This year I learned a lot in school. Among everything I learned, what stands out the most was learning how to dissect a cow heart. This may seam very disgusting, but it actually was not at all. If you can not handle blood, I would recommend not to read this. This is how it went…

It first started when we walked into the class and it was science. I saw rubber gloves on the table. My teacher said to put them on and we walked into the science lab. There were three tins on the table, each with paper towel on top. When my teacher told us to guess what they were, right away I knew it was a heart. First of all I knew this because we were studying the circulatory system ( heart, brain, veins etc) and because there were blood stains on the paper towels. A lot of the other kids guessed brownies, fruit and pomagranet.

When we got to reveal what was under the sheet I was so happy! I got the experience of dissecting a cow heart which was cool and a great opportunity. At first, we did not know what creature the heart was from but my teacher told us cow. The heart was squishy. My friend Blaze and I were the first to pick up the heart in our group. When we took apart the heart, we found a number of chambers. Our teacher taught us the white stuff was fat and it was not good to have it on your heart for pumping because it makes the muscle stop moving.

We learned there are heart strings in the heart which are made out of fibres. We put pencils in the holes for the blood to pass through, and my group found a blood sack. The heart was very smooth, and bloody. We cut it up and it was all falling apart, so we just squished the little parts. We stuck our fingers or pencils into the holes of the heart. When we touched the heart it was cold becuase it had been in a freezer.

In the end, I think it was a great opportunity to dissect a cow heart because I learned a lot about the anatomy of the heart. I also learned that there is a big muscle in your body going clench in, clench out. This exercise was very fun and now I want to study biology in university or high school. I am so happy I got to do it,. Thank you for reading my blog. I hope you liked it.

By: penguin2

Let me tell you about the day I swapped bodies with my baby brother.

It was a normal afternoon. I was changing my little brother’s diaper. I wished I could be him. He gets to sit around and do nothing but I have to go to school. The next morning, I woke up in a crib. I was a fish out of water. I mean a ten year-old girl in a crib! I soon realized my mom was approaching me. That means it was time to wake up (ugggggg). But she picks me up instead of tapping my shoulder like she usually does. That is weird, I think.  When she called me Ocean, I tried to tell her I was River. But when I spoke it sounded like mumbo jumbo! Then I realized I was in Ocean’s body!

I had to go see what happened to me–I mean my body. I tried to walk but I could not, so I lifted my arms to make a sign that I wanted to be picked up. And my mom picked me up, and walked into what I would normally call my bedroom. When we got there, I saw my body lying in my bed and mom woke me up. I did not wake up and instead I cried like a baby!

I was so confused seeing myself from across the room like I was watching a movie with me in it. I had to think properly. I realized that me and my brother had swapped bodies! I knew I was in hot water. I did not know what to do.

My mom asked my brother “cat got your tongue?” I think she was suprised that I was not talking as I am a chatterbox. I guess maybe she might let him stay home. Well, never mind. Mom would not let him stay home but Mommy would let him because she’s second to none. Mom put me into Ocean’s bed and I fell asleep. When I woke up I drew a blank, but then I remembered what happened. I was as doomed as a chicken on a skateboard. I decided to give being a baby a shot. It might just be a piece of cake being a baby.

I saw my body walk at a snail’s pace in the hallway. All day I played it by ear, but I mostly crossed my fingers. The day pretty much turned out. At the end of the day, I realized that life is like flying a kite. You never know whether it will stay up all day or crash into a tree. I also realized that I might be stuck in this body forever but life is long it might be different but it still is a life. Then I went to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I was hoping to see myself but I saw my brother’s body. When I got sad about being in my brother’s body I reminded myself it was lucky that Ocean did not have to go to school on Monday. I was worried about today because Mom and Mommy never let me stay home two days in a row. Unfortunately Ocean did have to go to school. I was dead meat. I knew that when pigs fly I would get over this, especially because I am teacher’s pet! I was like a mouse in a mouse trap. I was a piece of a broken heart.

I manged to be able to watch what was happening at school because I have a camera on my backpack so I can have it in case I need proof of something.  I did not want to see what I saw. I saw him walk into the boy’s bathroom, suck on my stuff, cry, sleep and mumble. I knew if I ever got my body back I would be the weird kid at school and in so much trouble with Mr. David. When he got back, he had a note in his backpack for Mom and Mommy. Mom was mad but Mommy was only disappointed. His punishment was being grounded and no screens.

We went to sleep. I realized that I only swapped bodies with him because I wished to be him. Everything started to make sense. I only swapped bodies with him because I wished for it while changing his diaper. I thought for a second. Maybe if I wish to be myself again it would happen. So that is what I did. When I woke up in the morning I saw I was in my bed. I went to the mirror to comb my hair when I saw I had blond tiny hairs coming out of my head instead of red long hair!!! I had to explain it to Mom and Mommy…

To be continued…

By: Penguin2

“This is my story” said the winged snake to all the animals.

“I was flying, and suddenly I fell because something had hit me. When I looked around, I saw a net on me. I thought and realized I was being snake-napped! I heard three humans talking. “Let’s bring it to the zoo,” said one. “No, let’s kill it and and put it in a museum,” said another. “No, let’s sell it for big bucks and when it dies then we’ll take it and sell it too the museum,” said the third human. Do you think they will buy it?” said the first one. “Of course it’s a snake with wings!” said the last one. I heard them agree. I thought it was the end b-” “W-w-what happened!” said the youngest animal who was listening to the snake tell the story.

“I saw Marco flying by!” I continued remembering my snake friend Marco who had flown by. “I could not talk, otherwise the humans would know I talk. So I slithered through one of the biggest holes I could find. But my wings couldn’t fit and I was too weak because I’d been hurt by the net. But Marco flew by again and glanced down and saw me. Luckily, he got me out but the humans thought he was me so they got him when I was flying away.”

