Alyssa

Half Brother.

alyshuff — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:44:20 +0000

In our Idea Hive classroom, we are reading the book ‘Half Brother’ by Kenneth Oppel, via Skype. The two teachers take turns reading while the students and the other teacher are in a back-channel called ‘Today’sMeet. We talk about what is happening in the book, and ask each other questions, and help answer them. After each reading, we post on online stickies on Linoit.com.

The book Half Brother is about a family who adopts a chimp to be a part of their family, as well as part of a project where they see if chimps can communicate with humans through sign-language.

The main character in the book is 13 year old Ben. In the story, Ben goes to a construction site with his new friends & plays with fire almost getting caught by a guard. This reminds me of a book I read called ‘Summer Promise’. The protagonist gets talked into going to a party. At the party, there are drugs and alcohol, causing one of the boys to get into a bad accident. She is talked to by the police & is close to getting into a lot of trouble. In both of these cases, the protagonist’s fall into what everyone else is doing instead of choosing the right path.

cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo shared by Laenulfean

The Cousin Eddy Christmas.

alyshuff — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:19:37 +0000

Christmas time has a lot of traditions at my house. From baking cookies, to the Christmas eve church service, to dressing up my dad with bows & ornaments when we decorate the tree. But one of my favorite things that we do every year is watch ‘Christmas Vacation.’ Every year, about a week or two before Christmas, my family watches this movie together. The family in the movie is extremely funny, my favorite character being the crazy cousin Eddy.

TimmyGUNZAnyway, last year, we had my mom’s family Christmas at our house. Let me tell you right now, that our Christmas’s are very far from dull & quite. We play Just Dance with my Grandma, Rock Band with our cousins, & just have a good, loud, silly time. We all want the holiday to be filled with fun & excitement. So last year, my uncle Mark came over on Christmas with his kids, then said he had to run back home because he said forgot something (he lives about a block away). So that was fine, we all just carried on. But then, about 15 minutes later, he came back dressed up as cousin Eddy from the movie! He has on the tight pants, the turtleneck with the v-neck sweater on top, and the big hat to go with it. He said some of the classic lines from the movies, and after many pictures, he went home to change. That was the highlight of the day, and every time I think about it, I can’t help but to smile.

The Polar Bears of Churchill Manitoba

alyshuff — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:30:51 +0000

Because of global warming, the sea ice that the polar bears normally rely on for food, & ways of life, is not yet thick enough for them. Polar bears eat seals, and because the ice is not frozen yet they do not have access to the seals. Polar bears need a certain amount of fat on their bodies to be able to survive when the sea ice has melted and they are inland. If they don’t get enough food when they should, it could be deadly to them. The polar bears are struggling now because they have less time to eat and build up body fat, and are spending more time without the food they need. It can also really harm the newborn cubs if the mothers do not have enough fat on their bodies. A pregnant polar bear can loose up to half of their body fat while they are inland. This can be fatal to both mother & cub. If they don’t have enough fat, it is very hard for them to provide for their cubs, and may result in death. Scientists say (with 95% certainty) that the planets climate is warming up because of greenhouse gasses. The Polar Bears are being shoved to the edges of Hudson Bay, where the people & the bears are getting too close for comfort. As of right now, the polar bears fit under the threatened criteria according to Species at Risk Act’s data.

I created a Glogster to summarize my research.

amckiel

To go along with our geography unit, place & location, we decided to do a project on the polar bears of Churchill Manitoba. We found out all about Churchill, global warming, and of course, the life of the polar bear. We soon found out that the polar bears are a threatened animal. One day during our research time, a couple of students stumbled upon a way that we could help the polar bears. They purposed to us that we adopt a polar bear. You could choose from a few different price options, any where from $30 to $250. The whole class was very eager to help out, and we choose to try to raise $250 to help the polar bears. Then we made a chart to track how much money we raised, and it added up quickly! From November 18th to November 30th, out of the students money, we were able to achieve, and go above and beyond our goal. We we’re able to raise $293. After we reached our goal, to help celebrate, our teacher bought us white Coca-Cola (the company is also helping the polar bears) and specialty white frosted doughnuts from Tim Hortons. While we ate and drank these, we skyped with Andy Mckiel, the who Mrs.Durnin got the idea from. Mrs.Durnin had met Mr.Mckiel at unplug’d during the summer, and was following him on twitter, and saw him tweeting about Churchill. As a result to this tweet, she immediately scratched her original thoughts for the project and wrote out our final project. To think that this whole thing started out with a single tweet…
hdurnin

This was a great experience, and I am glad I could be a part of helping the polar bears. I am very happy that we were able to help out the polar bears. After watching many videos, and reading many articles about the polar bears, I realized how hard the life of the polar bears life really is. Because of what we did, and what other people are doing to help the polar bears, their life is a little easier.

