Farmer Boy 16

Half Brother Connection

bradpewt — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:47:28 +0000

This year in the Idea Hive we are reading the story Half Brother. Half Brother is a story about a family who moves to B.C. because the father accepted a job as a professor. His father is using a chimpanzee for expirments and raises him as a human. While there the protagonist Ben at first doesn’t like having Zan around, then he started to like having Zan around. We had to write connections we had to the book. Here is mine.

In the story Half Brother, Ben is embarrassed to bring his friends over to his house because of his little brother Zan. Sometimes I am embarrassed to bring my friends home because of my little brother.

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by jinterwas

Polar Bears

bradpewt — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:18:49 +0000

There are issues facing some of the biggest predators in the north. These issues are global warming and the shortened hunting season. The Polar Bear needs to have a long hunting season on the sea ice. However with global warming the sea ice is coming in late which is causing the Polar Bear to fend for it self on land instead of the sea. We have to help these creatures survive the ever-changing world.

Our class became very attached to the bears after skyping with Mr. Andy Mckiel and learning about his experiences with the polar bears in Churchill Manitoba. We decided to take some action and do a fundraiser. We decided to raise money for the Adopt a polar bear fund for Polar Bears International. There are different levels that you can reach and we decided on the 250 dollar donation. Which we exceeded. We raised a total of 293 dollars towards the charity.

I think that helping the Polar Bears is very important because they are on the endangered list of Canada. It was a very good learning experience learning about the Polar Bears struggles and how they need help. It was a very good cause and I think that everyone should donate a little bit to the Polar Bears.

I created a Glogster to summarize my research.

Wow, I Really Should Have Stretched Better

bradpewt — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:19:43 +0000

This year for gym we did a unit on cross-country running. Every day when we got outside for gym we would run around the field. Our field is approximately .5km. So everyday we would run a different distance, record our time and eventually caculate our pace.

For my data I had a good percent difference. My percent difference, which is the biggest number in my data menace my lowest number in my data and then divided by the smallest number. My overall percent difference is 88%, which means that the time between my fastest and slowest paces is 88%.

There are improvements that I made in my cross-country running this fall. I made improvements on my pace this year. I also made improvements on how much I can run at a time. My pace improved quite a bit during the year. It went to 6:04 to a low of 3:31. But it was only 0.75km that I ran for the 3:31.

What goals have you made this year to improve your physical fitness?

There are goals that I have made this year to improve my physical fitness. Those goals are, hopefully 30 minutes more a day of exercise. I would also start running more than I currently am. I would like to run 5 minutes a day if I can.

Ten Marks and a Train Ticket

bradpewt — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:51:15 +0000

This is about a book called Ten Marks and a Train Ticket. This real life book is written by three sisters. Susy Goldstein, Gina Hamilton and Wendy Share. This book is about their father Benno’s escape from Nazi persecution before WWII. Benno and his brother Heinz go through frightening, thrilling and bitter sweet moments on their journey from Berlin, Germany all the way to eventually Toronto, Canada. Here is a timeline that I made using Timetoast for all 5 sections of the book.I created a time line using Timetoast to show the five different sequences that we read in the book.There were many graphics that stood out during the book, but there is one that I remember very clearly. The two brothers just boarded a train and notice that there is two SS officers searching the cabins and looking for illegal stow aways, which Benno and Heinz are.

Heinz and Benno are under on of the two compartment seats in the cabin in total darkness. Heinz is at one end breathing hard and Benno at the other end listening to Heinz breathing. This stands out for me because it must have been terrifying thinking that they might be caught and sent to a concentration camp.

Henry Law

There is a significant quotation in the book Ten Marks and a Train TIcket. This is the one that I chose to share. “When do you think we’ll see everyone again?” I asked Heinz nervously. This quotation is important to the story because Benno is still very optimistic and still thinks that his family will be together again. Unbeknownst to him that day on the train was the last day he will see his family.

There are many things that I both learned and found surprising in the book. One thing that I learned is that 9600 children were saved by the kinder transport. I found it quite surprising that 30 years after the war that someone would paint a swastika on Benno’s car. I think that that is just wrong. Two thought provoking question that I have are. What would Benno’s life have been like if his parents and Charlie had of survived? Why did the long trousers Benno found mean so very much to him?

