Archive for June, 2013

Dogs that Serve our Country

Thursday, June 27th, 2013

Some of the “Can Dos” see Coach Campbell going into the Can Do Center …

Hey Coach, what’s up?

Oh not much, had a good weekend hiking in the woods with Delmar. He is learning how to stay close, and return on command.

Return on command?

Yeah, when I want him to come back to me, to be close, I give him his whistle, like a bugle call, and he comes running back to me.

What’s a bugle call?

dogs

In the old days of the Army, way before there was radio, commands, or instructions, orders were given over a large area by using a bugle, like a trumpet. Certain songs meant certain things.

Remember Coach, when we talked about dogs helping us out, and you suggested that we see if there were any dogs helping people out  in our neighborhood? Well, a couple of weekends ago there was a parade near where I live, and there were lots of men and women in uniforms, and there were even dogs in vests, but with military stuff on it. They were in the parade too.

It sounds like you saw a Memorial Day parade to honor all those who served in the military, but did not come home.

 So, does that mean there were dogs that went to war too? Dogs were in the Army?

You bet they can be in the Army, and the Marines. Dogs do many jobs for the military, and have been doing them since World War II.

 Wow, what kind of jobs did they do?

dogs

Well, many of the dogs worked as Sentry Dogs, which means they stood guard and gave the soldiers warnings by  growling or barking if they detected something that wasn’t right. These dogs were especially helpful at night, and helped keep the soldier safe from sneak attacks.

dogs

There were also Scout and Patrol Dogs. These dogs worked with soldiers when out on patrol, and were trained to keep very quiet and alert the soldiers to danger with motions instead of barks.

Then there were dogs trained to sniff out explosives, like the dogs you see today at airports, and walking with the police. These dogs sniff out bombs, and mines, and other bad things meant to hurt us.

Sounds like they are saving lives before any one is in danger.

That is a great way to put it. They are rescuing us early, before the bad thing happens.

They can also help the soldiers after all the bad things have happened. Just being there, with then, all the time, is comforting. Then coming back home, after being gone for so long, is not easy. These same service dogs help the soldier and marine to transition back to our civilian world, and in some cases, recovering from wounds suffered overseas in battle.

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Post by: Ned Campbell, a teacher and coach in Brooklyn, NY

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Just for Fun

Monday, June 17th, 2013

It was raining…again.  No fun! What a way to start summer vacation. It had been raining for three days.

Some of the “Can Dos ” were over at Orrie’s having a play date. They had played computer games, watched TV, had lunch and now they were bored. Grandpa John came in and suggested that they do something old fashioned, like solve some mazes just for fun.

The “Can Dos” were will to try anything different than what they had been doing for the past few days. So Grandpa John gave each of them the following maze to work on.

Why don’t you try ? Just print the maze out and see how you do. Have fun!

school-maze

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Some of the “Can Do” Kids Take a Writing Class

Tuesday, June 11th, 2013

Wendy FrontWendy is the “Can Do Kid who loves to write. She writes every day. That is why Wendy is so good at writing.

Most of the other “Can Do” Kids do well with writing but…Bobby, Eulyn, Maria and Yundi, Wendy’s brother, need to get better at writing. When the community center announced that there would be a beginner writing class for young kids, in the early grades of elementary school, their moms enrolled them in the class.

Maria and Eulyn were willing to go every Saturday morning for 4 weeks. They knew they needed help with writing.

However, Bobby and Yundi were really unhappy about having to take the class. After all, it was baseball season, and they were on the team. How would the team get along without them?

Eulyn, Maria, Yundi and Bobby were thrilled to discover that their teacher was Miss Pat! Miss Pat was concerned that the “Can Dos” were having problems with identifying the main idea in stories. So she started the class with the following story to help them recognize the main idea . Read the story and see if you can pick out the main idea of the story

The Story:

Mark trys to be friendes with Jim, the new boi in school. First, Mark smils at Jim in the lunch room. Mark has a dog. Mark plaes with Jim after lunch.. Finalliy, he shares a seat with Jim on the school bus.

When the  “Can Dos” finished picking out the main idea of the story, Miss Pat gave them directions for doing other things with the story. Just follow the directions and correct the errors in each sentence.

Directions:

Underline sentences that have details that say more about the main idea.

Cross out the sentence that does not belong to the main idea.

Circle the words that are misspelled or need to begin with a capital letter.

Why not get busy writing an ending for the story?

Be sure and have your parent or older brother or sister check your work to see how you did.

Have fun!

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