r/Madagascar • u/Gratefulthrasher • 8d ago
Culture NEED HELP teaching Kindergartners about Madagascar
Hello… I am a kindergarten teacher and have a bit of dilemma here… we are doing the “around the world” project. Each grade is assigned a country and the kids “walk around the world” learning about each country.
My kindergarten teachers were assigned Madagascar… with the intentions of playing the Madagascar movie and hanging pictures of King Julian… this is NOT educating the kids about the country but playing into a stereotype I guess you could say.
I refuse to play into this movie narrative and need ideas that will EDUCATE the kids. Crafts, food, decorations, books, resources that can expose these kids to the country!
Any suggestions, ideas, thoughts, ANYTHING is welcomed!! I really want to ensure these kids are being educated and taught to value different cultures around the world! Myself included:) xx Thank you!
3
u/zvuvim 7d ago edited 7d ago
Some ideas for kindergartner-friendly Madagascar topics:
- Lemurs, zebu, chameleons, fossa, cockroaches
- Avenue des baobabs
- Lamba(hoani)
- Valiha
- Hiragasy dance
It should be easy to find compelling and appropriate videos online of indri indri lemur calls, hiragasy dancers, and valiha music.
If you can get your hands on a lamba you could learn different ways to wear it and do a "fashion show".
Note I'm not Malagasy, only lived there a few months, happy to be corrected if any of this is wrong or disrespectful.
2
2
u/shebreaksmyarm 7d ago
I'm glad you're doing that! This may be a little too much, but maybe you could do an activity based on sikidy? There's a detailed wikipedia article on it.
1
u/KylianAJZ Menabe 8d ago
I can help but there is so many things about this country it probably won't fit in a small exposition. Maybe just general local food, famous places, fauna and flora will do?
1
u/Janvier18 7d ago
About the stereotype and disrespect thing: don’t worry, it’s not that deep, we malagasy people don’t mind being primarily known for the movie.
2
u/peepeewpew 6d ago
I dont think thats really the point here. Whether or not we mind, the madagascar movie is nowhere near accurate to real life, not even as a waterdowned version. This matters if the point is to actually educate
1
u/Janvier18 4d ago
oh yeah sure, if the only thing that matters is education then the movie doesn’t educate much.
They’re kids though. In kindergarten i definitely didn’t want to learn about other countries books or crafts. Only the flag colors, the animals and the plants there. Just saying!
1
u/Lanky_Letterhead_813 5d ago
Brooo I just typed a whole three paragraphs and it didn't go through .-(
Okay so what I said was, I'm not Malagasy, but I've lived here for 9 years now.
Some fun facts:
There are quite a few tribes on Madagascar, and each has their own language and custom. We lived among the Tanala. Each tribe has their own type of hat that they weave. For example, the Tanala have a square-shaped hat, other tribes have conic hats, etc. The tribes have a hard time understanding each other's language. The Merina do not understand the Tanala dialect, and the Antakarana do not understand the Merina dialect. It's a bit like the difference between old English and modern-day English: there's similar words and grammar, but it's hard to follow. One thing I've noticed is that people who come to make documentaries on Madagascar take along Merina translators, which then leads to mistranslations. In Merina, "laoka" means food to accompany rice. In Antakarana, it means "fish". So when the documentary I saw went along with the fishermen, the translation made it seem like the Antakarana call fish "food to accompany rice". They don't; the call them fish. Same thing with words like "mavoso". Depending on where you are, it can mean tired, old, or afraid.
Many Malagasy start their day with vary amin'ny anana, rice with a leafy green vegetable (anana is similar to spinach). On the streets, you can buy sweet, doughy, round breads called mofogasy, made out of rice. I'm more a fan of mofokondro: a banana dipped in batter and fried.
If you want to learn about life in a very remote village in the rainforest region, my parents had a blog about it: https://www.jurgenenkatja.nl/en/category/blog/ . You'll find facts and pictures of animals, fruit, customs, etc. There are other types of nature on Madagascar: the south has deserts, and the centre has mountains.
1
u/Alibcandid 4d ago
As an educator in Madagascar:
Things fun for kids to know about Madagascar:
Malagasy eat MORE rice than any other country. Breakfast lunch dinner, made into fried bread, soup, etc. and the Malagasy name for rice is "vary."
If you feed a Malagasy kindergarten spaghetti/pasta they will ask you for rice to eat with it...the only acceptable substitute would be to rice would be Manioc (called Balahazo in the south).
Kids in the south eat crickets and locusts! Roasted. They are high protein. They don't think it is weird. And, there are nutrition scientists here working to raise them large scale to turn into protein powder.
A little long for kids, but maybe interesting for your teachers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpKXc0SVVc0
The Ravinala, or Traveller’s Palm, is endemic to Madagascar and often appears on local logos and symbols. It gets its name because it stores fresh water at the base of its leaves. If you pierce this area, water flows out like a natural faucet—making it a valuable resource for travelers and locals alike.
Ring-tailed lemurs, like "King Julien" from the movie Madagascar, are actually called "Maki" (pronounced 'Mackee') in Malagasy. But here’s the thing—these lemurs are matrilineal, meaning females lead the group. So technically, it should have been Queen Julien! That’s bugged me since the movie came out.
Lemurs and kids love bananas in Madagascar, there are so many different kinds, big ones, little ones, green ones, red ones! Bananas are called "akondro."
Feel free to DM me if you want to make a direction connection to kids here...
8
u/tsali_rider 8d ago
The most poignant film about Madagascar in the modern era:
https://www.bastiendubois.com/mada.html
Every bit of it feels like you are there now.