Idea Hive Similarities

bradpewt — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:40:57 +0000

This is the Idea Hive. The word normal is completely out the window with us. We are two class rooms connected by the fast growing online world. We are two class rooms 2700 kilometres apart that do almost everything together. We are Turnberry Central in Wingham, Ontario. The other school and our partner is J.H Kerr in Snow Lake, Manitoba. To start the year we took an interest survey to get to know each other. Now we are turning it into a blog post.

Something that both I and the entire Idea Hive have in common is that we all brush our teeth. We all brush them at least once. You may think this is odd, but like I said we are not normal. Something I have in common with most of the Idea Hive is that most of us have favourite sports teams. Mine is the Dallas Cowboys, Alexander’s favourite team is the Rough Riders. Isaac’s is the Ottawa Senators. Mr.Fisher likes the Riders and the Boston Bruins. Something I have in common with a few people from the Idea Hive is that we like math. Erin, JacoPeel and I are some of the people. Surprisingly I am the only person from the Idea Hive that’s favourite video game is MLB ‘10 The Show. I don’t know why other people don’t like it because it is the best video game ever. Me and Erin are alike in the Hive because we both like football and math.

h8rnet

For those of you who don’t know, last year to end it off, we Skyped with world famous author Markus Zusak. So a question I have is, how is the Idea Hive going to top what we did to end last year?

Summer + Teeswater = Baseball

bradpewt — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:43:15 +0000

This summer I spent almost all of my time with my friend Dawson at either the ball diamond or one of our houses. We play ball together on the Teeswater W.O.A.A team so Dawson and I practiced hard during the summer together to get ready for the play-offs. We went golfing this summer quite a bit. I beat him every time so it wasn’t much competition

koocbar

I met a very “unique” person this summer. His name is Drew and he is from Teeswater. Drew is a little cooky but he is the funniest person that I ever met. We were playing a ball game in Priceville in the regular season and there was a foul ball that went behind the concession stand. Usually someone’s parent would go and get it and we would use the other ball. The first thing Drew did was was run all the way over behind the concession stand and got the ball.

ExploreTheBruce

My most memorable moment this summer was at a ball game in Teeswater. Dawson who is our catcher, was about 3 feet in front of the plate and about 2 feet in fair territory waiting for a ball. The big kid off of Seaforth rounded third chugging for home, went off the base path and lowered his shoulder then cranked Dawson. We had to call an ambulance to take him off the field. He was sent to London. It was really scary because nobody knew what was wrong. He ended up to be fine.

My questons are, have you ever seen someone being taken off of a sports field in an ambulance before? What were you doing when the tornado touched down in Goderich?

Yodio – The Woodpecker

bradpewt — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:52:39 +0000

A hum that goes to its own beat,
the sound of a beak striking timber
with such force.
The thought that just a little bird
could do all that.
I try to see and hear him over the
tractor, but it is pointless.
Only when the tractor stops, do I
get to listen to the humming of the
wood pecker.
The needle-like beak hits the
wood with such force, you can
hear it on any part of the farm.
Over the berms I still can’t see,
but I can hear.
The sound is like a mesmerizing
guitar solo.
Its community is made of many
birds.
But the wood pecker is my
personal envy.

The Trenches

bradpewt — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:15:17 +0000

Yesterday, the Gr.7/8 class from Turnberry went to Tillsonburg, ON on a field trip about the first world war. Mr. Robin Barker-James has a farm just outside of Tillsonburg where he and his gr.10 history class built replica trenches from WWI to host school’s and teach them about trench warfare. WWI lasted from 1914-1918 and was fought with the allies and Serbia on one side and the Central Powers plus Turkey on the other side. The trenches in the war were located in Belgium, Flanders Fields just to name a few. They were very muddy, often without a bathroom and with out a doubt, hard to live in. The trenches at Mr.Barker-James’ farm are very real, in-fact so real that the Canadian Military has trained there before heading to Afghanistan. There was a movie shot in the trenches. This was an amazing learning experience for our class because we are currently learning about WWI and the trenches.

