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?!