thiam. We are using this book as part of our West Africa unit for homeschool. We love to include regional, cultural and when possible, historical foods.
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Nigerian Fried Rice
Few family recipes are all around crowd pleasers. There's usually at least one person who doesn't like something I cook. Usually that person is me. And yes, I'm not a fan of this dish...well at first that is. I'm not a rice fan (except for Zeresh and Adas Polo and a new pomegranate rice), so biryani and kibsas don't interest me.
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Kale, Avocado and Grapefruit Salad | Senegal | West Africa | Senegalese Recipe
One of the things we like the best about our history units, is the new recipes we get to explore and discover as we learn about a culture or region. For our West Africa unit, I bought two cookbooks. One called Ghana Cookbook and this one called Modern Senegalese Recipes from the Source to the Bowl by Pierre Thiam.
West Africa Resources
Medieval Africa Unit Study
How To Plan A Unit Study
Is it really Medieval if Africa was experiencing its Golden Age? It was an age of exploration, wealth, power and civilization. This unit study on Africa covers the time period of about the 900s to the 1400s, and focuses on the empires of Mali, Ghana and Songhai. While putting together our history unit studies and main lesson blocks, I like to look for books and resources for a rich experience. I add picture books, historical fiction, project books, cookbooks, folktales, biographies, and history books as well as projects and outings if possible. For this unit, I ran into a problem I couldn’t find a single premade activity or project kit. Not one. Granted, I only looked at Amazon and Rainbow Resource. So if you know of pre-made kits for an African unit, please let me know. Instead, we made our own projects using raw materials as well as repurposing other kits. We loved heading to the kitchen to enjoy some Ghanaian and Senegalese recipes.
We purchased two books to help us on our culinary journey and some recipes are ones we still enjoy a year later, long after our unit was over. Many of the books we purchased for this unit were from Amazon. I also dipped into my own resources and pulled a number of picture books that are African in nature, but not exactly relevant to our location or time period. I included them as well because this unit was a little sparsely populated with picture books and folktales. The additional resources were for the Sahara or east Africa or for other time periods. While I do believe there would have been enough resources for the time period we were exploring, I chose to add these pictures books. In the end, our Sahara interactive animal book was a huge hit as it was one that provided hours of imaginative play for my 9-year-old daughter. Our game 10 Days Across Africa was the perfect addition to this unit as it was a fun, interactive geography game that helped orient ourselves on this continent and identify the countries. While this is a modern political map, it was helpful nonetheless. We did look at an atlas for a physical map, and our chalk drawing was as close to a historical map we were going to get.
Lesson Plans
Lesson Plans! Do you do them? Do you want them done for you? I share a little of how I lesson plan and walk you through 5 lesson plans that are now available on my website. Our main lesson blocks and unit studies are book rich which means you don't need to buy a curriculum to do them, but you will need books. Many of these books can be found at the library, and if not, I share with you how you can swap out books and other resources for the materials you have. Each lesson plan comes with information on how to use the lesson plans, a bit about how I structure our unit studies and why I offer all grade levels in one lesson plan. I've included grade levels in case you want to focus on a particular level or on specific content, but since everything is included in one plan, you can easily mix and match resources to suit your needs.
Welcome to the Lesson Plans for The Golden Age of Islam Unit Study. When we initially decided to broaden our European Middle Ages main lesson block, we didn’t realize that it would become a 4 year extension! So far, what began as our Silk Road unit became multiple units as each subject area became its own unit. Currently we have units for The Silk Road, Ancient China, Mongolia, West Africa and The Travels of Ibn Battuta.
When putting together these lesson plans, I realized I had far too broad a range of books than could be contained in a short unit study dedicated to a 3-4 year grade range. Usually I am able to create lessons which work for multiple grades and student interests. This unit, however, includes material that’s best suited for high school level and adult so it doesn’t easily work for all grades.
