We recently picked up a wonderful book from the Blount County library, this wonderful Kenyan Tale called, Mama Panya’s Pancakes: A Village Tale from Kenya by Mary and Rich Chamberlin, Illustrated by Julia Cairns.
This beautiful heart warming story shares the great message of “give and you shall receive.“ As Mama Panya and her young son Adika walk to the market, Adika invites every friend he meets to come and eat pancakes with him and his mother.
Having barely enough money to feed herself and her son, how will Mama Panya ever cook enough pancakes for everyone? Luckily, all the guests arrive with food gifts to further extend the feast.
The illustrations captivated my children with their bold colors, vivid patterns, and lush Kenyan scenery. It’s as if we were walking along with Mama Panya and Adika to market.
We thoroughly enjoyed this book and read it several times. We also enjoyed the recipe for Mama Panya’s pancakes. In the back of the book there is a map of Kenya, details of daily life, and facts about the Kenyan language called Kiswahili and general facts about Kenya.
Mama Panya’s Pancakes makes for a fantastic read aloud. The text is written in little boxes making it easy for young readers to follow along or take a turn reading out loud themselves.
Somethings To Do
Make a batch of Mama Panya’s Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 2 cups of cold water
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 1/2 tsp crushed red chili pepper flakes
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix all the ingredients with a fork.
- Preheat a nonstick pan at a medium to low setting.
- Ladle 1/4 cup of batter into the center of the pan. Tilt the pan to spread the batter to about the size of a grapefruit.
- Cook until you see tiny bubbles in the pancake, then gently flip it over.
- When the second side begins to pop up from the heat, the pancake is ready.
Serving Suggestions
You can fill your pancake with jam, tuna or chicken salad, seasoned hamburger or roasted nuts. Anything at all will do. Place your filling on one half and then roll it up and eat it.
Kenyan Animal and Tree Guessing Game
In the back of the book there is a section called Walking to Market. We photocopied both pages from the book, cut out the animal or tree, glued it to an index card. On the other side of the index card we wrote the African name. Turn the cards with the African name facing you and try and guess what it means.
Learn Kiswahili Greetings
Excerpt from Mama Panya’s Pancakes: “Kenyans speak many languages, but the main ones are Kiswahili and English………Kiswahili means “speaking the language of the coast people.” Kiswahili is a mixture of Bantu, a native African language, and Arabic, a Middle Eastern language.”
It isn’t uncommon for people like Adika and the people living in his village to speak three languages. Greetings are expected when you meet someone. Otherwise you will be considered rude. A simple hello is said like this in Kiswahili, “Jambo”. There are many more greetings at the back of the book. Take some time to enjoy saying them. The pronunciations are all there to make things easy for you.
This simple and engaging story leads to many days of fun activities as we explore Kenya.
Find it in Your Library!
- Title: Mama Panya’s Pancakes
- Author: Mary and Rich Chamberlin
- Illustrator: Julia Cairns
- Publisher: Barefoot Books
- Genre: Easy
- ISBN: 1905236646
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The post Extension Activities for Mama Panya’s Pancakes: A Village Tale from Kenya appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
Author Icy Smith is one brilliant story teller. In her book Mystery of the Giant Masks of Sanxingdui, she carefully weaves a story about tradition, honor, art, respect and beauty.
Brother and sister team Wei and Min prepare for the Warrior festival with their family and friends. Part of the art and tradition of the Shu people was bronze crafts. People would come from far away to admire their tall bronze statues and masks as well as smaller wares that were for sale.
As Min’s brother Wei becomes a warrior during the Warrior Festival, a great flood hits the village. Many homes were destroyed. As they begin to clean up from the storm and flood, news of a coming attack reaches the Shu people. What should they do, stay and fight a war or leave and let peace stay and linger ? Min and Wei, lead the villagers to flee their homeland but before they do they release the spirits of the bronze statues and masks and bury them in deep pits along with all of their other bronze objects.
There they sit for over 3000 years. In 1986 the giant and incredible statues, masks, and artifacts of Sanxingdui in Sichuan Province China we discovered and declared the 9th wonder of the world.
This story completely captivated us. Icy Smith uses beautiful and gentle language to offer an invitation to the Shu people, who they were, how they lived, and the beauty of their life in that place. The back of the book offers an up to date account of how the bronze masks and statues were found and the museum that has been built around them.
Artist and Illustrator Gayle Garner Roski beautifully illustrates this story with vivid and detailed watercolors.
We were so honored to read this book and thank author Icy Smith for giving us a review copy. While I was at the NCSS convention in Boston I had the honor of meeting Icy Smith and she generously gave me a few of her books to read and jump into. Look for more stories, books, and adventures to come from this amazing author.
Something To Do
Let’s find and discover Sanxingdui and the Sichuan Province in China.
Many Chinese archaeologists have identified the Sanxingdui culture to be part of the ancient kingdom of Shu, linking the artifacts found at the site to its early legendary kings. The Shu kingdom was founded by Cancong.Cancong was described as having protruding eyes, a feature that is found in the figures of Sanxingdui.
