1812 in Tillsonburg

On April 26 our grade ⅞ class of 30 went on a trip to Tillsonburg, Ontario at Robin Barker-James farm. Last year we went to Tillsonburg to re-enact WW1 in the trenches. This year we re-enacted the war of 1812 and some of the key battles like Lundy’s Lane and the Battle of Fort Niagara. We were up against 22 grade 7-10 Americans from Wisconsin.

I think that the best moments that I had yesterday were bombarding Fort Niagara. We had 4 cannons and 2 motors firing down on Fort Niagara to keep the Americans heads down so that the British could get in and attack. Also I thought that some of the other best moments were when the Americans got to close in the battle of Lundy’s Lane and our canon crew had to fight. We made the Americans retreat without taking any casualties on our side.

I learned how hard it would be to have a cannon in the war because of the rough terrain and how hard it would be to move them around into a firing position. Also it would take a long time to load the cannon under fire.
Steps to load the cannon.
-Corkscrew (to clean the chart gunpowder from the barrel
-Mop (to put a little water to make sure it doesn’t explode the barrel)
-Ram (to make sure the ball makes it to the end of the barrel)
Next I learned the different perspectives on the war. The Americans thought that they won a lot more battles than they did. Also I learned how scary it would be because of how close you are to the enemy before you fire because of the horrible accuracy of the musket.

I think that the big idea is that back in the war times and today, we and  the USA aren’t that different. After all we both share the same interests and other things like that. Also  back in 1800’s the farmers and townspeople could have been neighbours at the time. Finally if you go on vacation to the US, you would find that they are all almost the same as you in many ways.

hdurnin

Deer Hunting

As I sit at the bottom of a rotting tree stump trying my hardest to stay still as possible so that nothing can hear the crunching of the branches and leafs under me. As I am about to pack up and go home I hear a crack coming from my left. I try not to make any sudden movements but my adrenaline is so high that it is horribly hard not to. As I am turning, I start to draw back my bowstring, and I get a glimpse of what I think to be a deer. But sadly, after I get a better look, to my surprise it was just squirrel and a low hanging branch above it. But I still got to see all of the things that are here in nature. Awesome.

                                                                          fadderuri

A Chimp That Was a Slave

This year in the idea hive we are reading that book “Half Brother” by Kenneth Opel. In the book, Ben is faces with many discussion from moving to a new school to getting a Chimp Brother Zan. He go the Chimp for the university that his dad Richard works at Zan is there for “Project Zan.” One of the students that are working with Zan said “being taking from the wild and brought up as a human – as a “kind of slavery.” I think that Peter is right that Zan is basically a slave to the university and to Richard. If you look in the dictionary, the definition of a slave is “A person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them.” Zan is forced to sign for the university so that shows that he is a slave if you look at the definition in the dictionary. The university thought that Zan was taking to long to sign properly so they bought him “A learning chair” Zan gets strapped into the learning chair if he is being uncooperative and forced to sign. Zan is also being forced to live the life of a human and learn like a human. You can see it that Zan was born with no natural instincts. Ben lifted him into a tree and he was more scared than excited. It would be the same as if you where were taken at birth we would have no natural instincts to what a normal human would have. Zan has no natural instincts because he had no one on to tell him what to do and what not to do. So even if Zan looks like he is living a human life style, he is just being forced to live that life I am assuming that if he had the chance, he would live a normal chimp life with his real family. What do you think, would you like to live a life with human if you were a chimp or would you live a chimp life? Personally I would like to be living the life of a real chimp.

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Rennett Stowe

Connections with Half Brother

This year in the Idea Hive we are reading the book “Half Brother” by Kenneth Oppel via Skype with a class in Snow Lake, Manitoba. In the book Half Brother the protagonist (Ben) has to move to a new house because of his fathers job as a professor. Also because of there his dad Richard job they have a new member to the family Zan, also Zan is Ben’s new Half Brother.