“So it was up to me to find him, I thought. I started flying over their truck carefully. It was hard. When I got a good look inside the truck I saw Marco. He looked mad. I thought he was mad at me, so I had to save him. I saw monkey and baboon in a tree. I had an idea i-” Baboon interrupted.

“yeah, Monkey and I jumped onto the car and-and-”

“Baboon would you let me finish! Yes, I did get you to jump on the windshield as a distraction! So, as I was saying they were the distraction. I lifted the trunk with my wing and freed Marco!”

“He was very happy! He did not want to live in the circus or in a zoo. We were both very happy. Until we saw a helicopter. We thought it was okay until a net landed on the both of us this time!”

“It was tragic. It was the end so we both closed our eyes  But a sound woke us up. A thought came to my head. Baboon is making a distraction noise! He must have seen us fall! We were so lucky the humans had gone to go check it out, it was our chance!”

“We managed to fly with the net on us. When we got far enough away so Monkey’s mom could get the net off of us. We thanked her a lot because she helped a lot. We said goodbye and came to the village to tell you our story” said the winged snake to all the animals.

By:Penguin2

I am in a woodworking class on Saturdays. This week, I had to cut my name in wood with a hand saw. It was very fun. My saw did not work properly so it took me three quarters of the class to do one cut! We might get one day to do anything we want! There were only two girls including me. But we did not talk. It was more just sawing. I have done woodworking with my Grandpa. I made a dollhouse with him. I also am going to make a birdhouse with him. At my farm we built a clubhouse for all my cousins but my Grandpa did most of the work for the clubhouse.  I really do love woodworking.

By:Penguin2

Today it is snowing and it is April! Technically it is hailing. Hail is snow mixed with ice and water. But why does it have to be so cold? I mean I do love snow, but I want it to be warm! A party at my Grandma’s was almost cancelled because it was so slippery and the roads were hard to drive on! It is supposed to rain freezing rain and it will freeze everything! I am even cold inside and my skylight is broken and it might fall into my house! Are you cold? Answer in my comments!

By:Penguin2

I watched the TV show called Victorian Slum House and it is really good. You should watch it. It is about a bunch of modern families who go to a reacreated slum house. They have to live like people did in the late 1800s and the early 1900s! You should watch it because it is fascinating and you get to learn about how people suffered because of poverty. Rich people who run society thought that people in the slums were just lazy. But they weren’t. They probably were just poor because they were from poor families.

By:Penguin2

http://www.metacritic.com/tv/victorian-slum-house

My social justice issue is homelessness. When I walk down the street, I see homeless people everywhere. When I walk by them and don’t give them money, I feel terrible. It is so sad. Did you now that in 2013, there were 5219 homeless people in Toronto according to the Wellesley Institute? Did you know that in just three months 27 homeless people died in Toronto? I feel so privileged, because I have a home and I get to go to school. I can’t imagine what people’s lives are like. It must be very hard living without money or a home.

But homelessness does not just exist in Toronto. It is an issue all around the world and access to housing has been an issue for a long time.  I watched a show called the Victorian Slum House. It is a reality TV show about a group of modern families who go to a recreated slum house and live in the conditions slums faced. The definition of a slum is a very poor neighbourhood. The Victorian slum house was a recreation of an old apartment building called a tenement in the east of London, England set during the late 1800s and the early 1900s. The tenement building where they lived had cracks in the wall, was very crowded and dirty just like the old times. There were newspapers in the windows to stop drafts. There was a dot house where if you couldn’t afford your own room, you’d have to pay five pence to be allowed to lean over a rope to sleep on. For more money there were beds filled with hay. This tells me that people would stay there because they were so desperate for housing that they’d pay to live even there.  This is a photo of the poverty map from the victorian slum house:

Each color is the level of poverty.  Poverty is everywhere so please do try and give money to a homeless person.

By: Penguin2

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I read a book called Mud City and it was really good. This is the third book in a series set in Afghanistan written by Deborah Ellis, who lives in Toronto and has many books. She had an interview on CBC.

The book was good because it made me feel like I was in the protagonist Shauzia’s place. It had a bit of violence, but not as much as violence as there was in the first book in the series titled The Breadwinner. Mud City is about a girl named Shauzia and her dog. Readers met her already in the first book, The Breadwinner, as Parvana’s friend. The book starts when Shauzia is tired of being bossed around by Mrs. Weera in the refugee camp. So she sets off to Peshawar with her dog Jasper. She meets nice people and a few bad people. The story is about her adventures after she leaves the camp. Shauzia travels a lot and she meets a few nice boys, but what she keeps from almost everybody is that she is a girl.

What I did not like about this book is that Shauzia has too pretend to be a boy so she can make money because people will not give women or girls jobs.

I learned to never give up especially when times are hard. I also learned that life can get really hard but you should always try again.

By: Penguin

I read an article about a 169-year-old tree house that used to be a bar but now it is a tourist site. Now if you travel to France, you can visit it. the tree house is outside of Paris, France. It was also a restaurant. it was very popular. Right now it is in the news because people are discovering new places in history, also they are learning about the history of design. I chose to do my journalist article on this because I like architecture, and it interested me. I think they used chestnut wood to build it because the strength of the wood is very strong because it is mainly used for floors, furniture and shingles the tiles that go on a roof.

By:Penguin

Sources:

-http://www.wood-database.com/american-chestnut/

-http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2018/02/treehouse-cabaret-based-on-swiss-family-robinson/

-http://www.plessis-robinson.com/decouvrir-la-ville/histoire-du-plessis-robinson/le-plessis-robinson-au-fil-des-siecles/les-guinguettes-de-robinson.html