Sunday, March 22, 2009

Anansi, the spider


In school, I have been using the British Council's interactive lessons in teaching how, Anansi the Spider got his long thin legs. This story comes from West Africa and the Caribbeans. With the adult students, I give them a lesson of the Slavery History. With the children,I give them strings of wool to be the spider web, and they pull Anansi and have lots of fun.

Some of my children are from Africa, and they are very happy to be learning this story. We use a potato to make stamps and make a before and after of Anansi. The we go to the school grounds and look for Anansi.

How did Anansi get his thin legs? Have you guessed? According to legend, Anansi didn't have thin legs, rather, he had short stubby legs. Anansi was greedy and cunning. He got his friends to pull his web when they were ready for him. Of course, by the time a few friends pulled the webs, his legs got thinner and thinner.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello Ann, that's VERY long legs this guy has. Am going to KK next week...hope you'll have a great week ahead, me - too busy to even upload, just blog hopping here and there, but cant complain so much, otherwise I'll be blogging full time with no pay of course haha!! much love/M

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

Much fun to teach the children about Araneae. I did not know how the daddy long legs got its legs, now I know!
You don't like Persimmons. Nonastringant Persimmons are available, they have a texture like an apple. I am very partial to the jelly like texture of a good Persimmon. When they get to ripe and mushy the texture is not nice any more nearly like a decaying fruit.

Viji said...

ann... surprised to see Anansi, the spider title... give me common wealth litt any time... i'm happy :) we share the same interest... nice intro on anansi :)it was refreshing to read your post.. cheers

alicesg said...

Thanks for your visit to my blog. Yikes, I am scared of spiders. :)

EG CameraGirl said...

Thank you for sharing the story of how spiders got long legs. ;-)

Reader Wil said...

Beautiful legend Ann! Thanks for your comment on the concentration camps, which I answered on my blog.