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Home , Geography of Madagascar, Regions of Madagascar

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Curriculum LESSON 1 THE LAND OF

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0117 LHM – MADAGASCAR Lesson 1 – The Land of Madagascar

The Land of Madagascar Madagascar – the Great Red – is located in the 250 miles east of . It is the fourth largest island in the world with an area of 226,658 square miles, slightly less than twice the size of Arizona. It is shaped much like a giant footprint. The soil is made up of laterite, a type of stone that crumbles into reddish soil, hence the name, “The Great Red Island.”

Madagascar is divided into three that run north and south along the length of the island. The narrow strip of tropical lowland along the eastern coast is one . The high, mountainous central plateau is another region. The western part of the island composed of broad, hilly plains is the third region.

The eastern region is characterized by rolling hills and white sand beaches. The plain is covered with rich soil.

The central highlands consists of three separate areas. The first is a rocky bluff called the Betsimisaraka Escarpment and rises nearly 1,000 feet. On top of this escarpment is the second region known as the Great Cliff of Angavo. This cliff forms the eastern edge of the central plateau and rises up to 2,000 feet. Madagascar’s capital, , is located there. The third region is known as the plateau and rises 2,500 to 4,500 feet. Three ranges of mountains make up this area. Tsiafajavona Peak, the island’s highest point is part of the central area.

The western area has low hills with wide plains between them. The rivers of the west have many mouths, all partially blocked by sand carried down from the highlands. Sand dunes and mangrove swamps line the western coast.

Climate and Weather Madagascar’s seasons are the opposite of those in the United States and Canada. Summer lasts from November to April and is hot and wet. The winter is from May to October and is dry. July is the coolest month, with temperatures between 50 and 78 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 25 degrees Centigrade). December is the hottest month with temperatures between 61 degrees and 84 degrees F (16 degrees and 29 degrees C). Temperatures are highest in the northwest and along the east coast. At on the northern tip of the island, temperatures average 81 degrees F (27 degrees C). The southern part has an average tempera- ture of 73 degrees F (23 degrees C) at Faradofay. In the interior temperatures are cooler due to the altitude. The average annual temperature at the capital Antananarivo on the central plateau is 63 degrees F (17 degrees C).

Madagascar’s weather and rainfall is controlled by two wind systems: the trade winds and the monsoon. The trade winds, which blow from the southeast, carry rain that falls mostly on the east coast. The trade wind rains are strongest from May to October. The monsoon wind blows out of the northwest from November to April. The monsoon brings rain to the northwest and the plateau. In addition to the trade winds and the monsoon, Madagascar is subject to the cyclones occurring between December and March. These cyclones bring high winds and flooding.

LHM – MADAGASCAR,LHM – CAMBODIA, LESSON LESSON 1 1 LHM – MADAGASCAR Lesson 1 – The Land of Madagascar (continued)

Economy Madagascar suffers from chronic malnutrition, under funded health and education facilities, and severe loss of forest cover. Agriculture – mainly farming and cattle herding – employs 88 percent of the population. Rice is the single biggest crop. Coffee, vanilla, and cloves are grown for export. Although Madagascar is an island, its fishing industry is underdeveloped.

The average yearly family income is about $850.00. Most of the people of Madagascar are extremely poor by world standards and consider themselves fortunate if they have two sets of clothes and a blanket. Toys, appliances, and other luxuries are out of reach for the majority of the population.

Government The country is officially known as the Republic of Madagascar or Republique de Madagascar to the French-speaking residents. The capital, Antananarivo, is located in the central region. Madagascar won its independence from France on June 26, 1960, and adopted its constitution on August 19, 1992. Madagascar’s president is elected by popular vote to a five-year term and appoints the prime minister upon election.

