We’ve had a very busy week in p7b.
At Christmas time we sent off gifts and cards to members of the army and navy. We received some letters back and on Wednesday we had a visit from John Patterson who serves in the Navy.
Kai: “It was fun because he told us all about his work. For example he told us that he was an engineer and he fixes engines on ships.”
Taylor: “He told us about some of the things which happened on the ship such as when one of his friends fell off the boat. They had to go to alert stations and save him.”
Lauren U: “He showed us his medals and he got one for the Queen’s Jubilee and healso got one from serving in Iraq.”
We learned about rainforest technology:
Isla: “Technology is the solution to a problem. A lot of people think it has to involve electronics but it doesn’t.”
Adam: “An example is a blowpipe. They use it to help them get animals for their feast. They use them because they are quieter than guns and they won’t scare off the animals. One of the tribes we looked at was using four metre long blowpipes.”
Antonia: “Another example is the way one of the tribes uses the trees to build treehouses. They use branches to make the floor and the walls and a special type of leaf to make the roof. They used an iron wood tree as it is the strongest.”
Ellie: “I found out that the higher they build the treehouse, the better because it helped them stop other tribes attacking them. They also built them high to avoid the floods in the wet season.”
Isla: “We learned that they can’t get drinking water from the river so they find a plant called a bromeliad which they can use for drinking water and for washing.”
Lauren U: “I learned that they use a special type of rope to climb trees to get honey for their families. They also use smoking leaves to try and pacify the bees.”
Lauren C: “When they go fishing they use Barbosa powder to make the fish confused. They swim round in circles and the hunters can easily spear them. The powder comes from the Barbosa plant and gets mashed up.”
Callum: “When children are trying to catch tarantulas, they use a long stick to poke the hole and make it come out then a thicker stick to hold down the body while they grab the legs. They then wrap it in a leaf so they can carry it and they cook it over the fire. When it makes a whistling noise it is ready. They add seasoning like chilli to make it taste a bit better.”
This week we have also been learning about deforestation:
Jack: “Deforestation is when people are cutting down or burning down trees in the rainforest and this releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Every day an area the size of New York City is being destroyed.”
Chloe: “The people are cutting down trees to get paper, soya to feed animals, palm oil for products like chocolate and also so people can goldmine.”
Harry: “People are against deforestation because it is killing a lot of animals. They are also killing innocent people who live there like the Yanomami and Tairona. It is also destroying the Ozone layer with all the carbon being released. We will also lose the medicines which are in the rainforest.”
Antonia: “My opinion on deforestation is that I don’t really care if it happens or not because I’m not living in the rainforest. In the future I might be against it once all the trees have gone.”
Lauren U: “I’m against deforestation because it destroys the homes of animals and makes them extinct and some of them haven’t even been found yet.”
Lauren C: “I’m against deforestation because if you cut down trees it lets out all the carbon and if there are no trees left then we could all die.”
