Students and staff at Waverley Drive PS combine culture and math
April 3, 2024
GUELPH, ON – Toward the end of February, Waverley Drive Public School French Teacher, Andrew Agyare-Tabbi, introduced students in Tanya Hipfner’s grade 4/5 class to Kente cloth.
Kente cloth is a traditional woven cloth from Ghana in West Africa featuring bright colours and geometric patterns.
As part of this unit, Agyare-Tabbi led students through an activity to create their own woven cloth using colourful construction paper. They also investigated the different geometric shapes students could use for their Kente cloth.
The geometric patterns in the cloth inspired Hipfner’s math inclined brain. She and Agyare-Tabbi sat down to craft a brief cross-curricular unit that capitalized on his family’s personal history and connection to Ghana. This unit combined math with the French language and Art. This lesson looked at geometric properties, patterning, measurement, the language of shapes, colours and the language of math.
The result of this collaboration saw student engagement, students making connections across disciplines and the beautiful artwork that was the result. By the end of the collaboration, most of the junior division of the school had participated and the hall was lined with student Kente designs.
Categories: Spotlight On Schools Tags: Black Brilliance • Numeracy