To accommodate the material and grade range, I’ve made this unit 12 weeks long which would be best implemented in 3-4 week blocks throughout 3-4 times in a year or over multiple years in conjunction with other history lessons.
I’ve also included all the materials (books and kits), tutorials, projects and recipes for all 12 grades so you can mix and match the books and lessons you wish to use.
If books or kits are not available or you have other materials you wish to use, please make adjustments as you see fit. These lesson plans may be used as a guide for inspiration rather than a rigid course of lessons. Setting up the lessons in a weekly manner allows for flexibility in how you wish to do the lessons and in which order. The grade range offered is my own estimation, but you will find that your student doesn’t fit that range and you may wish to provide other lessons or modify the materials suggested.
Setting the Scene
For our West Africa unit, I ordered a number of books online. For the particular location and time period we were focused on, mainly Mali and the history before and after Mansa Musa, it was a little bit challenging finding the resources we needed. Mainly because I am so ignorant of African history, while searching for resources I felt completely lost. I ordered some books to complement our Silk Road unit but immediately realized that medieval Africa needed its own dedicated unit. After ordering a book on Mansa Musa, I was able to take the info learned from that book and build a unit around it. Every book we chose was a winner! They were all well written, captivating and educational.
Click here to see the photos on Instagram
Per usual when putting together a unit, I pull from our own resources. The bulk of the resources I own, that were not purchased using charter school educational funding, was purchased from library bookstores. I often browse the books and collect non-fiction books, picture books and living books to add to our homeschool library. Sometimes books go unused for years until they fit into a unit. This was the case with a number of children’s books about Africa. The only thing is that nearly all the books I already owned were on central or east Africa, and we were studying west Africa. Regardless, I added them into our unit, and they nicely rounded out our studies.
We only found modern cookbooks on African cuisine, but that was fine by me. We tried a number of dishes and plan to make more. One goal of mine is to use ingredients we don’t typically use so we can really explore the food from the region.
West Africa SandStone Masjid Chalk Drawing
When I do a chalk drawing for a new main lesson block or unit study, I usually use our large 4'x6' chalkboard which hangs in our homeschool room. However, this time around, I made our chalk drawing on a smallish chalkboard from Paper Scissor Stone from Waldorf Supplies which measures about 2'x3'. I love these chalkboards!! They have just the right surface for beautiful chalk blending. Our large chalkboard is a slate chalkboard which is superior; however, over time, it loses its roughness and doesn't hold up well to these magnificent rich chalk drawings. For this chalk drawing, and honestly, for nearly all the chalk drawings I've ever done, I use Sargent Art Square Chalk Pastel from Blick Art Materials.
I'm using the book Mansa Musa by Khephra Burns and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon as inspiration for today's chalk drawing. At first I contemplated doing a historical map of Africa with physical markers and coloring, but then I thought it was not inspiring and too hard. Map drawing takes skill and perseverance, and this day, I had neither. So I settled on what I thought would be the easiest drawing for this unit: Sandstone structure, likely a masjid, with a brilliant oversized sun and warm lavender sky. Boy was I wrong about how easy this would be. It wasn't. While I love the way it turned out and honestly can't stop gazing at it, it was not easy or quick by any means. This drawing took nearly 30 minutes to complete and for such a small chalkboard, I feel like that's a lot of time, but then again, maybe it isn't. The challenge was entirely in getting the shading right and the shapes correct. The shapes were okay, though for simple soft edged triangular pillars, I did struggle to get the curves just right. What I loved was the layering. I was so pleased that this drawing only utilized about 6 colors: two for the sky, two for the sun, and two for the structures with the addition of the two sun colors for the highlights on the structures. I worked for the edges in and from the background to the foreground. I started with the border which I often don't do on the large chalkboard since it is framed. I love the look of a border as long as there is room, otherwise it looks cramped. Next I did the sky. I didn't have lavender or purple because I recently used up all the pinks and purples from all my old sets of chalk to make some super large six-fold symmetry art on our driveway and I figured those colors rarely get used as my earth tones for quickly. So for the sky, I layered pink then blue, oh and one more dark pink/rose hue, so I suppose that means three colors for the sky. Then I drew the sun in a peachy pale neutral before layering yellow towards the end. I took that peachy neutral and covered the bottom of the chalkboard before drawing in the structure in a warm medium brown. Lastly came the shading. I took a dark neutral brown and shaded as best as I could finishing with a light pale neutral for the highlights. Then I decided to give the edges of the structure a bit of yellow to really make it look as if the sandstone masjid was basking in the sun. I love the warmth this drawing exudes and feel as if it really captures the essence of what I imagine this time period and location were like.
