The Denver Post • 1

CK Reporter of the WeekVan Brown, Littleton

July 18, 2017

Demaryius Thomas has been a receiver for the Denver Broncos for the past eight years, and there’s one day that Thomas looks forward to

every year, and that is his Demaryius Thomas Football Procamp, which he’s done for the past fi ve.

His camp is for kids in grades one through eight and for all skill levels.

Thomas went to Georgia Tech University where he majored in management. He also played football, baseball and basketball while in college, and had run

track in high school. He told me that his favorite football player when

he was young was Jerry Rice, a Hall of Fame wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers.

I asked him what kids can get out of sports and this camp, even if they don’t become professional athletes.

Thomas said, “A lot of fun with kids they never had fun with, new faces, familiar faces.”

Then he added that “they get away from their

parents, nothing against the parents! But it’s mainly a lot of fun.”

I noticed that he participated in the drills with the kids, who seemed to be having fun.

When I asked how much longer he planned to play in the NFL, he said “I have no number on it yet,” and explained “I feel good right now so hopefully I can probably get seven to eight more (years) maybe.

“That’s the goal but you never know, anything can happen in football.”

He tries not to worry about injuries while playing, however, because it would mess up how he plays.

As for the current discussion over whether Trevor Siemian or Paxton Lynch will be behind center this fall, Thomas said that, even after eight years of practice, it’s still kind of hard for him to change how he plays every time they change quarterbacks, for example how he runs, blocks, and catches.

The AFC West Division includes the Oakland Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, Kansas City Chiefs, and the Denver Broncos. In Thomas’s opinion, the Broncos are the hardest team to play against in this division.

I found Demaryius Thomas very nice and easy to talk to.

He was also great with the kids at the camp, playing and joking with them.

The camp is one of the things that he looks forward to most, he told me, other than playing on Thursdays, Sundays and Mondays against opponents.

After watching the camp, I would defi nitely recommend it and, in fact, I really want to do it myself!

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Kid camp a highlight for Thomas

Denver Bronco Demaryius Thomas switches to defense and prepares to jam an intense wide receiver at the line of scrimmage. photo/Christopher Smit

By Christopher Smit ,10, a CK Reporter from Boulder

When I asked how much longer he plannedto play in the NFL, he said “I have no number

on it yet,” and explained “I feel good right nowso hopefully I can probably get seven

to eight more (years) maybe.

“Jacky Ha Ha: My Life is a Joke” is about a hi-larious twelve year old girl who’s playing spy when she watches a tourist try to steal some

fudge. It’s the last day of school when Ms. O’Mara walks in,

talking about letting her class try out for a Shakespear-ean comedy: A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

She tells the class about some of the characters, the fairies, Puck, and Mustardseed among them.

When the teacher describes Puck, Jacqueline Hart (the “Jacky Ha Ha” of this series) knows that she wanted to play the role, that she is a showbiz girl who could make anyone laugh, if her stutter stays out of the way.

Later, when school is out, and tens of thousands of tourists flood the beachside town, Jacky’s summer fun plans die like a swatted fly.

Her parents announced that they are going to a 6 week training program to be seasonal police officers (summer cops) and that they will not be raking in a paycheck.

If the summer goes well, they could have full-time professional police officer jobs, but in the meantime, Jacky and her sisters need to get jobs.

Since Jacky is good at getting people’s attention, she works at a boardwalk balloon pop booth.

Soon the play tryouts start, and Jacky’s teacher has her nephew staying with her.

She asks Jacky and her friends to take the 16-year-old boy out on a tour of the area, and here’s where Jacky starts becoming a spy.

Schuyler, Ms. O’Mara’s nephew, goes with them to the fudge shop first.

While one of Jacky’s friends hits it off with Vicky, one of Jacky’s sisters, Schuyler pockets some fudge. (It’s 1991, so stores don’t have any of those fancy scanners, and people won’t be caught stealing.)

Luckily, Jacky gets him to put it back. Crime averted. I wish I could tell you more, but I have already re-

vealed quite a lot. This is a hilarious book that made me laugh every

few minutes, and I loved it. I didn’t ask to review the first book in this series, and

now I’m slapping myself saying “Why didn’t you read that one?”

I loved it so much that I looked to see if a third one was coming soon.

I recommend this book for all ages, because every-body deserves a lot of laughs.

Humor from Patterson, Grabenstein strikes again

By Jack Vanourek,11, a CK Reporter from Littleton

The Denver Post • 2

When something just a little larger than Saturn is being discussed, the word “small” doesn’t often

come into the conversation.But astronomers at the University of Cambridge in

England have discovered a star that is just slightly larger than Saturn and about 80 percent the size of Jupiter.

That’s the smallest star ever measured, and very likely as small as a gaseous body could get and still have the kind of atomic fusion that makes it a star.

“Had this star formed with only a slightly lower mass, the fusion reaction of hydrogen in its core could not be sustained, and the star would instead have transformed into a brown dwarf,” explained the

lead researcher on the team.In fact, the tiny star was discovered by astronomers

who were searching for exoplanets, and thought at fi rst perhaps they’d found one.