In the story Half brother Ben had to make smart decisions when he was making friends. One time I had to make a smart decisions well at our hockey tournament. My decisions where to stay out in the hall and play mini sticks and possibly get kicked out of the hotel or go in to the room and do nothing and not get kicked out. Kind of like when Ben had to make a decision at the construction site (when Ben was jumping through fire).

Connections

cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by ®→яιϟ@∂α*ϟмιℓє㋡™

How Marley Almost Stole our Christmas Tree

Back in the fall of 2010 my family bought a new Golden Retriever puppy named Marley. In the next weeks, all the way up until Christmas he was a very bad dog he didn’t listen or obey to anything we said. Finally on Christmas day we where all opening presents and having fun until we let Marley in to the house. He was chewing up wrapping paper, I wasn’t concerned about the the paper as much as my parents were, thinking about how long it would take to clean up. Then Marley when for the tree and then it was trouble. In our effort to get him out with out knocking the tree down we still had to worry about the glass ornaments on the tree. Finally we got him out from under the tree but we broke 3 ornaments while trying to get him out. Luckily when we got him out of the house we cleaned up the wrapping paper and laughed about it until we heard a bang. We went out side and we saw that Marley had knocked over the shoe rack. So after we cleaned that up the day was finally over and we where ready to go to bed and start the day with Marley all over again.

                                                                            dglassme

Our Pet Polar Bear?

There is a major problem that Churchill, Manitoba is having this problem is that global warming is keeping the ice on Hudson bay from freezing so the Polar Bears can’t eat and have to stay close to Churchill. I have mad a Glogster to summarize my research.

In class we where raising money for Polar Bears International to Adopt a Polar Bear. Our goal was to get the 250 dollar Polar Bear adoption. Also we voiced our cause by letting people in our school know what we where doing by making a poster and putting it in the hall. Our class reached and beat our 250 dollar goal raising 293 dollars as a class. After we raised our money, in celebration our class got white coke and donuts well we where skyping with Mr.McKiel. Finally as we where skyping Mr.McKiel asked us if he could make a blog post and tweet about what we had done and accomplished.

 

                                                                amckiel
In this experience I thought that this couldn’t be done and that we wouldn’t make our goal seeing as we where more then half way to our dead line and we only had a little over 50 dollars. But as you can see how amazing it was that our class stepped it up and brought money even with money being tight. Also I thought that one little class idea wasn’t going to turn into what it did, making our whole class and many others very proud to be part of what we have done. Next I think that we have done our best to save the even if it meant giving up some money. Finaly I think that if I could go back and do it again I would do it in a Heart beat for sure because not many other schools can say that they have adopted a Polar Bear.

How a Grade 7/8 Class Runs

This September our grade ⅞ gym class ran and calculated time, pace and distance all together. I know that I was out of shape before we even started but not that out of shape!There are improvements that I made this fall. They are that on September 9th I sprained my ankle but I still had okay times. Well I did have my sprained ankle.  Also my pace is steady now so I can keep up to my hockey team in dry land better. My pace percent improvement is 40% difference from Sept 8th 2011 to Sept 21st 2011.

There are goals that I have to keep my physical fitness level up. My First goal is to go for a run ever night after school. Next to go to as much hockey games and practices that I can go to. Finally to increase my pace for my lengths that I run.

 bostonfaninmichigan

Isaac’s Ten Marks and a Train Ticket

In school our Grade ⅞ class have read the book Ten Marks and a Train Ticket by Susy Goldstein, Gina Hamilton and Wendy Share. This book is about the WWII Holocaust. It is written just for kids to get them to realize just how bad it really was for the Jewish people.

January 29 1939
Nazi Germany has become vary dangerous for Benno and Heinz, Heinz and his little brother Charlie where chased by the Hitler Youth.

January 29 1940
Heinz and Benno are escaping from Germany because Hitler’s hatred to the Jewish people and all of the Jewish laws being passed.

February 4 1939
In this part of the book the boys (Heinz and Benno) have entered Holland and are staying in Emmakinderhuis convent.

