Innholdsfortegnelse for 273 i The Week Junior

A PERFECT FURRY FRIEND Billy-Jo Howe wrote to TV show Blue Peter about her hamster, Treacle. Howe praised her “perfect” pet’s friendly temperament and shared how Treacle brought her happiness. As a result Treacle received a Blue Peter award and a letter. AN OUTSTANDING ARTIST Inspired by Captain Sir Tom Moore and his grandfather, 14-year-old Jack Berry from Sunderland, England, decided to draw planes during the pandemic. Berry’s drawings have been published in a book to raise money for charities. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has presented him with a special award. REDISCOVERING A BEE SPECIES A rare bee that was thought to be extinct has been seen in Australia for the first time in 98 years. The last recorded sighting of a cloaked bee was in 1923, until a researcher…

A painting of a Bible scene in a church in Ledbury, England, may be the work of Titian, a famous 16th century Italian painter. Ronald Moore, an art historian, has examined The Last Supper and said that one of Jesus’s followers has the face of Titian. He also spotted a hidden signature that reads “TITIANVS”. Moore has connected the painting to a letter written in 1775 by its owner, John Skippe. He wrote that he had bought “a well-preserved picture by Titian”, from an Italian family. Skippe’s family gave the painting to the church around 100 years ago.…

When Siobhan Duncan was very young, her coder father bought her a computer. By experimenting, she learnt how to communicate with the computer through the language of code. “Learning to code is like learning a human language,” she tells The Week Junior. Now aged 29, Duncan is the lead developer at Robotical, a robotics company based in Edinburgh. “I look after the software (the information used by a computer) side of things,” she says. She works on Robotical’s creation “Marty”, a robot whose purpose is to teach young people about programming. Duncan’s other great passion is music. “When I play music, I get a similar feeling to engineering (the science of engines, machines and structures),” she says. Like coding, music is a type of language used to communicate with the…

Released orangutans Ten orangutans have been returned to the wild. The endangered animals – five males, three females and two babies – were all being kept in captivity. They were taken by helicopter and released to start a new life deep in the forest on the Indonesian portion of Borneo island. Oil-covered beaches An oil spill from a ship in the Mediterranean Sea has washed up on beaches in Israel and Lebanon. Thousands of volunteers gathered to remove the pollution from the beaches and try to clean up oil-covered turtles. Nobody knows which ship is responsible for the spill.…

Ever thought about training to be a tiger dentist or a crisp inspector? As National Careers Week – a time to help young people find out about which jobs they might like – comes to a close on 5 March, here’s a rundown of some weird and wonderful careers that you’ve probably never considered. Cryptozoologist Does the Loch Ness Monster really exist? What about Bigfoot? Experts say they don’t but cryptozoologists would love to prove them wrong. A cryptozoologist is someone who is interested in cryptids – animals whose existence hasn’t been confirmed but that people claim to have seen. Cryptozoologists often go on expeditions to areas where there have been sightings. Once there, the scientists will gather evidence and try to spot a cryptid in the wild. To become…

Wales rugby union team They beat England 40-24 in the Six Nations to secure the Triple Crown trophy. This is awarded if Wales, England, Scotland or Ireland manage to win all three games against the others. Jill Scott Footballer Scott played her 150th England game in a 6-0 win over Northern Ireland. Annika Sorenstam The famous Swedish golfer made a surprise return to competition in the US after retiring 13 years ago. England women’s cricket team They won the first two one-day international matches against New Zealand. The series finished 2-1 after New Zealand won the third match.…

MeeToo is a multi-award winning app where you can talk about difficult things with other people who are the same age as you. The app is always anonymous, so no one will know that it’s you, but it is safe because every post and reply is checked by a real person before it is published. You can talk about anything, from anxiety about going back to school, to problems with friends or family. You can also use your own experiences to help others. Research shows that helping other people is one of the best ways to make yourself feel better, too. MeeToo is suitable for anyone aged 11 and older.…

The Simpsons recasts Dr Hibbert The Simpsons TV show has cast black actor Kevin Michael Richardson to be the new voice of the character Dr Hibbert. The character has been voiced by the white actor Harry Shearer since the show began in 1990. In June 2020, the show’s producers said that they would no longer use white actors to voice non-white characters. Last year, Hank Azaria, a white man, stood down from voicing the Indian-American character Apu. He also voiced the black character Carl, who is now played by black actor Alex Désert. Speaking to BBC News, Richardson revealed that he had turned down the role of Dr Hibbert when he was first offered it a year ago. However, he ended up changing his mind and says he wants…

