Reel Lives Sierra Leone is a cross curricular interactive DVD resource for teachers and educators. It contains over 45 minutes of fascinating video content with stories from Sierra Leone presented by musician and storyteller Usifu Jalloh. Reel lives Sierra Leone sets out to counteract the one-dimensional view of Africa as a continent beset with problems.

It achieves this by:

• Focusing on the everyday life of some of the people who live there.
• Documenting the differences and commonalities that exist between life in the UK and Sierra Leone.
• The provision of a full colour 16 page booklet with many further creative classroom ideas for teachers.
• Images, stories, games and weblinks.

Reel Lives Sierra Leone includes:

• Film Footage
• Extras

Comments about the Reel Lives Sierra Leone DVD.

Available for purchase now.

Reel Lives Sierra Leone includes:

Film Footage

• School Days/Day in the Life:
  Two day in the life stories from children in Sierra Leone. Each story is 11 minutes long, narrated by the children themselves.
• Cotton:
  Usifu visits a traditional weaver in Sierra Leone’s second city of Bo. He tries on a new outfit and then tracks down the source of his new clothes from elderly traditional cotton spinners in a rural village.
• Food:
  Gari is a traditional Sierra Leonean dish usually eaten for breakfast. Usifu visits a gari processing ‘factory’ run by Emmanuel. This section is mainly in Krio with Usifu explaining certain key stages in English.
  
  

Extras

• 16 page teacher’s booklet
• Market Quiz:
  Usifu’s mum, Mrs Jalloh, takes us to the fruit and vegetable market in Freetown. Follow the on screen instructions in an interactive multiple choice guess the item quiz!
• Games:  
  Usifu joins pupils from International School, and characters from the Day in the Life stories as they take a break from lessons. Two sections with the first showing new and familiar games in action. The second section is an energetic teach-yourself guide to ‘boys noughty’.
• Music:
  Another two part section. In part 1, Usifu and friends play a traditional ‘gumbe’ or highlife rhythm in Freetown and explain the sounds made by the different drums in a 3 piece line up.
  Part 2 is a drum-along guide to polyrhythmic percussion. Teachers and pupils can play along, using simple phrases to keep in time!
• Images:
  A selection of images from Sierra Leone. These can be viewed on screen or downloaded for further activities suggested in the teachers booklet.
• Further Resources:
  A resource folder including a comprehensive fact file of historical, geographical and other interesting details about Sierra Leone, a Sierra Leonean story with ideas for classroom activities and comprehensive links to the National Curriculum.
  
  

What People think about the Reel Lives Sierra Leone DVD:

“Excellent.  A huge amount of work in this.  Really useful.”
Adam Robertson, Multimedia Officer, Save the Children Fund UK.

“Great fun ... very flexible for different age abilities.  Well laid out and easy to use – altogether full of energy!" DfID www.globaldimension.org.uk

“I’ve been waiting for a resource like this… cross curricular, creative and fun.  It’s wonderful to use in class and the children love it.”
Nesta Dolton, Deputy Head, Parlaunt Park Primary School, Slough