Kingdom of Benin traded and exported many products including cotton and fabric.
Find out about food products they exported in the YouTube videos below:

Find out about trees where some of the produce come from in the video below:
                                                             A local market scene
Suggested activities 
As part of Kingdom of Benin study, take your class on a walk to the local market.

Resources:
  • A camera
  • Selection of drawing and writing materials 
  • Examples of different art works, market poems and stories, TV adverts

Activities 
  1. Read and write market poems with a Kingdom of Benin theme.
  2. Read and write market stories with a Kingdom of Benin theme.
  3. Use your camera to take a picture of a transaction scene at the market, write a play script with the characters in the scene. Scene could be of African fabric/clothes shop or African food stall.
  4. Present your play to the class or at a whole school assembly.
  5. Design a poster to keep the market clean.
  6. Write interview questions for market stall holders about their business.
  7. Interview a market stall holder using the questions from number 6 above.
  8. Write a report on 'Selling goods in the market' using your interview answers from number 7 above.
  9. Produce a 'Visit The Market' brochure. Highlights should include African stalls and goods.
  10. Drama & Role play: Produce a one minute TV advert to advertise a rain-forest food product or fabric sold at the market and present this to others.
  11. Photography: Take photographs of different scenes at the market to make a montage. 
  12. Make a clay model of the market.
  13. Freeze frame a scene at the market, use found materials to record this.
  14. Use a paint package to recreate a scene at the market.
  15. Use charcoal, chalk or pencil to draw a scene at the market.
  16. Make drawings of buildings, objects and people and put them together to create an imaginary scene at the market.
  17. Take a photo of a scene at the market, use a view finder to allocate parts of it to each child to paint and arrange final products in a class market portrait.
  18. Paint a soundscape of the market. 
  19. Paint a scene of three people interacting in a section of the market.
  20. Use different materials to make a collage of the market.
  21. Make a mosaic of a scene at the market.
  22. Make a painting of a scene at the market.
  23. Still life: buy some fruit from the market and back in class, arrange these on a fruit bowl for children to sketch or paint.
  24. Distortions: Buy a couple of objects from the market, back in class, children draw and distort the image. Extension: use a computer paint programme to draw the objects then distort them.