Plants and Animals Madagascar is home to many species of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. The traveler’s tree grows through- out Madagascar. This tree has a thick spongy trunk which is divided into compartments with corklike walls that hold water. The name traveler’s tree comes from the fact that thirsty travelers can cut into the trunk and obtain a pint or so of liquid. Many types of thorn trees are unique to Madagascar. One type, the fantsilotra has rows of steel-hard thorns up to 3 inches long. The didierea grows in tall, tangled thickets that are almost impossible to penetrate. Madagascar’s baobab trees grow different than anywhere else in the world. The Madagascar baobab is shaped like a great bloated bottle. It will often have a trunk as much as 75 feet wide but only 60 feet tall. It is topped with tiny clusters of branches. The baobab’s fruit is called “monkey bread,” which is brewed into a mildly alcoholic beverage. Some people carve tombs into the trunks of the baobab tree.

Some of the more exotic of Madagascar’s animals include several species of lemur, crocodiles, the Madagascar Boa snake, Bush Pigs, Bats, and the fossa, a catlike animal. Over 800 species of butterflies are found on Madagascar, many of which are portrayed on the official postage stamps. Many types of fish are native to the island including trout, bass, and tilapia, similar to perch. Madagascar’s most famous fish is the coelacanth, a very rare and once thought to be extinct species.

LHM – MADAGASCAR,LHM – CAMBODIA, LESSON LESSON 1 12 LHM – MADAGASCAR Lesson 1 – Lesson Plan – The Land of Madagascar

PRE-K GOALS FOR THE LESSON PRE-K LESSON PLAN DETAILS PRE-K SUGGESTED MATERIALS

The students will locate Madagascar on a With the children seated in a listening area or in • Map or globe showing Madagascar map or globe. The students will define the their seats, hold up the large red footprint (prepared • Large teacher-made cardboard term “island” and identify the landforms in advance) and announce that today we will learn footprint (left foot), red in color on Madagascar. The students will name about Madagascar. Explain that it is an island - a piece and locate the capital of Madagascar. The of land surrounded by water. It is shaped like a giant • Red tempera paint mixed with students will make a model of Madagascar. footprint and is the fourth largest island in the world. liquid soap for easy clean-up The students will help make a bulletin board The soil is made up of lacerite -stone that crumbles • Tub of soapy water depicting Madagascar by coloring its flag into red dirt; hence, it is called the great red island. • Several towels and using such as a bulletin border. If possible, staple the red footprint onto a previously prepared bulletin board of ocean water with some • Heavy, white construction paper or or all of the showing, in particular. cardboard Place the red footprint to the east of Africa. • White and green clay or white and Tell the children that the eastern (left) side of Mada- green tissue paper gascar is made up of white sand beaches and rolling • Glue hills. The central part is full of high mountains. The • White sand western (right) side is made up of hills/plains. The capital of Madagascar is in the central mountain • Blackline Master 1-1 area. It is named Antananarivo. • Red and green crayons, markers, or Have the children remove their left shoes. Paint the colored pencils bottom of each child’s left foot red with red paint • Scissors mixed with liquid detergent for easier cleanup. Have each child take turns stepping onto a piece of cardboard to make a footprint and then into a tub of water for cleanup. Have old towels ready to dry feet. Let prints dry. Cut out. Children could add a thin layer of glue and sprinkle white sand on the left side, shape mountains from white clay and place down the center and make hills from green clay and place down the right side. (Green and white tissue paper could also be used, scrunched, and glued.) NOTE: The children’s feet could be traced on white paper and colored red or cut from red construction paper. SAVE footprint models for the next day’s lesson. The children color the Blackline flag master and use it as a bulletin board border. CLOSING PRAYER

Dear Jesus, Thank You for this beautiful world You created. Thank You for Madagascar. Please, help us to be witnesses to the people of Madagascar for You. Amen.

