World Neighbor 3 - Ghana (everyday life in a Ghanaian child's day) + Lunar New Year community celebration

Greeting + Calendar Circle + 'Akwaaba!' Each child greets a partner with akwaaba (welcome). Teacher: 'Today we visit Ghana, on the African continent.'

• Play Twi akwaaba audio
• Display kente cloth swatch with provenance
• Point Ghana on MG-7

Ghana is in WEST AFRICA, on the African continent. Ghana borders the Atlantic Ocean (the Gulf of Guinea). The capital is Accra. Ghana has many languages - the main ones include TWI, GA, EWE, and ENGLISH (the official language). Today we look at one Ghanaian child's everyday day. Same 5 questions: HOME, SCHOOL, PLAY, FOOD, LANGUAGE. AND today we'll learn one adinkra symbol - a Ghanaian visual symbol with meaning.

• Asare is a Ghanaian author. His book won the UNESCO Children's Literature in Service of Tolerance Prize 1999. Sosu is a Ghanaian boy. He is OUR neighbor.

  model Read aloud; pause on village scenes (the dirt road, the open courtyards, the fishermen, the school bell). Ask: 'What is Sosu's everyday day? What does he do? What is the SAME as yours? What is DIFFERENT?'

  prompt Read 'Sosu's Call' by Meshack Asare (1997) - Sosu, a disabled Ghanaian boy in his coastal village, saves the village by warning of a storm.
• Akua is 7 years old. She is real.

  model Teacher: 'This is Akua's day in Accra. Notice the school uniform. School starts at 7:30am. Lunch is often jollof rice with stew.'

  prompt Examine everyday-life photo set from Accra/Ghana - HOME (concrete house with metal roof), SCHOOL (school uniform with white shirt + colored skirt/shorts), PLAY (oware game or hopscotch), FOOD (jollof rice with chicken or banku for breakfast), LANGUAGE (Twi greeting card).
• Symbols help us remember big ideas. Like our flag and eagle, the adinkra symbol is a CIVIC SYMBOL of meaning.

  model Teacher: 'Sankofa is an adinkra symbol. It means we learn from what came before. That is also what we do in history class - we learn from the past.'

  prompt Introduce ONE adinkra symbol - SANKOFA (a bird looking backward, meaning 'go back and get it' = learning from the past).
• Three world neighbors so far. Same 5 questions; different lives; same humanity.

  model Teacher and class jointly add 5 Velcro tiles: HOME (concrete house with metal roof); SCHOOL (school uniform with white shirt + jollof + oware); PLAY (oware or hopscotch); FOOD (jollof rice with stew or banku); LANGUAGE (akwaaba / ɛte sɛn).

  prompt Fill in GHANA row on MG-9 grid.

• Tell me ONE everyday detail from a Ghanaian child's day.
• Greet a partner in Twi.

M-1-S-CUL-14-A Chart

MG-9 grid as continued. Today GHANA row added: HOME (concrete house with metal roof); SCHOOL (uniform with white shirt + colored bottom); PLAY (oware or hopscotch); FOOD (jollof rice with stew); LANGUAGE (akwaaba / ɛte sɛn). Velcro pockets populated.

MG-9 Chart

Mounted on classroom wall at child-eye-height; bilingual picture-card overlays available for Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Russian, Haitian Creole, French, Korean, and Urdu.

M-1-S-CUL-14-B Photograph

5 photographs (5x7) from a real Ghanaian family in Accra with consent: (1) home with metal roof and courtyard; (2) school children in uniforms walking to school; (3) oware game being played; (4) jollof rice meal; (5) Twi greeting card. Source line: 'Family in Accra, GH, 2025, with consent.'

M-1-S-CUL-14-C Manipulative Physical / non-image

6x6 inch kente cloth swatch (real Ashanti hand-woven cloth, or high-quality reproduction). Provenance card: 'Kente cloth, Ashanti weaving tradition, Ghana. Woven by ___ in ___. Donated to classroom by ___ family.'

M-1-S-CUL-14-D Chart

5x7 inch card with Sankofa adinkra symbol (bird looking backward) illustrated; meaning printed below: 'SANKOFA - Twi for go back and get it - learning from the past.' Source line: 'Adinkra is a system of Ashanti symbols from the Akan people of Ghana.'

• In pairs, examine the photo set. Add sticky note to MG-9 with one observation.

  scaffold Sentence frame
• Trace ONE adinkra symbol (Sankofa) on paper and note its meaning.

  scaffold Tracing template with arrow

• Locate Ghana on world map AND name one everyday detail AND identify Sankofa adinkra symbol meaning.

• Mount completed GHANA row of MG-9
• Add Sankofa adinkra to Citizen Word Wall as a 'symbol from another country'
• Preview: tomorrow we visit INDIA and meet a journal-as-source

• Tonight, ask a family member: 'Have you heard of Ghana? Do you know any African food or symbols?' Bring one sentence.