The Read's family journey

Digital citizenship challenge

• Keep yourself safe online because people are nasty.
• Be careful what you post for the future.

Refugees

In this post I will describe this picture to my own opinion. If you have any problems please comment below.

So I think that being a refugee would be hard and sad. Hard because you would walk heaps of kilometers each day to attempt to cross a border. Wether you get across or not is the risk you take. But more about this picture, so obviosly they have traveled for several days and have reached this border and the goverment have fenced it off with barb wire. I think this is pretty sad because these people just want to get into a country and start over. Seriously, if you're country was bombed then you probably want to get into a safer country. I sure would. 

Thanks for you're time.

Ode to Sydney

Ode to Sydney

Oh, spectacular Syd!

you have such powerful legs,

Bold, Bad and Barky,

Syd you make me feel at home.

Oral language challenge

1. The first one is Mr. Bean  is using oral language by being funny because he is making a sandwich look hard to make.
2. He is also using oral language by acting for people that are deaf. 
3. The last way he showed oral language is talking because he never really talks in his videos.

Fleabug

Yesterday the 25th of September my Uncle bought out his new toy. It is a Volkswagen offroader buggy. My Uncle calls it Fleabug. Now this thing hasn't had a lot of TLC ( Tender Loving Care ) in a long time so that's what my Uncle and I have in mind.  Fleabug looks like a dune buggy with a red roll cage and a silver fibre glass bonet. He has his engine at the back. For the first issue the gear box does not allow you to change gears very well. Secondly, there is a crack in the chassis and lastly it needs the steering to have a faster reaction to turning. You have to turn the steering wheel a quarter turn before you get some turning. Now that the negatives are out of the way I'll give you some positives. So, the good things are; it runs well, everything works and it doesn't need a trailer. Fleabug has a cool arrangement that you just bolt a draw bar on to tow. I was the first out of my family to ride in Fleabug. Uncle and I tore up and down the road at full bore. The road is gravel, of course. I had a lot of fun and that is the main thing. I am looking forward to Uncle coming out with Fleabug over the summer.

If I were a car I would be ...

I am a car, I was built in 1969 in St. Louis, Missouri in the United States of America. I'm a shiny Le Mans blue with a L88 cowl scoop on the bonet with the blower and supercharger out the top. My wheels are factory Rally rims. I have a 4 - speed manual rear wheel drive transmission gear box. My model is C3 and I've also got lake pipes. With a 350 horse power Chevrolet engine thats  enough grunt for me. My number plate reads 69 CORV and I do 14.8 secs down a 1/4 mile strip. I am a classic American muscle car. What am I?

Please comment below.

My speech - Methane Engines

Cars that run on Methane rather than Petrol or Diesel

Would you rather spend less money on fuel and more on living the dream? Hi, I’m Sam and I am writing to persuade the future producers of car engines to try Methane engines.

What is Methane? Methane is a liquefied natural gas that has been converted to liquid form for ease of storage or transport. Liquefied natural gas takes up about 1/600th of the volume of natural gas in the gaseous state. It is odorless, colorless, non-toxic and non-corrosive.

First main point: We can save on oil.

All we do is collect pig manure from pig farm and make it,  swap petrol for Methane in the fuel stations. We could save petrol as a back up in case something went wrong.

Main point two: Spend less money on fuel.

Methane could be cheaper than petrol because it’s only pig dung really and petrol is oil that has been tinkered with until it’s petrol or diesel. Diesel is more oily than petrol.

Next main point three: Less polution than petrol

For now it would be good but for long term it would be similar to petrol. In the future we could change again to hydrogen fuel cell which is another story. We could try it in the mean time.

Overall, Methane is similar to petrol the good thing is we can make 600 times more Methane than petrol because Methane is a liqufied natural gas. Thank you.

Farming story

I wake to a blanket of frost at 7:00 AM. "Far-out it's freezing this morning." I say. I get up have some toast, brush my teeth and get into my clothes. I pick up the landline phone and call the neighbour and discus what needs to be done today. It will take me 20 minutes to get to neighbours

Well I need to travel about 1km to the neighbour's so I get on my Suzuki JR 80cc motorbike, fill 'er up with gas, put on my motorbike pants and helmet then set off. 

Neighbour said that I need to bring the Case 125 puma back from the lane. It has forks on the front end loader and a tie down so that I can take my motorbike back to the yard as well. On the way to the yard is a lane that neighbour pours waste oil on the shingle lane to stop dust drifting towards the house. 

When I got to the yard neighbour was standing at the plough, so I guessed I should attach it. I get out of the tractor to attach the plough. neighbour says "Go to the paddock that you have been working in lately." This paddock is 25 acres (101171 square meters). It takes at least 8 - 12 hours just to plough. That also depends on if its too wet or you get bogged. When I reach the paddock I put down the plough and get going. I do this for 4 hours. Then I spot another tractor coming towards me. It was neighbour in his John Deere 7800 with the crumbler. So what a crumbler does is it crumbles the stuck together pieces of mud and dirt that the plough makes it stick together. So he came with the crumbler and chased me. 

After another 2 hours we stopped and had lunch. I couldn't be bothered going back to the house so I bought my lunch with me. "Right back to it." I said to my self. So I'm on my way back up and down the paddock. It was a hot day so I had the air-con on almost full bore and the radio turned on. I was in luxury. Pretty much anyway. 

Possum Diamante

This is my Possum Diamante poem. Enjoy!

Possums

Marsupial, Nocturnal

Hunting, sneaking, cackling

Naughty, bushy-tailed, cute, FETCH!

