Throw, catch

Pupil Activities

Learn the song

Play the video and join in with Chanté and Itoya. They will help you warm up your voice and your body and teach you the words and the tune.

Make up new verses

The lyrics of this song are mostly made up of action words e.g. throw, catch and jikeleza (which means turn around). Can you make up some new verses using your own action words?

First make a list of action words e.g. jump, clap. Then replace the words of ‘throw, catch’ with your own words. Next think of a phrase to replace the 4 syllables of ji-ke-le-za such as ‘stamp your feet now’. Practise your new actions with the tune adding the na, na, na section to finish it off. e.g.

Jump and clap, jump and clap, jump and clap, stamp your feet now

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na-na-na, stamp your feet now

Find out about South Africa

Create a fact sheet or holiday leaflet encouraging you to visit South Africa using words and pictures. Here are some questions and ideas to get you started:

Where in Africa is South Africa?
Which is the largest city in South Africa?
Do some research on South African mountains. Find some pictures then pick three that are different shapes, draw the outline and label them with their name, where they are and their height.
How many official languages are spoken in South Africa? Can you name some?
Which animals would you find in South Africa?
What else can you find out about the country? For example, what food do people eat, what currency do they use and what is the national sport?

Speak Xhosa

Jikeleza is the Xhosa word for ‘turnaround’. Xhosa is a language which uses click sounds and originates from South Africa. Watch this YouTube clip and listen to it being spoken. Can you try and create some of the sounds?

We're sports crazy

Think about different sports that use balls, you could watch some clips on the internet, then write a list of sports.

In the video Chanté and Itoya throw imaginary balls of different weights and sizes. They give you an idea of how large or small, heavy or light, fast or slow these imaginary balls are by their actions for throwing. Have a go yourself. Can you act throwing a heavy ball, or a small fast one? What about a lightweight beach ball?

Gather a range of balls you have available and compare their size, weight and measurement. Put them in order from largest to smallest. How could you work out the weight of the ball? Is the largest ball also the heaviest? Using a tape measure calculate the circumference (the distance once around the ball) of each one.

Write a story

Imagine you’re a balloon filled with air and that you’ve floated out of someone’s hand. Where could you float to? How would the world look from above? What adventures would you have? Who might you meet? Maybe you have extraordinary powers like in the story The Blue Balloon a book by Mick Inkpen.

Track title

Lyrics

Activities

Pupil Activities