Week 5
Having had a very actioned packed week in week 4 we tried to spend more time in the project in Week 5. One of the tasks that we have been trying to complete is the organisation of the Library. Through donations the project has an extensive library covering many topics; Biology, History, English, Portuguese, even Philosophy! Alongside a large range of novels, magazines, comics and videos. Although the library had already been organised by a previous group of volunteers more donations have meant the job needs doing again. So here come Me and Joe!
In the Classroom we started our ´Transport topic´with group M and G as we thought this would be a good progression from directions. We focused on modes of transport and buying tickets. We used role play with group G to help them get used to understand and respond to questions. Group P we decided that it would be fun to do some drawing this week. We thought that animals would be a good thing for the little ones to draw so we decided on a animal for each of them. We wrote each aminals name clearly in English and in Portuguese on an A4 piece of paper and handed one out to each of the children. We asked them to draw the animal to fill the paper and colour them in. As a result we created a small poster for each animal which we then stuck on the wall of the classroom. The drawings look great and they will be kept up so that the children can use them as an extra learning tool. They also help with the others groups vocalbulary, when group M and G saw the drawings they wanted to some for their topics!
Outside of the classroom we ventured to Sugar Loaf again. We chose not to go up by cable car and instead ascended the trail up Morro da Urca, which is the slightly smaller mountain next to it. The trail was extremely steep but the views were worth it at the top. We also got some other little surprises, some very friendly monkeys (see pictures attached) which we were able to feed. This made our day, Joe was particulary excited as he LOVES monkeys. The top also boasted a heli-pad, for all the ´swish´tourists that wanted the best view of the city. Although we couldn´t afford the 300 reis (roughly 100 pounds) for a 15 minute flight we did get excited watching them take off and land for a little while!
Beth also took to the Museu do Arte Contemporanea (MAC), which is in Niteroi. Nitoroi is accessed via the extremely long bridge connecting it to Rio accross the bay, I believe Beth said it was about 14km long! Driving across allowed us to look back at Rio from the sea, seeing the whole city, from Sugar Loaf up to the hills! The museum itself is very famous as it was designed by the great Brazilian architech Oscar Niemeyer, who is also re-nouned for works such as The National Congress of Brazil and The Cathedral of Brasilia The MAC is a futuristic building that stands out clearly from the backdrop of the bay´s scenery. I would most liken its shape to a flying saucer (see Picture). The exhibitions inside were bout the concretism movement of modern art and the development of modern art in Brazil. They were very interesting. We particulary like a painting depicting some shoes that I have attached below, in the picture you can hardly tell if they are real or not!