1945
In this part of the book it showed how bad it really was for Benno and Heinz in England at the time that the war was ending and they didn’t know where there parents are.

November 23 2001
In this part of the book Benno and his family had gotten a letter from the Red Cross confirming that his parents and his brother where killed at Auschwitz concentration camp.

Page 43:
This image is when Heinz and Benno are on the floor of the train hiding from the Nazi SS Guards in the the blacked out train car to Holland. I picked this image because it is showing not just Heinz and Benno’s determination to get out of Germany but Germany’s determination on not wanting to let people out of Germany.

My quotation is I could often hear the Hitler Youth marching and laughing and saying “kill the Jews.”
This quotation is important because it shows how bad Germany and the Nazis where to the Jewish race in Germany. This is one of the reasons that Benno and Heinz left Germany to get away from the hatred to in Germany at that time.

I think that this book was a really big eye opener for me to see how bad it must have been for Benno and Heinz. The only connection to there parents and little brother was letters. I couldn’t imagine how it must have felt having to leave your family at such a young age and having that constant worry that you might never see them again. I wonder how bad Benno must have felt after a Swastika was painted on Benno’s car? Why do you think that Benno didn’t publish his book that he wrote and what he saw?

Idea Hive Similarities and Differences

     A few days ago the Idea Hive took a survey as one to try to get to know our  new partners from Snow Lake Manitoba. When schools that are in different Provinces come together anything is possible. We can learned a lot of different things because two different places are better then one. Snow Lake and J.H Kerr is 2700 km away. Even then we still have a lot of things in common.

botterillgallery

From the Idea Hive survey I figured out that all of the Idea Hive brush their teeth one or more times a day. Some do more some way more. Also I figured out that most of the Idea Hive likes to watch hockey. Some of the people that watch hockey are Kelly678, Kash, Jordan, Cameron, Joan, Zachary, Riley and I. My favorite team is the Ottawa Senators. Too bad that no one else likes the Sens. Oh well, I will be the lonely Sens fan. Next I found that only a few people like math. I thought that there would be a lot more people liking math because it is easy. Some of the people that like math are Cameron, Emily and Chantal and me of course like math. Surprisingly in the Idea Hive I am the only one that plays NHL 12. I was surprised because a lot of people are hockey fans so why not play the game? Oh well, I will be lonely once again. I think that the person most like me in Snow Lake is Kelly678 because we both play Minecraft, and watch hockey and we both brush our teeth 1-2 times a day.

A question that didn’t get answered were if you were  or are in the Idea Hive, what do you think the best thing would be is?

The Idea Hive’s Field Guide to Molching from Avon Maitland on Vimeo.

We are the Idea Hive!

Summer + A Russian = Awesome

This summer I met Sacha. I was going to put his last name but it is Russian so I can’t understand what or how to spell it. Sacha is from Belarus, Russia and only knows a little English. He came here on a clean air program because of the Chernobyla Nuclear Plant accident. I think that Sacha is one of the funniest people to see. I think that because when he tries to say something in English that he didn’t know he started busting into Russian and trying to act out what he was trying to say. He stayed with my Aunt in Point Clark.I think that the most memorable moment of this summer was when we went to a Toronto Blue Jays game vs. the Texas Rangers. The Jays lost 3-0. But my brother caught a ball and I got an autograph from one of the Rangers players. Also a really cool part to watch was their warm up. It was cool because we got to see the inside the bullpen. Also I saw Shawn Camp and JP Arencibia play long ball during the warm up.

Photos by isaaerri

I think that the best word to describe my summer is spectacular. I think that because I got  to meet a player from the Texas Rangers, see a Major league baseball up close. Next I got to meet a Russian from Belarus I also got to sea-doo at Point Clark with Sasha.

After the tornado I wounder what worst part is to see in Goderich? Also, Mrs.D you said in you letter that you got a new mac computer what is the best part of your new computer?