Welcome to Ghana! Let's take a journey through my country and see what we can learn.

Author's note: Throughout the story there will be a correspondence with a boy posing questions or introductions, as if he is telling his own story about growing up Ghana, in to the subject and then with the answers as informational text in short paragraph form with picture illustrations. This will provide insight that will allow students to wonder about the subject or be prompted with questions throughout the story. This will also help them think about what they are actually reading/listening to and hopefully help them become interested in the topic. With a combination of genres like this I believe it becomes more interesting to the student. Personal example, for me as a child reading the short informational books about different countries where every book looks the same, had the same tone, and boring illustrations was not interesting to me nor did it lead me to learn more about the country. With a more interactive book such as this one, I believe students would be more engaged with the lesson.

Ghana is located in western Africa and borders the Atlantic Ocean.

Now that we know where Ghana is located I'll show you a traditional house, it is just like one I grew up living in at my village.

Traditional homes in Ghana are typically one room style round houses made of locally sourced mud or clay with a thatch roof.

I bet you are all wondering what we do for work in my village. Let me tell you a little about it...

The main source of income to many as well as one of the most popular cash crops in Ghana is cacao beans grown from the cacao tree. A few other crops grown in Ghana include sugar cane, cassava, plantains, and pineapples.

Agriculture is the main source of work for much of Ghana.

Everyone's Favorite Candy

A cacao tree growing so vast,

farmers harvest its fruit for food.

But what kind of food you ask?

To make candy to eat, your always in the mood.

They roast the seeds from the fruit and grind them up,

now they are ready to start the batch.

It'll be so good you could eat a whole cup.

Chocolate is made, that's the best catch.

Author's Note: Not all students will know what a cacao tree or cacao is. A quatrain poem will help explain the process of growing cacao, harvesting it, and actually making chocolate from it. Most children do not understand that chocolate comes from a fruit much less that is grown on a tree in Western Africa. So to be able to explain the process in a more simple way will more than likely help them understand it better and be more interested because chocolate is something that everyone knows of and has had an experience with.