Playing, eating, running

Sleepy, plump

Puppy

Life process

Living organisms have certain life processes in common. There are seven things that they need to do to count as alive. The phrase MRSGREN is one way to remember them. These letters stand for ...

M - movement - all livings things have to move.
R - respiration - getting energy from food.
S - sensitivity - detecting changes in the surroundings.
G - growth - all living things change from babies to adults.
R - reproduction - making more living things.
E - excretion - getting rid of waste. 
N - nutrition - taking and using food. 

It is very easy to tell if something is alive or not. A teddy bear might look like a bear, but it cannot do any of the seven things it needs to do to be alive. All it can do is sit there and look cute. 

On another hand, a car can move, it gets energy from petrol (like nutrition & respiration), it might have a car alarm (sensitivity), and it gets rid of waste through the exhaust pipe (excretion). But it cannot grow or reproduce. 

Movement, is one of the conditions of a living organism. Sometimes it is not that obvious in examples such as plants and fungus, but humans, you can see them grow and move.

Respiration, or being able to breathe is the next condition. Some living breathe oxygen in the air using lungs whilst others like fish use gills to take the oxygen out of the water.

Sensitivity, is all about being able to detect changes in the environment around the living organism. Examples of this include hairs on the human body and nerves in every living thing.

The "G" in MRSGREN stands for growth and all living things do this, even if it is extremely slowly. An example of this is the Coral Reef. It is extremely slow at growing.

All living things are capable of reproduction. There is also a huge amount of diversity in the number of offspring different speices produced. For example, fish lay millions of eggs as a survival strategy because they know that some are going to be eaten. 

Another thing that living things need to do is get rid of waste material and this process is called excretion. This comes in different forms such as manure, urine, gas, wee and poo. Some of these words are usually kept quiet.

Nutrition, or obtaining and consuming food, is the final letter of the mnenonic MRSGREN. This means all living things have to eat or they face death. I'm sure I'd rather eat than die. 

Overall, it is well known that the diversity of life on Earth is amazing. You have to do these seven things or else you will die, and death is not a great thing. 

The Careers Expo

The Careers Expo is where a whole lot of careers are displayed to year 7 to year 13 and they get to see what goes on behind some careers, at the Horncastle Arena. My 
experience is that there is heaps of freebies such as sunglasses, (which I am wearing in the photo.) pens, lollies and pamphlets. Sometimes the odd prize. The only bad thing was there was sooo many people were there. You were always bumping into people. But overall it was great. Here are some pics.             

       

This is me at the Ara engineering career on the pit bike.

Me at another engineering stall.

This is a little sprint car.

Building a chicken coop

One day, during the holidays, Mum bought a flat-pack chicken coop  to house the chickens she got for Christmas. I volunteered to put it together. My vote was taken and that is why I am writing about this. I really enjoyed putting it together. Zoë was on the instructions and giving me the screws I needed. Mum was my apprentice. It was easy to assemble but it was hard work because I used a screw driver not an electric battery drill. I felt happy it was over because my arm was really sore and I felt a bit proud that I didn’t need Dad to help. I felt a lot less frustrated than Brodie Kane appeared in her flat-pack challenge on Fair-Go. Here a some pics.

       

                                                       

        

        

ANZAC day

"Oh, what time is it. 5:22 AM dang! My alarm goes off at 5:30. Anyway might as well get up." My alarm was set for the ANZAC dawn service.

I got up and had a bite to eat, brushed my teeth and got dressed. I put on my sweat shirt and some long pants that I hardly ever wear, on goes my hat and in the car. Mum, Zoë and I drove down to Burnham and parked about 250 meters from the Main South Road.

We all walked down with the mob of people that were also attending the service and found a good place to stand for the next 50 or so minutes. The service began and the piper started to play "ANZAC'S we remember you," that was good as it always seems to be. Then that great cannon went off and I jumped out of my skin. Out of the corner of my eye was an orange flash that came out of the gun. The guy and his girlfriend behind us leaped out of their skins, so did Mum and the guy also said to his girlfriend, "Are you awake now." I laughed in my head.

They do warn everyone, but in that very small moment you forget. The service went on and I am always so amazed that those Sentry guards can stand still for that matter of time.

Next was the breaking of the flags, while "The Last Post" was being played. Then as they re-hoist the flags "Reveille" was played on the bugle.

All of the people who wish to lay wreaths are called individually and make their way through the crowd to do so. It's always a good thing to hear Kidsfirst Kindergarten Burnham being called because it reminds me of the fun I had there when I was younger.

At last the Sentry guards can come down from their post above the gates to the military camp. I think they must feel relieved to be able to move again.

That marks the end of the dawn service and so we turn and head back to the car quietly thinking our own thoughts. The Sun has risen and you think, "Wow I can see now."

The reason I like to attend the dawn service is because of the respect I have for the soldiers that fought for our freedom. It's hard to get up that early, in the morning, but I feel that is the least I can do to honour our fallen soldiers.

My Autobiography

My Biopoem

Sam

Big, bold, bad & balistic

Son of David & Sarah, brother of Zoe

Lover of motorbikes, devices, cars, sports, chocolate and tractors

Owner of Lego, motorbike, tractor, Xbox 360 and a few NERF guns

Who admires Richie McCaw, Martin Guptill and John Deere

Who plays rugby in the winter, cricket in the summer and plays on my tablet inside

Who would like to visit Haast (New Zealand), USA and Fiji

Who has been to Wellington, Golden bay, most of the West coast, Kaikoura and Picton

Who was born in New Zealand in the Selwyn District

Who loves the phrase: “You neither win nor lose, if you don’t run the race” (from David Bowie)