It’s Happening Again, The War of 1812

On April the 27th, the grade ⅞  class of Turnberry CPS from Wingham, Ontario and the grade 7-10 class from Midland, Michigan went to a farm owned by Robin Barker-James in Tillsonburg, ON. Robin is a historian and artifact collector who has land where classes can re-enact WWI, WWII and the war of 1812.  There the classes had a  re-enactment of two War of 1812 battles; The Battle Lundy’s Lane and the Siege of Fort Niagara. Instead of using musket balls and cannons we used dog food and tennis balls to be safe.

I think one of the best moments of the day was meeting our “American cousins”. It was interesting because when we were talking to them, they didn’t sound that different from us. Another thing I liked was getting to learn so much about our Canadian history from a different perspective, an American perspective. In one of the presentations, an American student found out that Thomas Jefferson in 1803 might have caused the war of 1812 which I never knew or considered.

When I was in Tillsonburg, I learned how the cannon crew loaded their cannons. First you put the cork screw in the barrel. Then put the sponge in the barrel. After you put in the cannon ball. Next you use the ram. Finally you fire. Another thing I learned was how to march like the soldiers did in 1812.

I believe that the big idea of our trip was to have respect and let everyone have equal rights, even the people who aren’t from your country, your religion and who don’t speak your language . I believe this because the reason countries go to war is because someone is not giving others their human rights. If everyone were to have equal rights, there would be no wars needed to fix them.

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Chimps Are Like Slaves?

In the grade ⅞ class of Turnberry from Wingham, ON and Snow Lake, MB are reading a book called Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel . The character Ben and his family are teaching a chimp named Zan to use sign language for scientific research. Peter is one of these scientists in the experiment. Peter describes Zan’s situation – being taken from the wild brought up as a human – as a “kind of slavery”. What does he mean by this? Do you agree or disagree?

I agree with what Peter is saying. I believe what Peter means is he doesn’t feel that it is right for a chimp to be taken away from its family at such a young age to be a scientist’s “test dummy”. I agree with Peter because animals can’t express their feelings as well as we humans can. This doesn’t mean that they should have to be forced to learn things for the future of science. Zan is being forced to learn now that Richard and the scientists have put in the “learning chair”.

I agree with Peter because Richard doesn’t really respect Zan the way Ben and Sarah do. I think this because in the book Zan signed when he knew respect was given to him like the master doesn’t respect his slave. I don’t think Richard has respect for Zan treating him badly. Zan is just a animal, not a test subject for scientists, he should be treated with care and respect.

What do you think would happen to the chimpanzee population in 100 years if scientist still did these tests on them? Why?

 

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My Half Brother… is a Chimp?

The class of grade 7/8 of Turnberry  is reading a book called Half Brother. When reading this book, I made a connection. In the book, the protagonist (Ben)  needs to learn to have a new brother who is a chimp with the help of his dad Roger .  This reminds me of when I went skiing for my first time. I was scared and worried like Ben was. My dad helped me get over my fear to try new things like Ben’s dad helped him get ues to the chimp.

incessant Flux

 

 

When Santa Gave me Coal

I remember when I was 7, I got coal for Christmas. I always told my parents that I’d never get coal for Christmas. I always thought I was “nice”. This one bad day, I  had 4 big boxes of wrapped gifts. I open them all and there was coal inside. I was  devastated. I didn’t leave my room all day after that and I wondered what I did wrong. The next day, I saw a bunch of presents for me. My parents hid my real presents from me and gave me coal as a joke. I thought along time afterwords about what to say to others, especially around Christmas.

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Adopt a Polar Bear, Save the Population!

The polar bears are labeled as species at risk and are slowly becoming extinct. This is happening because global warming is causing the polar bears to stay inland. They are staying inland because the ice isn’t freezing as fast as it should be. This is during the fall and spring. In the tundras and the arctic circle is were this is happening. Global warming is leaving less time for the polar bears  to get on the ice to hunt.

http://srrfnhv.edu.glogster.com/glog-823/

We were helping by raising money for Adopt a Polar Bear international. We did this because we watch live videos of Mr Mckiel and three other people talk about how the polar bears are slowly becoming extincted . First a classmate of mine, Isaac gave us the idea to adopt a polar bear . After this, we started raising money on November 18 th. Also we came up with a goal of $250. In the next few days, we already had $75! After reaching $75, we passed our goal of $250 in only 6 days. Finally  after 9 days, we had a grand total of $293! That day

I thought what our class did was extraordinary. I personally did not think we would reach our goal but as a community we adopted a polar bear. I  hope that others in the world participate to save such a innocent animal, just like the polar bears.

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Ten Marks and a Train Ticket Book Review

The book Ten Marks and a Train Ticket by Susy Goldstein, Gina Hamilton and Wendy Share is about two Jewish boys named Heinz and Benno. These boys are trying to escape Germany to be free of Nazi rule. These boys are only thirteen and nine.  They battle there way to get out of  Germany to survive the horror known as World War two.

The part in the book were Benno and Rita have there first child is the most memorable part of the book. This is the most memorable part because Benno can tell his story and pass it on through generations to learn about the terrible things that children like Benno in WWII. this is the link to the timeline of Benno’s life.

 paparutzi

In Ten Marks and a Train Ticket, there is a quote I found important. That quote is “We just walked into Holland with no one stopping us.”. This quotation is important to the characters because they were stressed. They were stressed because they got rejected the first time they tried to cross the  border. They had to hide in a blacked out compartment on the train to not get caught by the German guards. Now that Benno and Heinz are in Nijmegen, Holland, the have much less fear about the war.

I had questions wail reading this book. How will Benno’s daughter and granddaughter react to his story?What will Benno do with his life after this experience?

How Does Mrs .D Do It?

In our grade 7 and 8 class, we ran during our gym time to learn strategies to help us run further without as much trouble. We ran every school day for one month. We used the data from that to create this math project.
There was improvements I made in my cross-country running this fall. I have improved by keeping a better pace. I know this because the first time I ran compared to my last time, I had a 10% increase in pace.

There are goals I have made to improve my physical fitness. I want to try to be able to jog  1km at a consistent pace . I couldn’t keep a consistent pace at 1km. I will prepare myself for this by breathing properly when running (in through the nose and out the mouth) and jog at a pace that I can comfortably talk at.
Mrs .D was good at pointing things out when we were running that were tiring us out. She suggested me to stop moving my arms across my chest because I am losing forward momentum and wasting that energy. After that I ran with my arms moving forwards and I didn’t have to run as hard.

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