We are on our bellies, crawling, trying to take back what is truly ours. The adrenaline rush starts to get to you because you can’t see or hear them, but you know they’re here. You start to feel uneasy because you are just waiting ducks until one fires a shot. Than the Lieutenant says to halt. We wait, weapons at the ready, just in case. Than all of a sudden a little black object came flying and upon impact blew up just ahead of us, they know we are here. I can feel terror on both sides and I can hear them trying to re-group them selves. As they are regrouping, the whistles sound and we charge, knowing they are right there. “Let’s go Ross.”

I learned things yesterday that I will never forget. But being in the trenches made me realize just how surreal the war was. I just had to walk through the trenches and not even pretend to be dead, I had 4 lives. Our soldiers that died only had one and they used it up on us. Men had to live in these trenches that were only at max 5 feet wide. The fact that you are always living in fear of a trench raid or a bombing or even an underground explosion. Mr. Barker-James told me these words before the day started and I didn’t really have a big meaning for them. “If the government were to say to you that they were going to send you or your kids to war, you should say that it better be for a darn good reason.” However at the end of the day after experiencing the trenches, those words had a complete new meaning.

hdurnin

Where I’m From

bradpewt — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:25:28 +0000

I’m from Hot wheels
and toy tractors.
I’m from cars and real

tractors.I’m from Family

and TSN,from Sports Centre

and Sports Net.

I’m from Alan Jackson and yes,
Taylor Swift, from
Where I Come From and
5 o’clock Somewhere.
I’m from Swedish Berries
and 2L Crush.
I’m from Japan, Haiti and,
the Gulf that’s black, dragging
the animals and critters down.

I’m from K-whopper’s and Pete’s,
from Massey and Johnny Popper’s.
I’m from Jason Day and Ricki Fowler

From Hardy Boys and Dallas.

I’m from Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle,
from Jeff Skinner and Reimer,
Tony Romo and Aaron Rogers.
I’m from Wells and Bautista.

I’m from the bull pen androtating 3rd
from early mornings to late nights
I’m from “Come home Jets”,
and “Caps’ have been swept”

I’m from “Keep on truckin” and
“Dirt won’t kill ya”,
from long days and nights in the field
I’m from two separate houses,
but making it work.

Soaring Birds

bradpewt — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:11:49 +0000

Purpose
The purpose of this form of art is to make a bird out of a hexagon. It looks good and you will definitely have some fun doing it.

Materials
- Hexagon design (preferably on Card Stock paper)
- Pencil
- 15cm ruler
- 20cm of masking tape
- White sheet of 45x30cm paper
- Black fine point permanent marker
- Red Orange colour pencil crayon
- Brown Umber colour pencil crayon

Procedure
1. Get out your hexagon design, pencil and ruler.
2. Starting at a corner, cut out on a 39 degree angle a straight line lasting 32 mm.
3. Then mark on a 45 degree angle from the line you previously cut lasting 15mm.
4. Next mark a 60 degree angled line from the previously marked line lasting 11mm.
5. mark a 60 degree angle from the previously marked line lasting 21mm.
6. Mark a 60 degree angle line from the previous line lasting 8mm.
7. Mark a 56 degree angle line from the previous line lasting the rest of the page.
8. Cut this out with your scissors.
9. Slide this to the opposite side of the hexagon. ( If you do not slide it to the opposite side it will not tessellate correctly.)
10. Tape this on. (Be sure that you slid it correctly before taping.)
11. One side to the left of the previously cut out shape, mark a line on a 10 degree angle lasting 30mm.
12. Mark a 111 degree angle from the previously marked line lasting 15mm.
13. Mark a 80 degree angle from the previously marked line going off the page.
14. Cut out, than slide and tape.
15. Set in the middle of the rough copy paper and trace.
17. Then move it so that it fits like a puzzle piece to the one that you traced. If it doesn’t than go back and make sure that you taped it correctly.
18. If it tessellates correctly then you can move onto the good copy paper. Start in the middle and than fill up the whole page with birds.
19. Colour the body red orange, the beak yellow and the rest of the head brown umber or dark brown.
20. After you are done sign your name in the bottom right corner.

Tips
When you start on paper, try to always start in the middle.
If you don’t want to make yours exactly like mine, change the angles or change the measurements. Just not too much.
Always cut corner to corner
If you want to change up the colours that is fine.
Have fun while doing it.