LHM – MADAGASCAR, LESSON 1 3 Lesson 1 – Lesson Plan – The Land of Madagascar (continued)

PRIMARY LESSON PLAN DETAILS PRIMARY PRIMARY GOALS FOR THE LESSON SUGGESTED MATERIALS The students will note the location and shape Using the globe (or map) show the children the location of Madagascar • Map or globe showing of Madagascar. The students will learn of the and the relationship of the Great Red Island to their homeland. Tell the Madagascar three , especially the children they will make a special map of Madagascar to show their fam- • Pictures of the lemur and backbone called the high plateau. The students ily what the Great Red Island looks like. coelacanth will compare their to Madagascar’s. The Using the Blackline Master: • Blackline Master 1-2 students will learn of Madagascar’s government 1. Inform the children that Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the and economy. The students will appreciate world. • Red poster board or cardboard the special animals and plants native to 2. It has three regions: the high plateau which runs through the middle • Red, no-cook play dough Madagascar. The students will create a relief of the country from north to south, the eastern coast with its white sand (recipe follows lesson) map of Madagascar. beaches, and the western coast with its rolling hills and green plains. • Tempera paint, crayons 3. Talk about the weather and the temperature. Note the difference of or markers the seasons between Madagascar and North America. 4. The head of the Madagascar government is a president and he ap- • Blue construction paper points a prime minister. 5. Tell the children how poor the Madagascar economy is at the present time. It is one of the thirteen poorest countries in the world. The capital is home to professional beggars and street children who have no jobs and no schools. 6. Teach the children about Madagascar’s unique plants and animals as described in the content material. There is a plant called the Rosy Periwinkle which provides a drug to cure childhood leukemia. Tell them of the coelacanth (SEE-luh-kanth) a six foot long, oily, ugly blue fish thought long to be extinct. In 1938 this fish was caught in a net. Since then, dozens have been caught off the shores of Madagascar. Provide each child with a sheet of red poster board or cardboard. Red paper could be glued to cardboard. Have the children trace their left footprint or shoe print on the posterboard. Give each child some play dough. Instruct them to mold the high plateau down the middle of the island. Mold a narrow strip on the eastern coast and a broader strip on the western side. Make some bumps (hills) and flat spaces (plains) in between. The coastal areas might be painted after the dough dries. This project will need to be completed after the dough dries. Give each child a copy of the map. Discuss the regions and which colors would best depict the different regions. The children could then color the map. Cut out the footprint and glue it on blue construction paper. Recipe: Red Island Play Dough 2 c. self-rising flour 2 T. powdered alum CLOSING PRAYER 2 T. salt Dear Jesus, Thank You for the 2 T- oil wonderful country of Mada- 1 c. boiling water gascar. Thank You for all the Red food coloring different plants and animals Mix the dry ingredients. Drizzle the oil into the mixture. Add the food found there. Please, use us coloring to the boiling water. Add the water slowly to the mixture, mixing till combined. Knead. Will stay pliable if stored in a Tupperware as witnesses for your church. container. Amen.witnesses to the people of Madagascar for You. Amen.

LHM – MADAGASCAR, LESSON 1 4 Lesson 1 – Lesson Plan – The Land of Madagascar (continued) INTERMEDIATE/UPPER INTERMEDIATE/UPPER INTERMEDIATE/UPPER GOALS FOR THE LESSON LESSON PLAN DETAILS SUGGESTED MATERIALS