The Violet Veil Mysteries: A Case of Grave Danger by Sophie Cleverly. Illustrated by Hannah Peck (HarperCollins Children’s Books) Violet Veil hopes to become her father’s apprentice in the family business, Veil & Sons Undertakers. When she meets the mysterious Oliver wandering the graveyard, she soon finds herself investigating a murder. This is a fun ghostly spin on the detective story. Adventures on Trains: Murder on the Safari Star by M.G. Leonard & Sam Sedgman. Illustrated by Elisa Paganelli (Macmillan Children’s Books) In the latest book in the Adventures on Trains series, a passenger is found dead aboard the luxurious steam train The Safari Star as it travels through South Africa. Was it a terrible accident or a murder? It’s up to young detective Hal and his new friend Winston…

How much meat does your family eat in a typical week? Have a think back over the past seven days and you could find that most days you ate a meal or snack that contained meat. Eating less of foods such as beef, chicken and pork each week can be good for you and for the environment in lots of ways. Tucking into vegetables gives your body important vitamins and minerals that help makee it strong and healthy. Tasty veggies such as aubergine, cabbage b , carrots, onions, potatoes and sweetcorn can be cooked in different ways to be part of a meal. Vegetables and fruits including apples, bananas, pears and raspberries also contain lots of fibre, which helps keep your digestive system working well. Try using different types of…

House rolls down the road A 139-year-old house in San Francisco, US, has been moved to a new location on the back of a lorry. The two-storey Victorian house was driven half a mile to its new address, at a speed of less than one mile per hour. Thousands of people lined the pavements to watch the house on wheels and took photos as it passed. The trickiest part of the journey was near the beginning, where there was a downhill section. The traditional house was moved to make way for a new block of flats to be built on the site. The cost of moving the house is thought to be around £280,000. Muted professor gives lecture A university professor in Singapore gave an online two-hour lecture to his…

Follow The Week Junior on PopJam@TheWeekJunior. You can download the PopJam app from the App Store or Google Play. Last week’s Big Debate was on whether country life is better than city living. You said... “Country life as it’s quiet, there’s less cars and more nature.” “It’s better to have a mix of both than to be biased. City living is great because you can go out more, but the country is less polluted and more open.” “For me, I prefer the country life because it is less busy and I sometimes feel claustrophobic.” Tell us what you think of this week’s issue and we’ll print some of the best comments here.…

“They’re fighting like cats and dogs” is a common phrase, often used when two people are having a fierce argument. It comes from the belief that cats and dogs are natural enemies. This apparent rivalry has inspired a similar divide among humans, with many people describing themselves as either a “cat person” or a “dog person”. In 2020, a survey by YouGov found that nearly 50% of people in the UK considered themselves a dog person, compared to just over 30% who preferred cats. Now a new study, published earlier this month in Japan, has reignited the debate over which animal is better. It showed that cats were far less likely than dogs to ignore people who had been mean to their owners. So what do you think? Are dogs…

Private gardens and window boxes are the biggest source of food for insects such as bees and wasps in cities and towns, according to a study led by the University of Bristol. Results showed that an average garden can produce about one third of a teaspoon of a sugary liquid called nectar each day – enough to feed thousands of bees. Spring is a great time to plant flowers – you can find seeds online or buy them from a garden centre, but look out for packets with a bee symbol, which means that they make good food for bees, wasps and butterflies. You can plant them straight into a garden or in a window box on a windowsill, and sooner than you think, species such as cornflowers, love-in-a-mist, poppies…

Have you ever wondered why you feel worn out after an online assembly or classroom session, when you might not feel the same if the meeting was being held with everyone in the same room? This effect, nicknamed “Zoom fatigue”, is felt not just by students but by grown-ups as well, who are getting worn out by video meetings as they work from home during the coronavirus pandemic. Now, a US scientist says he has identified four key reasons why video calls can be so exhausting. Jeremy Bailenson, from Stanford University in California, has spent more than 20 years looking at how different forms of online communication can affect people. He says the first reason video calls can feel tough is because people are constantly making eye contact with each…

