Kaldi and the Dancing Goats (and this version - Toga the Dancing Goat from Ethiopia) re-tells the story of Kaldi, the goat herder from the Kaffa region of present-day Ethiopia, whose goats discovered the Coffea Arabica plant.
The story of coffee also inspired an eighteenth century European classical musician, Johann Sebastian Bach who wrote a cantata: J. S. BACH - Coffee Cantata (BWV 211) - Nikolaus Harnoncourt 1, something the music lesson class could listen to and explore the background story to the cantata's composition.
While the programme is specifically designed for third to sixth classes, lessons with infants, first and second classes can be designed where storytelling, drawing and music activities will be undertaken.
It is worth noting that two major institutions in Ireland, Dublin Zoo in the Phoenix Park and the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, provide the main subjects / items in this story.
While Dublin Zoo houses East African pygmy goats, coffee plants and bamboo grasses can be seen in the National Botanic Gardens, where other tropical plants from Africa can also be found.
These two institutions would therefore provide opportunities for school class visits.
This is the plant whose berries turned out to be what we know today as the beans from which Coffee, the world's second most consumed hot beverage, is brewed.
Designed around the story of the origins of the coffee plant, and in fulfilment of the Myths and Legends Strand Unit of the Story Strand of the History syllabus, Kaldi and the Dancing Goats is a Curriculum Support Programme in the Social, Environmental and Scientific Education (SESE) curriculum, and with an African Studies dimension.
The directly-related cross-curricular subject links are Science (goats, coffee plant, bamboo grass), Music (listening to Ethiopian music) and Visual Arts (clay / claypot); while Geography (Land, Rivers and Seas, People and Other Lands) would be an indirectly-related curriculum subject (see the Curriculum Links diagram below for strands and strand units).
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| Kaldi and the Dancing Goats - Curricuum Links |
The programme takes the legend as the starting point. Next, the characters (Toga the Goat, his cousins and Kaldi) are identified. Toga the Goat and his cousins would thus provide the first direct curriculum link: Science (Living Things strand, Plants and Animals / Plant and Animal Life unit).
The coffee plant and the bamboo grass would be the other items to be studied in the Plants and Animals / Plant and Animal Life unit of the Living Things strand in Science.
The
Ethiopian flute music Kaldi would have played while watching over Toga
and his cousins (when not taking a nap!) will come under the Listening and Responding to Music unit in Music. The bamboo plant used to make the flute would already have been studied in science.
Teachers might also like to bring in international elements to the programme: the story of coffee's journey around the world and the different coffee drinking traditions which emerged along the way.
The story of coffee also inspired an eighteenth century European classical musician, Johann Sebastian Bach who wrote a cantata: J. S. BACH - Coffee Cantata (BWV 211) - Nikolaus Harnoncourt 1, something the music lesson class could listen to and explore the background story to the cantata's composition.
The coffee pot, an important item in the Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony, would be studied under the Developing Form in Clay unit in Visual Arts, while younger classes could do drawings and colourings of goats and the plants they study from the story (Making Drawings / Painting units).
Geography, as an indirectly-related subject, will place the legend in its location, describing this area under the Natural Environments strand (Land, Rivers and Seas unit), while the Human Environment strand (People and Other Lands unit) will tell us about the lives of the people who live there.
It is worth noting that two major institutions in Ireland, Dublin Zoo in the Phoenix Park and the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, provide the main subjects / items in this story.
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| Coffee Plant in the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin |
While Dublin Zoo houses East African pygmy goats, coffee plants and bamboo grasses can be seen in the National Botanic Gardens, where other tropical plants from Africa can also be found.
These two institutions would therefore provide opportunities for school class visits.