The star is visible from our Southern Hemisphere, if you have a large enough telescope, but it’s not easy to see unless you look very carefully at just the right place at just the right time.

It is one part of a binary star, which is a pair of stars that revolve around each other.

In this case, the other star is a lot larger and brighter, which helped to hide its partner, but researchers said small, cooler stars might have planets that could be Earth-like.

Smallest star ever, and probably smallest possible, discovered

When governments debate over coal-fi red energy plants versus nuclear gen-erators, and discuss how much each

nation’s carbon footprint should be reduced, it can make climate change seem so huge that individuals are helpless to make much of a dif-ference.

However, there are things that each of us can do that will help preserve the planet much more than simply recycling plastic bags.

Not that recycling doesn’t matter.Keeping our landfi lls from overfl owing mat-

ters, and keeping plastic out of the oceans mat-ters, and there are things that can be made from used plastic and other recycled materials that help reduce our use of raw materials.

But those are babysteps compared to the things recommended by a group of scientists from Sweden and Canada, who made four rec-ommendations of things that regular people can do to make a big diff erence.

One issue is meat, and the problem for the environment there is that it takes a lot of energy to raise cattle, pigs, chickens and other animals, compared to how much energy it takes to get the same amount of nutrition by raising crops.

When you add up what it takes to raise, process and transport meat to market, switching to a vegan diet could save more than three quarters of a ton of carbon dioxide every year. That’s eight times more than you save by switching to energy-effi cient light bulbs.

A second recommendation is to cut back on your local travel. That doesn’t mean stay home so much as it means using public transportation or walking or taking a bike instead of using the car.

And the third is also travel-related: Skipping a trip across the Atlantic and back would save 1.6 tons of carbon dioxide. Someone else might sit in that airplane seat, but at least it wouldn’t be your fault that the energy had been spent on that trip.

The fourth energy-saving tip isn’t an issue CK readers have to deal with quite yet, but the researchers suggest keeping family size small.

Not only does that mean fewer energy users in your household now, but fewer kids growing up to use energy as adults with their own families.

These four tips might not seem practical. For instance, if you live out on the plains or up in the mountains, you need a car.

And going vegan might seem a little extreme, though it’s not impossible.Meanwhile, if you have family in another country, going to visit them is impor-

tant; that’s not like deciding to go to Yellowstone Park instead of going to Paris.The important thing, the researchers said, is to think about the choices you make.

Do you absolutely have to have meat at every meal? Do you really need a ride to baseball practice six blocks away?

You may not have a choice about nuclear energy generators, but you do have a choice about Big Macs, and a chance to make a diff erence in the world.

Environmental choices individuals can make

photo/Univ of Cambridge

Rules: Every row across, every column down and each of the six smaller boxes must contain numerals 1,2,3,4,5 and 6, one time and one time only.

The solution to this week’s puzzle is on Page 3.

On this date in 1976 at the Montreal Olympics, 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci became the fi rst person to ever get a perfect score in the sport, then got six more, so our answers will begin with “T” for “Ten.”

1. Country whose capital is Ankara

2. Isoceles, scalene and right are all types of this geometric shape

3. Author Samuel Langhorne Clemens wrote under this pen name.

4. A ballerina’s dress

5. Ring-shaped pasta stuff ed with cheese or meat

6. You can’t really get warts from handling this amphibian, but you might get a foul-tasting liquid on your hand that it uses for protection.

7. It’s what the T in ATM stands for. It’s also a county in Colorado.

8. This easy-to-peel orange citrus fruit is named for a city in Morocco.

9. A fi re truck that carries water or a ship that carries oil

10. Domestic cat that combines black, white and orange colors in its fur(answers on Page Three)

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A grill full of burgers might be a good choice for a cook-out, but not such a good choice for the planet. (Photo/ Jerry Stratton)

Big Nate

The Denver Post • 3

is produced by Denver Post Educational Services

Executive Editor: Dana Plewkadplewka@denverpost.com

CK Editor: Mike Petersoncoloradokidseditor@gmail.com

We welcome your comments.

For tools to extend the learning in this feature, look under “Youth Content” at:

www.ColoradoNIE.com

eEditions of the Post arefree of charge for classroom use.Contact us for information on all

our programs.

Denver Post Educational Services101 W. Colfax Ave.Denver CO 80202

(303) 954-3974(800) 336-7678

Stories without bylines were written by the editor.

(see Page Three)

10 right - Wow!

7 right - Great!

5 right - Good

3 right - See you next time!

1. Turkey 2. triangle 3. (Mark) Twain 4. tutu 5. tortellini 6. toad 7. Teller 8. tangerine (from “Tangiers”) 9. tanker 10. tortoiseshell

Hot Links to Cool Sites!