Ten Marks & A Train Ticket.

alyshuff — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:23:15 +0000

At the beginning of the year, we began reading ‘Ten Marks & A Train Ticket’ by Suzy Goldstien, Gina Hamilton, and Wendy Share. This book is a remake of the book that the authors father, Benno, wrote when he was 16. The Benno wrote this book about his experiences escaping Nazi Germany with his brother Heinz when he was only nine years old.
We read the book in sections, and after each section, we would fill in a few sheets with what we learned from that section. Now that we have finished the book, we are doing a few activities to sum it up.

The story summary can be seen in the Timetoast Timeline I created.

My most memorable image for me was on page 43. At this point of the story, the boys are hiding under the seats in the train, in the dark, hiding from the Nazis. This stands out for me because it sows that they were not safely travelling from Germany, they were escaping from it. I can’t imagine how scared the boys must have felt when the Nazis came into the compartment. Luckily, the Nazis did not see the boys, and they got off the train safely.

ELEOTH

“I held my breath, waiting for them to ask us questions, but they didn’t say a word. They just nodded to us. Someone else motioned to us to keep moving. Again, no one asked us any questions. I looked at Heinz. He looked at me. We could hardly believe what just happened. We had just crossed the border into Holland with nobody stopping us. It was so was so easy. The border guards must have thought we were part of another family. It was all over very quickly, & we were free.”

This quote is very important to the story. It tells us that Heinz & Benno are now in Holland. This changes the setting from Germany to Holland. The quote is also important because we now know that the boys have made if safely into Holland. Although they had many struggles getting there, they are now in Holland, like the boys parents, Max & Golda had planned. The boys have accomplished their goal of escaping Germany.

From reading this book I learned a lot about the Holocaust. I learned that the Kindertransport, a word that I had never even heard of, saved the lives of 9,600 refugee children. I learned about the Jewish faith, and the kindness of other countries during this terrible time. I was surprised to read about the section where the boys just ‘walked into’ Holland, no questions asked when they didn’t have their papers. Earlier in the book, when the boys tried to leave, the border guards told the boys that if they ever tried to come into Holland without their proper papers again, there could be serious consequences. Even though the guards may have thought the boys were part of a large family, I was still very surprised that with all that was going on, they didn’t ask for the boys papers. This was an amazing book, and I was able to learn a lot about the Holocaust, and the young children that had to go through it.

I wonder how Benno and the rest of the children who went through this go about their life now after everything that they had to go through?

I wonder how the children dealt with not having their parents to help them through the hardest time of their life?

Run Run As Fast As You Can!

alyshuff — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:48:56 +0000

Through the month of September, my class ran different distances around our yard for our gym class. We recorded these results, and created a spreadsheet & graph to show our results. Our teacher then asked us about the goals that we made this month, and what goals we still wanted to improve.

There are improvements I made in my cross-country running this fall. The more I ran, the better my pace became. When I first started off, I ran fast, trying to complete the distance faster. But I realized that I was having to stop & catch my breath. So, I slowed myself to a jog, & my pace improved by 43%. I slowed myself down so that I didn’t have to stop running until my distance was completed. By the end of the month, I was able to fun further distances. The distance I ran improved by 30%. I also improved my breathing. After running for a few days, I realized that I was breathing very heavily by the end. Then, I stared to breathe in my nose, and out my mouth. I noticed a big improvement. Mrs.Durnin gave us a lot of good advice, as she is a long distance runner herself. After runs I, and a lot of other students, noticed that our arms were very tired after running because we had them pulled up on our body a certain way. Mrs.D told us to grab the air (cup our hands & scoop the air). My arms weren’t tired anymore!

D’Arcy Norman

There are goals that I have this year to improve my physical fitness. One goal that I have for myself is to have less ‘screen time’ during my day, and spend that time doing physical activities. Everyday after school, it’s my job to take my dog for a walk. Something I could do to improve my fitness is take her for longer walks. In addition to gym class, I want to make sure that I take part of my day to be physical. Also, I want to make sure that I am eating healthy. That makes being physical a lot easier!

