Title of Book: Moja Means OneAuthor: Muriel FeelingsPublisher: A Puffin Pied PiperISBN: 0-14-054662-6Grade Levels for Recommended Use: 5th grade TEKS:  (4) Number, operation, and quantitative reasoning. The student estimates to determine reasonable results. The student is expected to use strategies, including rounding and compatible numbers to estimate solutions to addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems

Brief Summary: This book is a Swahili number counting book. There are full scale depictions of unique aspects of east African culture on each page.

Background Information:

Swahili is the most widely spoken language in Africa. The word "Swahili" is an Arabic word which means, "of (from) the coast" or "people of the coast". Scholars claim that Swahili is a combination of a number of languages. While the term "Swahili" has its origin from Arabic, Sahel or Sawahel, the language is referred to by the speakers as "Kiswahili." Swahili includes words borrowed from Arabic as well as many European languages.

Although the Swahili language is widely spoken in East Africa, the concentration is in towns scattered along the coastline. The following countries have Swahili speakers: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Zaire, Comorro, Oman, Congo, Madagascar, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and the Central African Republic.

Swahili is spoken in many countries and it is the national language of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Tanzania, however, through the efforts of its first President, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, was the one that took Swahili more seriously and made deliberate efforts for all the citizens to speak the language. Now in Tanzania everyone speaks Swahili unlike other countries. The Swahili language has thus become a very strong unifying force for the people of Tanzania.

Materials needed:

Notebooks or recording sheet for each studentBook-Moja Means One by Muriel FeelingsMancala directions/ tipsMancala game suppliesSuggested Game boards (Minimum 12 small compartments, two rows of six)

muffin tin (2 rows of 6), egg carton (dozen), paper template, travel game, store bought game, baking cups, plastic cupsSuggested game pieces (You will need 48 pieces for each game board)

Beans, buttons, beads, playing chips, pasta, pennies, marbles, gravel, stones, small erasers

Suggested Activity: 1. Anticipatory Set:

i. The teacher will ask the students if they can count from 0-10. A student volunteer will write the numerical version of the numbers. The teacher will ask for a volunteer to write the word form of each number from 0-10.

ii. Today we are going to add a twist. We will keep the numerical form but change the word form (or what we call them). Can anyone guess how? Guide the students’ discussion to language.

iii. In multi-cultural classroom, have students show their native tongues words for the numbers. Otherwise, the teacher can discuss some of the languages, such as Spanish

(Espanol)-uno, dos, tres, cuarto, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez; German (Deutsch)-eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf, sechs, sieben, acht, neun, zehn. Have students write these differences in their notebooks or recording sheets.

iv. Today we are going to read a book about how to say the words in……….First let me ask who saw the Lion King movie? My favorite phase was “Hakuna Matata” means no worries, then what was the name of the lion ‘simba”, rafiki means friend. These are all words in Swahili. Our book is about counting in Swahili.

2. Read-Moja Means One by Muriel Feelings-Highlight the bold words correlate to the numbers.

i. For further extension-Talk about ten different things from their own community that could be made into a classroom Swahili counting book. Starting with number one in the Swahili language, the teacher will write down what the children say to describe their own community. The community can be as broad as the whole United States or as closely related to them as their neighborhood, school, or classroom. The students will then illustrate their own book and draw the number of items on each page according to the words and numbers written on the page.

ii. Another extension- Create classroom word language for all numbers or one favorite number. This word could be used as a special word for playing games, redirection, kudos, or cheers.

3. Activity-Show cover or page with 2 that shows the mancala game being played. Have game boards distributed. Discuss play, then distribute game pieces to start play. Game rules below.

References and or websites:http://www.bu.edu/africa/outreach/resources/curriculum/curriculum-guide/http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/byrnes-africa/marhol/index.htmlhttp://crafts.kaboose.com/mancala-game.html

Adapted by (Kelly Eleazer, 2012)

A Complete Guide on How to Play Mancala

Mancala is a board game widely played in Asia and Africa and, since there are many variations under many names, Mancala is really a type of game. The board game called Mancala you find in the stores is usually only one version, although you can play numerous versions on that board if you know some of the different Mancala rules. We'll start by ignoring all the variations, and pretending there is only one way to play the game, and the name of the game is Mancala.

The Game Board - A typical Mancala game board is rectangular in shape, has a holding area on either end, and has 12 depressions, 6 on each side, between the holding areas. If you have difficulty visualizing this, think of having two plastic cups as the two holding areas, and an egg tray or half an egg carton (6 egg containers on each side) between the cups.

The Pieces - There are no specific Mancala rules regarding the pieces in terms of their size, shape or color. Mancala pieces can be pebbles, marbles, pumpkin seeds, buttons, or anything else that makes sense, you can play the game with a mixture of sizes and colors. Neither player (there are two players) "owns" any of the pieces. The game is simply one of capturing and counting pieces, irrespective as to where those pieces were at the start of the game.

Put The Buttons In The Pockets - You'll put 4 pieces in each of pockets. In Mancala the person who moves first has somewhat of an advantage, but only can understand the advantage and capitalize on it once they know the game quite well. Since your just starting, forget about advantages.

The Mancala Rules - You start by taking all of the buttons out of one of your pockets. Which one is up to you. You take all four buttons out of one pocket, and distribute them, one button at a time, starting with the pocket on the immediate right of the pocket you removed the buttons from, and going in a counter-clockwise direction, placing a button in each pockets you go. It's like sowing seeds, in fact Mancala is often called a sowers game. If, as you are "sowing" you buttons, you come to your Mancala, place a button in it and continue. If it happens to be the last button in your hand that is placed in your Mancala, you get another turn, and then you'll select buttons from another pocket. When your last button ends in a pocket, your turn is over.

As the game progresses, you'll find yourself placing buttons in your pockets, in my pockets, and in your Mancala. When in the course of moving counter-clockwise, you come to my Mancala you simply skip over it, and place the button in the next pocket. Now it's my turn, and what I am going to do is similar to what you just did. I'll take the buttons out of one of my pockets, my choice, and sow one in each pocket going in a counter-clockwise direction. If I come to my Mancala, I'll place a button in it, if I come to yours, I'll skip over it. If my final button lands in my Mancala, I get another turn, otherwise it's you turn again.

The Objective Of Mancala - After a turn of two, it's fair to ask what it is we're trying to accomplish. The winner of the game is the one who has the most buttons in their Mancala when the game ends. You add to the number of buttons in your Mancala in three different ways. We've already mentioned the first. In your travels around the board, placing buttons in pockets, you will most certainly place one in your Mancala on occasion. When that happens, the button just stays there and counts towards the final number.

The second way to add buttons to your Mancala is to capture some. In the course of the game, some pockets are going to be empty from time to time, and as more pieces are captured, more pockets will be empty at a given time. An empty pocket will generally not remain so for long, as eventually a button will be dropped into it. If, as you are distributing buttons, and the last button should go into an empty pocket on your side of the board, you get to "capture" that button, and also "capture" all of the buttons on the adjacent pocket on your opponent's side of the board

How The Game Ends - The third way of capturing pieces occurs at the end of the game. The game ends at the instant either your side or my side has all empty pockets, it doesn't matter which side it is. When that happens, the player who still has pieces, captures them all and adds them to his Mancala. At that point, each player counts the pieces in their Mancala and the one with the most pieces wins.

It is of course possible for a game to end in a draw, with each person having 24 pieces in their respective Mancala. Usually this won't be the case however. A game can end before one player's pockets are empty if either player succeeds in capturing 25 or more pieces. This would make it impossible for the other player to win, no matter what happens, so in this case a game could be halted early.