West Africa Projects & Activities
Teaching Vlog
West Africa Unit Study | Medieval Africa
Join me as we travel back in time to the grand empire of Mali in West Africa. For this lesson, we are making a map of Africa that is both physical and historical. This lesson accompanies our West Africa or Medieval Africa unit study which spans from the 900's to the 1300's. We studied the empires of Mali, Ghana and Songhai using various resources.
For this project, we used Fabriano cold press 90 lb. watercolor paper measuring 11"x15". We used our Children's World Atlas and 10 Days In Africa as resource guides and used our Winsor Newton watercolors to paint our map. We also used a fountain pen to label locations and geographical areas on the map. While the project turned out beautiful in the end, my 13-year-old son was hasty when labeling the map, so I had him to the project again. He wasn't happy about it, but I insisted that my his age, I expected that correct spelling and grammar were necessary for this project especially since I had clearly reminded him of my expectations. In a situation like this, you have to balance the emotions of the student and the goal of the project. I could have easily let it go, but for this project, we weren't just experiencing the spirit of the project, we were striving for precision and excellence.
Hands-on Projects in Unit Studies
Not this one, not midway through it when after watercoloring a beautiful to-scale physical (and part historical) map of Africa he labeled it incorrectly after I had given him (in my opinion) clear instructions on how to label it. I was so disappointed because I felt like after all that work, why be careless in the end?
Not my best parenting moment. I’ve been having a lot of those lately. Words were exchanged. I wish I had handled it better.
He ended up doing the project again, though more hastily and with zero enthusiasm the second time around. So while the second map was labeled correctly, it wasn’t as beautiful or detailed as his first attempt.
More about our West Africa unit in an upcoming post. I’ll share more details of this project as well as others we did without the help of pre-made kits.
Beauty over accuracy? Or accuracy over beauty? Is the spirit of the project enough? Can you overlook glaring errors in favor of a job pretty well done? I don’t think there are hard and fast rules.
Each moment is delicate and dynamic. Sometimes we win at parenting and sometimes we learn from our mistakes. And sometimes we don’t learn from our mistakes. It’s challenging. Always. Even when you know the “right” way to handle something. Sometimes you just don’t. But when you do, it feels great.
Doing Projects & Activities in Unit Studies
There were very few resources available when I searched for materials for our West Africa unit & I could find zero kits. Before I share what projects we did for our unit, let me share a secret wish...
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I wish I could make activity & craft kits. Especially for units that don’t have any. Or religiously inspired kits for anyone. Or that I could create my own curriculum with kits! I do love our hands-on projects & while I am usually creative enough to come up with ideas, I realize that there is a need to have pre-made activity/craft kits for those of us who don’t have the time or ability to come up with them on our own. As a creative, I can come up the idea, do it with children & even share with local friends or family, but taking it to the next level of actually manufacturing & selling them, is not where my talents lie. Maybe that will be in my future when my children are grown?
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I’m super proud of the activities we did for this unit. And while you can only see the map of Africa in this post, I’ll tell you about the others. Check my stories for the projects. .
While reading about Mansa Musa, we learned that he made hajj with 60,000 people. He trekked across Africa stopping in Cairo where he gave away so much gold it caused the economy to crash for a decade. .