Similarities & Differences In the Idea Hive

alyshuff — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:37:40 +0000

Last year, my class got to spend the year, through technology, with Snow Lake Manitoba. And this year, we get to do it all over again! There are new students, and some of the old ones have moved on. But a lot of the same students will be able to grow an even better relationship. I am extremely excited to start working with Snow Lake again this year, and I can’t wait to see what our teachers have for us this year! The first thing we did, just to get to know a bit about each other, was to fill out an interests survey. That helped us get to know a bit about each other. And this is what I found out…

espensorcik

Everyone in the Idea Hive is very unique. There are a few things that all of us have in common. One of things that every single students has in common is our hygiene. The one and only thing that all of us do, is brush our teeth at least once a day. Something that I have in common with most people is how much we like math. I love math, and a few of the people that also love math are, Cameron, Erin, Tylepham and Jacopeel. There are also things that I have in common with only a few people. When I get older, I want to go to Mexico, Greece, England, and/or Paris. Like me, Bianknop, Braycart, Dirtbiker77, Juli, Mercetes, and Korisock all want to go to at least one of these places. Maybe I’ll see some of them there someday! Something that is unique about me is, I am the only person who wants to be a lawyer in my future.

y.caradec

When I read the survey, the person I found to be most like me from Snow Lake was Cassidy. We both love the show Pretty Little Liars, and our favorite, or most visited website is Facebook. Like me, she hates spiders (no doubt) and seems to have a good sense of humor. Its pretty cool to have someone so much like you so far away. Its really awesome that we get to work with Snow Lake, but I hope that someday, we can meet in person!

rafa.reinheimer

The survey gave us lots of good information about everyone, but if I could ask more questions, I would just like to know some of the basics. Like, what is your favorite type of music? Who is your favorite artist? I am looking forward to a great year, and getting to know everyone.

Summer Of Opportunities (Summer ’11)

alyshuff — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:42:28 +0000

This summer, I did many exciting things, met many new and interesting people and had the most amazing summer of my life. This summer, I travelled to Managua, Nicaragua for two weeks on a missions trip. After many hours of traveling, we got to the Nicaraguan airport, and got into our vans. Our driver was one of the most amazing people I have ever met. His name is Jorge Sandoval. We spent a lot of time with Jorge, time that we all cherished. One day, the youth of the team decided that all of the kids wanted to go in Jorge’s van. So we did. We cranked up the tunes, and that became the ‘Party Bus’ to us. Even though Jorge and his family have so little, he always had a huge smile on his face. He called himself ‘Bodyguard’ when we went out, and he was always with the youth, keeping a close eye on them. I miss him already, and I hope that someday I can go back and see him again.

Team Nicaragua!Along the line of Nicaragua, I spent most of my summer with the team. But I spent the most time with the youth of the team, Shelby & Shaelin Joel & Rachael, Madii, Hannah, Rebecca, and my sister, Makayla. Although we were already pretty good friends before our journey, we became extremely close during our trip. We trusted each other with everything, and we were almost always all together. I have some of the best relationships of my life with these people. The time spent with them this summer makes up to a lifetime of memories that I will not soon forget (like the time I brought a monkey onto our boat…).

Feeding a Monkey!This summer, my favorite purchase was my MacBook Pro laptop. It’s like my baby. There are so many awesome things that you can do with it! I’ve had it for almost two months and I don’t know half of the things it can do yet. My uncle has a Mac, and he always talked about how awesome they are, and all of the cool things you can do with it. So I got one, and he was right! All I have to do now if figure out everything it can do…

The best word to describe my summer? Definitely Nicaragua! We have been planning this trip for almost two years, but this summer the final plans were intense. We spent countless nights packing and unpacking hockey bags, practising our Spanish, talking about the things we were going to experience and just hanging out with each other. Then when the time came, everyone was just crazy with excitement. We got up at 4:30 in the morning on August 11th, and returned to Wingham at about the same time two weeks later. In that two weeks, I had more memories and thoughts going through my head than ever before! The people are amazing there, and although having rice and beans (Gio-Pinto) at least once a day, every day for two weeks was difficult to down, I had an amazing time. It was the best summer of my life, and Nicaragua is the reason.

My teacher told me that she is going to run a big race soon. I wonder where it’s taking place? Good luck with it! Her summer sounds like it was very fun, and had a great time.

She also got to meet our ‘other Grade 8 teacher’, Mr. Fisher at a conference called Unpluggd. I thought that was pretty awesome. After working with him all year through technology, she was able to meet him in person!
Mrs.Durnin loves technology, and she got a new Mac computer this summer. I wonder how
she’s getting along with it. Having troubles adjusting? I know I’m still getting used to mine… So good luck to her with that.

Yodio – Alyssa,

alyshuff — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:34:28 +0000

My boots slide in the slippery mud,

and they sink a little deeper.

all around me there is movement

and I am overwhelmed with beauty.

