G: Galimoto

G: Galimoto

Welcome! The following is the 7th in a series of 24 lesson plans, Learning the ABC’s through Literature, the 1st year. It was written especially for classroom use within a homeschool co-op, and was designed to teach the alphabet, over the course of a school year, using classic childrens literature. The books are primarily taken from the Five in a Row Curriculum by Jane Lambert, with several others added as well.  The plans were designed to give just a little bit more, so it could be more usable within a classroom setting. Teachers questions, printables, craft ideas, classroom handouts, etc are included within all the lessons. This is geared towards a K-1st grade class. If you are interested in something similar for older children, the Learning through Literature series is a more developed concept of this same idea, geared towards 1st-3rd, and also uses mostly Five in a Row books. You can find it here, Learning through Literature, the 2nd year.

G: Galimoto

What I Need:

  • Galimoto 
  • Letter G handwriting sheets (printable version here)
  • Map of Africa, showing Malawi
  • Galimoto supplies:
    • wires, coat hangers, beads, buttons, string or yarn, rocks (to help bend and shape the wire)
  • Sample Galimoto (for demonstration)

Review:

If you have been following along with the ABC’s Learning through Literature Curriculum, take a moment to go through the books you have done. (A is for Apple Pie, B is for Blueberries, etc). If time permits, you can even ask them their favorite part of last weeks book or something else to refresh their memories. This encourages involvement right from the beginning of class and get the kids paying attention, because they already know these answers :). The ABC book refresher is also a great way to reinforce both alphabet sounds and the pattern of alphabetical order.

Introduce the Book:

Our story today takes place in Malawi,
Africa. (Show where Africa is on the map)
Africa is one of the seven continents. Take a moment to point out all the continents again. If this is your first time introducing the continents to the class, you make want to introduce them to a “Learn the Continents” type of song. If you don’t already have one that you know and use, there are a few that you can find here:

 

 

Explain that Africa is a continent, and Malawi (where our book takes place) is a country inside of Africa. Point out Malawi on the map. Explain that there are many
poor areas in Africa. Because of this, all throughout Africa, most places don’t have the resources that we have. The don’t have the machines or the technology that we have. Malawi is especially poor. It is a fully land locked country (no coasts), on the Sondi River, where there are crocodiles. But they are resourceful, they use what they have, and they appreciate what they have.

Introduce the Main Character:

The main character is named Kondi, and in our story, he is trying to make a Galimoto.
What is a Galimoto?
Because the word, “Galimoto” is so mysterious, I asked the kids to try to figure it out as we read. This kept them guessing and made it a little fun, and also kept them paying attention. Eventually, we figured out together that a “Galimoto” is a toy
car, (especially a push car), made out of wires and other bits of things that we would call “trash” (but to Kondi, these were very valuable things) It is also the word for car in the language of Malawi,
Chichewa)

Read the Story

As we read, the kids listened for two things:

1) to try to figure out what a Galimoto is

2) to try to figure out more about the setting of the book, Malawi Africa.

We jotted down ideas as we went.

Letter G Handwriting sheet

Click here to print

Galimoto Craft

If you have wire (especially jewelry wire, old coat hangers, buttons, and round objects (bottle caps, or any hard plastic thing) these can all be especially helpful. I found jewery wire (you can get at any craft store) was a lot easier for little fingers to bend than coat hangers. If you have these things, encourage them to try their hand at a Galimoto. Most of the kids found this a little difficult to make on their own and needed help – but all of them LOVED the opportunity to dig into a box of supplies and create their own special Galimoto.  I gave each kid a small rock to help bend the wires. Several of the girls came up with the idea of a “Galimoto Necklace” and used the jewelry wire and buttons to make necklaces. These were a great hit.

You can look online to find more pictures of Galimoto’s to show the kids, but the concept of the Galimoto is to use what you have. This is a wonderful time to encourage the kids to appreciate what they have, use what you have. Did Kondi get bored because he didn’t have new toys? Was he sad about it? No – he used what he had. He was creative. How can we be creative today to make something beautiful from this box of junk that we have?
 
Applying this same concept, if you don’t have Galimoto supplies, make your own “junk box” from whatever extra craft supplies, boxes, bits of foil, string, bottle caps, etc that you have lying around, and just remind the kiddos to be creative like Kondi, and see what beautiful thing they can invent from the old trash in the “junk box”?
 
If  you do choose to do this with your class, please please please post pics. I would love to see what the kiddos come up with for their Galimoto ideas.

Click here to return to the Learning the ABC’s through Literature complete booklist and see the general instructions for each lesson.