The students will be familiar with Madagascar is one of those places that most people have heard of, but few • Blackline Master 1-3 the and its people know much about it. Many do not even know where it is located. The • Blackline Master 1-4 neighbors. The students will be able fourth largest island in the world, Madagascar is home to incredible diversity. • Blackline Master 1-5 to describe some of the plants and Many species of plant and animal are found only in Madagascar. The physical animals found in Madagascar. The features of the land and the climate change as you move about the island. • Blackline Master 1-6 students will appreciate the diversity The population is made up of people from seventeen different ethnic groups • Overhead copies of map and of God’s creation. so there are cultural differences too. clues (optional) Introduce the following scenario to your students to assess their knowledge of Madagascar and to get them thinking about what life in Madagascar might be like. As investigators for the International Maritime Police, you have been called upon to track down a modern day pirate named Nathan Kidd. Nathan is a de- scendant of William Kidd, a notorious pirate during the 17th century. William was a ship-owner in colonial New York. He was commissioned as a privateer to operate against pirates, but something went wrong and William became a pirate himself. Many of his riches were gathered while working along the coast of Madagascar. William was sent to England for trial, convicted of , and hanged. Some of his treasure was found on Long Island, but many believe that more of his plunder is still hidden today. Nathan seems to be following in his ancestor’s footsteps by terrorizing in- nocent people at sea. Your assignment is to travel to Madagascar under cover, then locate and arrest Nathan Kidd. You need to plan your strategy for locat- ing and capturing this rogue. What are you going to do to blend in with the people of Madagascar? What will you need to bring with you? What clothes will you wear? What will you eat? How will you travel from place to place? Where will you live? What else might you need to consider? Break students into groups of two or three and allow them about five minutes to brainstorm some ideas. Have them record their ideas on a sheet of paper. Provide a few minutes for students to share their plans with the class. Accept all answers without commenting. Have students keep their notes for future activities. The International Maritime Police adventure continues as students play Pirate Pursuit. This game will introduce students to some of the geography of Madagascar and its neighbors while they search for Nathan Kidd in various locations where he has been spotted. Ultimately, students can discover his whereabouts and place him under arrest. This activity can be used in small groups or individually. No matter which method you choose, distribute a map to each student so that everyone can have a copy of their own. Begin by reading clue #1 from the clue sheet master aloud to the class. The underlined word(s) on the clue card is the name the stu- dents will be placing on the map. Give students a few moments to determine the correct location and then label their map. Each location corresponds with one of the numbers on the map. The numbers are part of a code and will be used when the map is completed. Some numbered locations will not be used. see next page

LHM – MADAGASCAR, LESSON 1 5 Lesson 1 – Lesson Plan – The Land of Madagascar (continued) INTERMEDIATE/UPPER LESSON PLAN DETAILS CLOSING PRAYER

It is necessary for the name of each location to be written on the board or an Dear Jesus, Thank You for the overhead to insure the correct spellings. An overhead copy of the map and wonderful country of Mada- clues could also be beneficial depending on the level of your students. gascar. Thank You for all the different plants and animals Continue the activity in the same manner, reading each clue in order. When found there. Please, use us the map is completed, distribute the code sheet and discover the secret mes- as witnesses for your church. sage by writing the name of each location next to the appropriate number. Amen.witnesses to the people of For a more challenging version of the game, duplicate the clue sheets and Madagascar for You. Amen. cut the clues apart. Be sure to remove the clue numbers. Give a set of clues to each group. Students will follow the same procedure without knowing the order of the clues.

Answer Key 51 64 Ankaratra Mountains 53 Antsiranana 31 Indian Ocean 45 Madagascar 42 66 Mozambique Channel 39 Lake Alaotra 85 River 27 48 Mozambique 17 Antananarivo Secret Message: ARREST NATHAN

Next, present the background material for this lesson. Compare this informa- tion with the lists the students created at the beginning of the lesson. Answer questions that the students might have. Use questions that you cannot answer to spur the students on to do some research of their own.

LHM – MADAGASCAR, LESSON 1 6 Lesson 1 – Lesson Plan – The Land of Madagascar (continued)