Over to my left,

there is the pond that

Murry Scott has created.

I see cat-tails and algae,

marking the perimeter.

The noises are peaceful.

the chirp of a bird

as it flies above me,

and the croak of a frog

as he swims beside me.

I grab my shovel and begin to dig.

This hole will contain

a dog-weed plant,

a new addition to the farm.As I dig deeper,

the scent of dirt fills my nose.

but I don’t care,

to me, it is the smell of life.

The habitat shines around me with

the swaying of the white pines,

and the water glistening like diamonds.

The sound of the

whispering wind is calming.

The smell of the tractor,

dirt and fresh air fill my lungs.

This man made ecosystem is

such a beautiful habitat,

Staying here would be no problem,

My boots slide in the slippery mud

and they sink a little deeper.

In The Trenches

alyshuff — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:51:29 +0000

On Thursday June 16th, my class had the opportunity to go to Robin Barker-James’ farm and experience life in the trenches. To go with our history unit of World War I, we wanted to know what the soldier’s had to go through during their life in the trenches. We left at 7:00 am and took a two and a half hour bus ride to Tillsonburg where Robin lives. When we got there, he showed us some weapons, and talked a bit about the history of war, and how his farm is set up with multiple trenches all around, representing the trenches in Flanders, Belgium. Then it was time for training. We each got a wooden bayonet model and grenade models. We had a targets for the grenades, and after learning how to parry, thrust, butt-stroke, and neck stroke, we had a mini battle between the students. After training, it was time to head out into the trenches. We had about an hour and a half to relive the war that lasted from 1914 to 1918. We got our Ross rifle models, helmets, 48 grenades and headed out. The girls were team Canada, and the boys were the Germans. We also got a Lewis Gun; a very good advantage against the Germans. And so we started out into the hot sandy slippery trenches….

Our Training. Photo by; hdurnin

“My gun slides in my hands and my forehead is soaked with perspiration. My boots are full of sand, and God only knows what else might be in there. I look around me, and don’t see anyone but my fellow Canadians. The sound of a gun shot fills our ears, and we cringe at the sound of bodies hitting the ground. Two of us have been shot; we must hurry to get the next allies into place before another attack. We carry on. Then, out of nowhere, a German declares a bayonet battle. The sound of the bombs are overwhelming and before we can even have time to think, our Lewis Gun has traded places from our hands to the Germans. It seems to be getting darker, though it is the middle of day. My legs feel as though they have turned to jelly, and all I want is to be able to stop and rest. But we move forward, hardly breathing, waiting to be captured by death.”

Crawling through the trenches. Photo by; hdurnin

This trip was one of the most eye opening things for me. I knew that the war was nothing to do with fun, but I didn’t really understand what the soldiers actually had to go through. This trip
helped me understand. It was extremely hot, and we had to wear long pants and a long sleeve shirt, along with a helmet. The helmets were very hard to keep on your head, especially when you had to crawl. And, they often dug into the back of your neck, which was very uncomfortable. I was tired and I was getting frustrated with my team, but in a way that is a good thing. It made us see some of what the soldiers had to go through in a daily basis. Surprise gun shots, grenades landing right in front of you, and seeing your enemy right as you heard “shot”. It was actually very scary, even though nobody really got hurt. I am very glad and grateful that we got to go on this trip, and I cannot wait to go back and see Robin next year again!

Where I’m From

alyshuff — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:19:28 +0000

I am from red M&M’s that I always eat last,
from the big long pigtails in my hair
and endless stacks of books.
I am from Stephanie Meyer,
from muddy soccer fields
and sour blue skittles.

I am from singing purple dinosaurs,
and from Beliebers and Twihards.
I’m from ‘Take a pill’ and ‘Simmer down!’
and Big Comfy Couch,
from Tootsie Rolls and Polly Pockets.
I’m from Taylor Lautner
and his posters on my wall,
from Barbie Dream Houses
and Jessie J.

drowning.amanda

from Taylor Swift,
the only country star I listened to,
from forts in the forest,
and from long walks in the bushes
I’m from Twilight, Vampires and Werewolves
that everyone loves.
and from Justin Bieber,
everyone’s love interest.

I’m from bibles and blue jeans,
from fishhooks and worms.
and from Blue’s Clues,
the little dog who I always thought was a boy.

I’m from Narnia and Terabithia,
the places I wish I could someday go.

I started as a seed on the family tree,
seeming just like the others.
But as I grew, my leaf got its own unique pattern
and I stood out on the family tree.

-Alyssa.