Forest Green Rovers play at the Innocent New Lawn Stadium and proudly say they are “the world’s greenest football club”. Dale Vince took charge in 2010, with plans for the club to be environmentally friendly. There are solar panels on the roof to produce electricity; rain is collected to water the organic (no chemicals are used) pitch; and vegan food is served to players and fans. There are plans to move to a new stadium made from wood, set in parkland with 500 trees.…

Anew theatre show is set to place audience members within one of the most famous plays ever written. William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a magical tale of fairies and fools, set in a forest during one night. Dream, a new show inspired by the play, allows viewers to step into that world and influence the action. The online performance of Dream combines the latest technology with a traditional live theatre show, and can be watched from a phone, tablet or computer. The action takes place between dusk and dawn, as storm clouds hover on the horizon. Audience and actors meet in a virtual forest, under a canopy of trees lit by twinkling fireflies. Viewers take on the role of fireflies, lighting up the forest and helping to influence…

The Dog House 8pm on 11 March, Channel 4 Last year, there was a 650% increase in online searches for puppies to buy, and sadly some of those dogs have now been abandoned. The team at Wood Green: The Animals Charity try to find some of them new owners who are looking for a dog to love. For the Love of Britain 7.30pm on 9 March, ITV This episode visits Wales, where presenters including Liz Bonnin and Ben Fogle take a look at extreme sports, the lakes of Snowdonia and rare birds spotted on the River Wye.…

Horrible Histories: Up in the Air by Terry Deary and Martin Brown (Scholastic UK) In this new book in the Horrible Histories series you’ll discover the strange but true story of human flight. Packed with incredible facts and quirky real-life stories, this is history with all the “nasty bits” left in – such as the prisoners sent into the skies on deadly “killer kites”; the brave but foolhardy adventurers who attempted to take to the air on home-made wings; and the stuntmen whose daring feats ended in disaster. You’ll also learn about some of the early heroes of flight, such as the Wright Brothers and Amelia Earhart. Ideal for anyone interested in history, planes or inventions, this book has all the humour you’d expect from Horrible Histories, as well…

What does having “5 a day” mean? The “5 a day” campaign is supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. It advises eating five or more portions of different types of fruit and vegetables a day. You could add fruit to breakfast cereal, say, or chop red peppers onto pasta. What is the Meat Free Monday idea? Lots of families around the world take part in this. It’s a suggestion to make every Monday a meat-free meal day, which is good for health and for the environment. Go to meatfreemondays.com for more information on the plan.…

1 Where is Myanmar? a) East Africa b) Southeast Asia c) South America a □ b □ c □ 2 True or false? The UK has borrowed £355 billion in the past year. 3 Before its recent rediscovery, when was the black-browed babbler last spotted? 4 How many pet dogs were there in the UK in 2020? a) 8.1 million b) 9.1 million c) 10.1 million a □ b □ c □ 5 True or false? The UK has the highest number of women working in engineering in Europe. 6 What food does a koala usually eat? 7 What is a cryptozoologist? a) Someone who creates animal crosswords b) Someone who breaks out of zoos to test security c) Someone who studies and searches for legendary animals to see if…

• There has been a big rise in pet ownership in the UK during the pandemic. Between March and September 2020, 5.7 million new pets were bought in the UK. Around 2.2 million of these new pets were dogs. • Animal charity the RSPCA says that since the first lockdown there has been a 114% increase in the number of people on its website looking for cats to adopt. • A new study by researchers in Japan has found that cats, unlike dogs, don’t avoid strangers who have behaved badly towards their owners.…

Amy McKillop Zookeeper at ZSL London Zoo The white colour of some tigers is a genetic trait – a feature inherited from the tiger’s parents or grandparents. It’s similar to traits humans receive from our parents that determine features such as hair colour. In the same way that I have red hair and my sister has brown hair, some tigers have white fur and others have the more familiar orange. Enjoy unlimited visits to ZSL London and Whipsnade Zoos, plus a host of other benefits with ZSL Membership. Find out more at zsl.org/membership/zsl-membership…

In addition to identifying the causes of Zoom fatigue, Bailenson has solutions to keep yourself happy and energised during video calls. To avoid feeling like people are invading your space, he suggests keeping your video screen smaller than your full monitor, and if possible, sitting back to keep a bit of distance. He also recommends turning off the self-view option, so you only see the other callers and not yourself. Bailenson’s final suggestion is to take a break from video calls when possible. Instead, try using audio on its own, and turn away from the screen so you’re not constantly seeing other people’s videos.…