JUNIOR HIGH JUNIOR HIGH LESSON PLAN DETAILS JUNIOR HIGH GOALS FOR THE LESSON SUGGESTED MATERIALS The students will be able to identify the country If you can find music from Madagascar, have that playing as students • African on a map of the world. The walk in. If not, select any African CD (available in the Ethnic Music • Blackline Master 1-7 students will be able to create a topographical category at almost all public libraries) to give them the flavor of this depiction of Madagascar. The students will be African country. • Blackline Master 1-8 able to understand the relationship between Open with the “Just What DO You Know About… Madagascar?” inven- • Blackline Master 1-9 landform and climate of Madagascar. The tory (Blackline Master 1-9). Give them a short amount of time to make (“Just What DO You Know student will be able to imagine the diversity of their guesses. Even though most people know very little about the About… Madagascar?”) plant and animal life on Madagascar. country, it has been a place where Lutherans have been very active in • Map or globe showing the last 200 years. You won’t give the answers to the inventory until the Madagascar end of the lesson. • Buckets of sandbox sand – Using the background material and any maps or globes you have avail- one bucket for every 2-3 able in your classroom, give them some general geographical informa- students tion about Madagascar, as well as a sense of its location in respect to your • Colored pencils home town. Ask what the climate would be like at this time of the year, and what time it would be in Madagascar right now. (Madagascar is 8-11 • Paper for drawing hours ahead of us; 11 hours ahead of PST, and 8 hours ahead of EST) • Internet connection (optional) Have each student color in Madagascar, and label the surrounding coun- tries of Mozambique, Kenya, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, etc. They will want to add the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo to the map. Bodies of water would also be important – Mozambique Channel and Indian Ocean. Give each group of 2-3 students a bucket of very wet sand and ask them to construct a topographical scale model of Madagascar on the flat surface of the playground, sidewalk, etc. Limit their time to 10 minutes, and then take photos of the creations, or bring the younger children out to see their landform map. Tell the students about the vast diversity of God’s creation that populates Madagascar. Ask them why (such as Galapagos, Hawaii, etc;) seem to have really bizarre and unique species of both flora and fauna. It is precisely this vast diversity that scientists are desperate to preserve, because so many of our modern medicines have been derived from plants, and there are potentially many other cures out there since we hardly know all the plant species yet. Listening and Drawing exercise. As you read the statements from Black- line Master 1-8, pause a moment between each and let the students think about what this might look like. At the conclusion of your reading, give them two or three minutes to sketch what they think this plant/ani- CLOSING PRAYER mal actually looks like! Have students compare their creations that are based on the same words but take unique form in the students’ minds. Dear Jesus, Thank You for the Let the students examine their “Just What Do You Know?” Inventory. wonderful country of Mada- See if they now know the correct answers, based on what they learned gascar. Thank You for all the today. Give them the answers, and an “African Expert” award to the one different and exotic plants and who had the most correct. The prize could be a plastic zebra, a leopard animals found there.. Please, scarf, etc. If you wish, you could make it a traveling trophy that moves use us as witnesses for your around during the week. church. Amen

LHM – MADAGASCAR, LESSON 1 7 Lesson 1 Madagascar (PreK/K)

LHM – MADAGASCAR, LESSON 1—BLM 1-1 8 Lesson 1 Madagascar (Primary)

LHM – MADAGASCAR, LESSON 1— BLM 1-2 9 Lesson 1 Madagascar (Intermediate/Upper)

LHM – MADAGASCAR, LESSON 1 — BLM 1-3 10 Lesson 1 Madagascar (Intermediate/Upper)

LHM – MADAGASCAR, LESSON 1 — BLM 1-4 11 Lesson 1 Madagascar (Intermediate/Upper)

LHM – MADAGASCAR, LESSON 1 — BLM 1-5 12 Lesson 1 Madagascar (Intermediate/Upper)

LHM – MADAGASCAR, LESSON 1 — BLM 1-6 13 Lesson 1 Madagascar (Junior High)

LHM – MADAGASCAR, LESSON 1 — BLM 1-7 14 Lesson 1 Madagascar (Junior High)

LHM – MADAGASCAR, LESSON 1 — BLM 1-8 15 Lesson 1 Madagascar (Junior High)

LHM – MADAGASCAR, LESSON 1 — BLM 1-8 16 Lesson 1 Madagascar (Junior High)

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LHM – MADAGASCAR, LESSON 1 — BLM 1-9 17