The Sanxingdui archaeological site is located in Chengdu Prefecture in Sichuan Province China.
The city was built on the banks of the Yazi River, and enclosed part of its tributary, Mamu River, within the city walls. The city walls were 40 meters at the base and 20 meters at the top and varied in height from 8–10 meters. There was a smaller set of inner walls.
The walls were surrounded by canals 25–20 meters wide and 2–3 meters deep. These canals were used for irrigation, inland navigation, defense, and flood control. The city was divided into residential, industrial and religious districts organized around a dominant central axis. It is along this axis that most of the pit burial have been found on four terraces. The structures were timber framed adobe rectangular halls. The largest was a meeting hall about 200 m2.
Let’s Paint: A Story Cloth
In Mystery of the Giant Masks of Sanxingdui, Min and her Aunt paint a story cloth telling the story of a great flood which had happened in the past to their people. Story cloths have been used all over the world to record and actual event which has happened to a certain group of people. A story cloth can also be myths or legends. It’s a craft and tool used to remember something very important by a specific group of people.
There’s a couple of ways you can do this.
- First you could paint the story of the Shu people and their beautiful masks. Taking a large piece of paper draw and paint the story of the archaeologist finding the large masks.
- Next you could paint the mask themselves and telling the story of the Shu warriors.
- Another idea is that you can choose a story you know already such as Noah’s Ark and paint that. Whenever anyone asks you about your painting, you can tell them it’s a story cloth.
Look and Discover: The Masks of Sanxingdui
I LOVE this Sanxingdui Mask Activity from one of our Multicultural Children’s Book Day Reviewers A Field Trip Life!
The Bower Museum
Let’s Discuss:
Since the Sanxingdui site has been discovered many questions have been asked?
1. Who were the Shu people?
2. Who burned and buried these sacred treasures and impressive masks ?
3. What do you think happened before they were buried ? Why were they buried ?
4. For ancient people, how did they know how to use advanced bronze making techniques ?
5. How advanced was the Shu culture ?
6. What made the Shu culture disappear ?
Rediscover the Wonder of The Ultimate Guide to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory PDF
The post Have you Heard of the Mystery of the Giant Masks? Mystery of the Giant Masks of Sanxingdui by Icy Smith appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
As a reading and play advocate, I am always looking for fun and innovative ways to shine the spotlight on new children’s literacy and inspire families to pull books off of shelves and stories off of pages.
So early last year, I decided to create a fun guidebook to do just THAT.
To create this Multicultural Books & Activities for Kids, I reached out to some of the brightest bloggers and asked them to pick a book that is meaningful to them, review it and create a fun activity to go along with it. The following is a line-up consisting of not only passionate reading advocates, but some of the most creative writers and bloggers I know.
The result? This guidebook is packed full of 17 great book ideas for kids and offers up not only suggestions to keep young minds reading, but matching activities and extensions inspired by the books. This guide is designed to keep families engaged in the wonder and magic that can be found within the pages of a book and offer suggestions for diversity in children’s literature. The good news is that I am giving this e-book away for FREE! Yes, you heard me; FREE.
Jump Into a Book’s
By Valarie Budayr
Some of the books used in the reviews and activities are:
- Stand Tall, but Read All Around!
{by Shannon Medisky}
- Read Around the World Summer Reading Series
{Guest post from Multicultural Kid Blogs}
- Kid Writing and Biographies: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
{Guest Post from The Unconventional Librarian Pam Margolis}
- Down Under Calling by Margot Finke Book Review and Penpal Activity
{A Multicultural Children’s Book blog post from Jump Into a Book}
- Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke
{Guest Post by Sprout’s Bookshelf}
- Read a Book; Travel the World & Make a Wish
{Guest Post from Gladys Elizabeth Barbieri}
- Fiesta Fiasco by Ann Whitford Paul
{Guest Post by Frances from Discovering the World Through Her Son’s Eyes}
- If you were Me and Lived in…by Carole P. Roman
- {Guest Post from Squishable Baby}
- Discovering The Cree Culture in America-Wild Berries by Julia Flett Review & Activity!
{Guest Post from Felicia at Stanley and Katrina}
- TOMB OF SHADOWS (7 Wonders Book III)
{Guest Post from This Kid Reviews Books}
- Cooking with Books: Lucky Birthday Noodles
{Guest Post from Jodie @ Growing Book by Book}
- A Peek into Thailand
{Guest Post from Stephanie Kammeraad of Mama-Lady Books}
- A Chair for My Mother Book Review & Activity
- {Guest Post from Vicki Arnold}
- The Magic Poof Review and Activity
{Guest Post by Stephen Hodges}
- Grandfather Tang’s Story: Storytelling with Tangrams
{Bookjump by Valarie Budayr}
And so much more! Ready for a FREE GIFT that will give your family hours of reading fun and activity? I thought so 
This e-book will only be available for a short time so grab your copy HERE.
Read On!
The post My Free Gift To YOU-Read Your World Multicultural Books Activities for Kids Guide appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