NASA’s Space Placehttp://tinyurl.com/ckspace

NIE Special Reporthttp://tinyurl.com/ckniereport

Headline Geographyhttp://tinyurl.com/ckgeography

Pulse of the Planethttp://tinyurl.com/ckpulseplanet

How to become a NextGen Reporter!http://tinyurl.com/colokidsreporter

To read the sources for these storiesA Tiny Star

Personal Energy Choices

go to http://www.tinyurl.com/ckstorylinks

Chapter Three: To Follow the Gun

(Luke Van Gelder has volunteered to come along as a wagoner with the New York militia as they prepare to face the British army under General Burgoyne.)

“Start filling tote sacks with oats and put them in the wagon,” Father

said, as the militiamen left the clearing and headed for the next cabin. “Start with half a dozen. That’ll leave plenty for the cow. You’ll need to gather up some leather straps and the harness tools, too.”

“I’ll get your kit together inside,” Luke’s mother said. “An extra pair of clothes so you’ll have something dry to change into.” She looked at what he had on. “I wish I had time to wash those.”

“My Sunday clothes?” Luke asked, and his father laughed.“We’ll still be out there Sunday, and a few Sundays after,” he said. “How many pigs did you

see?”“Three. I don’t know what happened to the fourth,” Luke said. “He wasn’t just lagging

behind.”“The way things are, we’ll be lucky to get any of them for ourselves,” he said. “I just hope

the sow is smart enough to live through it all. What the Tories don’t steal, our own side will.”“I’m coming, too,” Sylvie said suddenly. Her father started to protest, but she added. “If Luke is 16, that makes me 18. I’m old

enough to cook and mend and wash for you.”Then, to Sylvie’s surprise, her mother spoke up to agree with her: “The girl is right, John.

She’s old enough even at an honest 16. Goodness knows, there are girls her age married with their own homes, and you’ll need someone to do for you out there.”

John looked at his daughter for a moment. “All right,” he agreed, finally, “but not now, not this trip. Later, when we march off with the

army. This will just be a work detail.”“And you want to sit in wet clothes and eat cold food?” his wife asked, to which he

laughed.“All right, Sylvie,” he said. “Gather up what you need, but don’t bring the whole kitchen.

You’ll have to make do with what travels fast and what your mother can spare.”He turned back to Luke. “Better bring that tarpaulin that’s up in the hayloft,” he said. “We’ll

need to make a lean-to for Her Ladyship.”“I should think so,” his wife said. “One of you at least should have the sense to come in out

of the rain.”“You young folks get to work, then,” John said. “Your grandfather and I are going to go rob

a few gears out of the sawmill and tuck them away up in the woods. The Tories may come steal our pigs, but they’ll saw no lumber at our mill.”

It was barely dawn the next morning when John, Luke and Sylvie prepared to lead the horses and wagon off down the Fort Ann road.

Their mother, Opa and the two little ones, Gabriel and Beatrix, stood in the dooryard as they loaded their personal gear into the cart. John reached up and stretched the tarpaulin over the oats, the freshly sharpened axes and his gun, to protect them from the light, misty rain that drifted down.

“We’ll try to come back before we march off for the long haul,” he promised, “but, if we can’t, you’ll get word from the other families.”

He turned to his father-in-law, “And if things become dangerous, don’t you wait around, either. If you need to go down to your brother’s in Schenecdaty, just go. Leave a note if you can, but we’ll know where you’ve gone if we find an empty house.”

Luke clicked with his tongue and David and Jonathan leaned into their harness and started the wagon forward.

John turned back for one more word.“And remember what the lieutenant said about going into the woods alone,” he warned.

“Stay close. Burgoyne’s Hurons won’t likely bother you around the house, but a lone person in the woods might be too much of a temptation.”

They walked along beside the wagon until the house was out of sight, and then Sylvie spoke up.

“They’re in more danger than we are, aren’t they?” she asked. “We’ll be surrounded by militia. They’re back there all alone.”

“Your grandfather is very wise,” her father assured her. “He kept that little house safe through the last war, and it was no more pleasant than this one. If he needs to take everyone away, he’ll do that. If not, we’ll see them all back there when it’s over.”

The way dipped down, and Luke started to guide the horses to the right, but, even without an order, David edged over onto the corduroy, the long line of narrow logs that made a wooden road across the mud, just wide enough for the horses and the cart’s two wheels.

John and Sylvie dropped back to walk behind the wagon, but Luke had to walk alongside the horses, the mud sucking at his feet with every step.

“We’ll be taking this up on the way back,” he called to his father.“Every stick of it,” John agreed. “Let Burgoyne drag his cannons through the muck and see

how much they weigh then!”Luke pointed at a little rill of water that ran down the hillside toward them. “I’ll bet there

are beaver dams up these streams,” he said. “We can cut into them and let their water flow down here, too.”

His father laughed. “I don’t think war is supposed to be as much fun as you’re planning to have,” he answered back.

Text copyright 2017, Mike Peterson – Illustration copyright 2017 Christopher Baldwin

For a teaching guide, go to http://tinyurl.com/ckserial

The Path to Freedom

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