Forest Green Rovers is a football club with big plans for the future. This season they hope to win League Two, the fourth-highest division in England, for the first time and get promoted to League One. Rovers are also playing their part in looking after the planet’s future by wearing a special new kit made from waste coffee and recycled plastic. The Gloucestershire club has been testing new, environmentally friendly kit materials. It says the mix of old coffee and plastic makes a football shirt that is light, breathable and strong. Importantly, it reuses products that would otherwise be wasted. Rovers wore the clever kit for the first time during their 3-0 win against Colchester United on 27 February. The team is currently second in League Two. “The shirts are…

Going back to school often makes children feel anxious. That’s a fact. Suzi Godson, co-founder of the MeeToo app, told The Week Junior, “We always see a huge spike in posts about anxiety before school opens, but going back after months of lockdown is an even bigger challenge than usual.” As well as worrying about catching up with lessons, you may be anxious about being tested for Covid-19, wearing masks, social distancing, being split up from friends and having staggered lunch breaks. You may also be concerned about new strains of the virus and uncertainty about the future. Here are some tips for managing your anxiety from the experts at MeeToo. Focus on what you can control When things are uncertain, focusing on the things that you can control will…

Creative writing Learn how to write your own plays or improve your creative writing through the RSC’s online resources at tinyurl.com/TWJplays. You’ll find lots of ideas on how to create good plots, believable characters and convincing dialogue (words said by characters). Family fun There’s a fun online activity pack based on Shakespeare’s play The Winter’s Tale. Following the play’s famous stage direction “Exit, pursued by a bear”, have a go at making your own creature, or create a soundscape at tinyurl.com/TWJwinter Behind the scenes The RSC’s YouTube channel has videos exploring the world behind its productions, including The Boy in the Dress, a musical based on David Walliams’s book and Shakespeare sonnets read aloud by actors. Head to tinyurl.com/TWJvideos to explore.…

A sabre-toothed tiger in your living room is a terrifying prospect. However, there’s no need to panic just yet; the one from a new app called Museum Alive is entirely virtual. Museum Alive started life as a 3D film created for London’s Natural History Museum, which starred naturalist Sir David Attenborough. It has already been turned into a book, and now it’s an iPhone app. Sadly, it’s not yet available for Android phones. The app features three of the museum’s most famous fossils – and the prehistoric creatures from which they came. Smilodon, also known as the sabre-toothed tiger, is one of them. The others are Opabinia, a five-eyed, fish-like creature and Dimorphoson, a flying dinosaur. Within the app, you choose one of the creatures and then find a flat…

What is your favourite period of history to write about? I like to write about “people” whatever period of history they are from – the mad, the bad, the sad. The past seems to have been a terrible place to live and the tales make me glad I grew up in the 1950s. TV or books? TV. My background is in acting and I enjoy watching and performing theatre, TV and film stories. Who is your favourite monarch? None. The real heroes of our past are the people who did the work and struggled to survive and make the world what it is. Not monarchs. My favourite people are Mr and Mrs Peasant. If you were to leave your home for four days, which three things would you take with…

This craft is perfect for Mother’s Day (14 March this year) but is just as suitable for someone else special in your life. The pop-up design works for any special day, but if you want to put it in an envelope to post, make sure the letters fit within the card’s edges. What you need • A4 coloured card • A pencil • A ruler • S issors • Felt-tip pens • A glue stick 1 Fold card in half. Mark the middle on the folded edge then draw 2 x 2cm lines at right angles, 2cm apart. 2 Draw 4 x 4cm lines at right angles. Make them 3cm and 5cm from the edges, 2cm apart. 3 Cut along the lines to make three strips. Lift and…

Editor’s note One of the joys of this job is that there is never a dull week – there’s far more news happening than we could ever fit into the magazine. Whether it’s huge international events or the efforts of brave individuals, there’s always so much going on. Our three smaller stories on page 5 this week are a good example of how the news is made everywhere – sometimes even on your own doorstep. It could be beautiful blossom trees being planted nearby, or discovering a famous painting in a parish church. If you love reading our news pages, you might want to turn to page 31. There you’ll find a blank page, ready to be transformed into your very own news story that might be published in The…