Pottery All Fired

If you read Amisadai's blog last week, you know that we made some pots on the wheel at Neema Crafts! Well, yesterday we went to meet Lexa, our friend, at Neema Crafts. Lexa and Maneno fired all their work in the kiln on Tuesday night. The whole night! And yesterday (Thursday) we went to watch when they cracked it open and took out all the fired pots. It was still hot! Maneno went right inside the kiln - he was sweating!

It was raining very hard there. And there was a flood there so we couldn't get out ... but we did get out in the end! They took lots of things out of the kiln: coasters (with melted glass inside), big pots, little pots, a teapot and OUR pots! I (Louisa) made a candle holder and a little bowl. Amisadai made two pots. Lexa and Maneno had made some lovely things. I really liked the things with melted glass inside. Amisadai really liked the teapot (Lexa tested it to make sure it had a good pour).

After getting everything out, we went to the Greek Club and had a chocolate brownie! It was a fun afternoon.



Louisa with her pots

Amisadai with her pot

 

 

Rainforest Monkeys and Pottery at Neema

Thank you to everyone who helped by sending data for my math project! I was finding out if most people who liked hot drinks also liked hot food. And it's true! But I think that most people in Canada and the UK prefer hot food and drinks now because they are cold! Maybe in summer it will be different. And maybe depending on how old you are! Here are my results in a Venn diagram.




Venn Diagram showing Hot and Cold Food and Drink Preferences

 

The Pottery

Last Wednesday, we went to the pottery at Neema Crafts. Lexa, who is working at Neema Crafts for three months, taught us how to use the wheel. The potter's wheel is made out of an old tyre surrounded by planks of wood. You have to push the wheel with your feet, which is joined to a pole which spins around at the speed you are peddling, which is then joined to a wooden circle that you put your clay on.

 

First, you have to centre the clay, make sure it is in the middle. You have to push hard with your feet and cup your hands around the clay. Then, you must put your four fingers around the clay and put your other four fingers around the clay on the other side. Press hard into the middle with your thumbs whilst pushing fast with your feet. Next, you shape the clay how you want it. If you want it taller, you press your fingers all around the out side and put your to thumbs in the middle and press the sides together. After that, when you are happy with what you have made, you cut it off from the wooden board. Lexa had some special tools that we used. She had a piece of wire which had wooden pegs holding it together at each end. We held it by the pegs as tight as we could

Then we pulled the wire tight and slid it across the bottom. Finally, you lift your pot gently off of the wheel. You also have to dry it in the sun and then fire it in a kiln.

Check our Swahili page for the Swahili word for potter and potter's wheel!

 

 

 

In school, we have been learning about the Rainforest. We have made a fact tree of the interesting facts we have learnt. Did you know that a Howler monkey can be hard three miles away and a sloth sleeps twenty hours a day? Guess what?! We are going to a rain forest in Tanzania for a few days during Easter holidays! It is in the Udzungwa Mountains and sometimes called the “The Galapagos Islands of Africa.” I hope we see the newly discovered honk-barking Highland Mageby monkey. It was discovered in 2005. Did you know that the most recent monkey (called the Lesula) discovered was found in DRC and has a blue bum?!  



Louis Hairypants and Amic the Horrible Raid Iringa

We have been learning about the Vikings! On Viking Day on Friday, we had lots of fun! We made Viking oat bread and also Viking cheese. I didn’t really like the cheese but the bread was delicious! We made our own Viking long ships with cardboard boxes, straws, tissue paper, and lots of other things. Then we painted them brown. Did you know that the Vikings sometimes painted (a dye really) the sail red so that it looked like blood to scare their enemies. The Vikings were and still are very famous for their ships and boats.

Viking Longships

 
We dressed up as Viking women and also Viking warriors. When we were warriors, we raided the EI office. Louisa (called Louis Hairypants) actually got 1000 shillings in the raid! We also raided our friends – and gave them quite a fright!

Vicious Vikings Attack!



Vikings raid the office!

 For our Viking dinner we had our Viking bread and cheese and we had peas and cabbage. We also had some fish that mum had bought in a shop to make into fish fingers. (I really don’t like any kind of fish except fish fingers with lots and lots of bread crumbs on!)

HOW TO MAKE VIKING CHEESE (MYSOST)

Viking cheese is very easy to make. All you have to do is pour the whey (left over from making another cheese into pot and leave it on the fire for 2-3 hours. It starts as half a pot and reduces to just a handful! It should be a little hard handful that looks like caramel. You put it in a cold bowl and it goes hard.


Viking women making mysost cheese

 




Mysost cheese and Viking oat bread

Did you know that Viking children didn’t go to school in those days?   They travelled in the snow on sledges and skis and ice skates (called “ice legs”!) 

 

Thank you to everyone on Facebook who helped to think of places in England that end in -by, -bury, -burgh (Viking words for village) and -Thorpe (Viking words for clearing or town) We found 40 places which I have dotted on the map. There are lots more though!

"by's and bury's" dotted in orange

 

On Friday, we got bunnies!! I have been wanting some for a long time and now we have finally got some. We got three, two girls and one boy. Our boy is grey and has a white stripe on his nose. He also has a white splotch on his side. Both our girls are brown like our last bunny, Mousy. We haven’t got names yet. Does anyone have any ideas?