Using an old castle kit, my 13-year-old made hundreds of plaster bricks which he used to build a mini Kaaba to signify the journey to Makka made by Mansa Musa. .
Using clay, sand & dowels we built a mud/sand masjid using the architectural features found in Mali. What looks like a design feature (wood planks extending from the exterior of the building) is actually functional. The permanent “scaffolding” allows for yearly maintenance of the structures which are made with all natural local material. Some have been standing for centuries!
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We also cooked several recipes inspired by African cuisine. .
We wanted to do a project using Shea butter which is a natural resource found in Africa. So, we made lip balm! We used Shea butter, beeswax, coconut oil & cocoa butter. It’s the best lip balm I ever made!
How To Make A West African Sand Clay Mosque
I’m really happy with the projects we did for our West Africa unit. With few resources to choose from, I came up with my own ideas. I got to flex my creative muscle and it was so satisfying creating the projects from scratch. We made a sand/mud masjid in west African style. This was initially a daunting projects, and I procrastinated for weeks, maybe even months before finally doing it. It turned out to be really simple! I’m really pleased with the outcome. It didn’t take as long as I expected and nearly a year later, it’s standing sturdy in our homeschool room. We used red/brown clay from Aardvark Clay mixed with sand to make the sand/mud mixture which would be the walls and roof of the masjid. We used 1/16″ dowels cut to about 3″ and stained using walnut stain.
We also stained popsicle sticks for the door, but that didn’t hold up too well in part because the clay dried and cracked around the door. We assembled the whole thing on a 6”x8” gesso board we smothered with clay to make it appear like it was sand. Together my 13-year-old son and I made four thick rectangular walls for the base of the masjid. We used clay to seal the edges together. Once the majid and courtyard were complete, we inserted the dowels into the walls. You need to work quickly because the clay dries hard, and you won’t be able to mold the clay or insert dowels once it . When the walls (up to about 2 inches) were complete and dried, we moved on to the upper portion. Working this way ensured we didn’t collapse the walls as they bent or draped under the weight of gravity. We assembled the masjid by making four trapezoid shaped walls and lifting them into position. Once with they were positioned. We added the dowels and let it dry before working on the courtyard details and the door.
West African Sand Clay Mosque
I’m super proud of the projects we did for our West Africa unit! There were no kits that I could find, so I came up with my own ideas & it was so satisfying creating the projects from scratch. We made a sand/mud masjid in west African style. I’m really pleased with the outcome. We used red/brown clay & sand and dowels we stained using walnut stain. We also stained popsicle sticks for the door & assembled it on a 6”x8” gesso board.
We also used our castle kit to make bricks for a mini Kaaba. That project took so long & I’m not pleased with the outcome. It doesn’t look like the Kaaba. I didn’t share the pic with the black cloth over it, but even with the cloth, it doesn’t look like the Kaaba. I think we need to color the bricks.
We also made lip balm using Shea butter among other ingredients & of course we headed to the kitchen to cook up west African cuisine.
So that’s a wrap! Our Africa unit (1000s-1300s) is finished & we read all the books! Though we didn’t finish reading the African folktale book because it was a late additions to the unit. That doesn’t usually happen often, where we manage to get through all the books & projects I plan. Granted it took several weeks longer than I expected.
And now that our unit is complete, I’ve found more books. I’m definitely adding them to our unit even though it may be years before we read them when I circle back to this unit with my 9-year-old. While this unit was primarily for my 13-year-old, my daughter listened to all the read alouds. She didn’t work on the projects with my son. She’s not as interested in doing them & less so because she doesn’t like to work with him & would rather have lessons that are just for her.
Swipe to see our projects & the books we used. Primarily we focused on West Africa & the empires of Mali, Ghana & Songhay and Mansa Musa & Sundiata. I sourced books on amazon as well as my own resources (books I picked up at library sales), but all my picture books were on central & east Africa. I added them anyway, but in the future, I’d like to add resources for each area.
