Innholdsfortegnelse for 350 i The Week Junior

On 24 August it was 31 years since Ukraine became an independent country. It was also exactly six months since Russia invaded Ukraine. What’s been happening in Ukraine? On 24 February 2022, Russian forces invaded Ukraine. Russia now controls many areas in the east of Ukraine, the part closest to Russia. Ukrainian forces have fought back hard to defend their country. More than 6.6 million refugees from Ukraine have gone to other European countries and thousands of people have been killed. Every day since the invasion began, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has recorded video messages to give people the latest news about the conflict. In a speech on 24 August, Zelensky vowed to fight for Ukraine “until the end”. Why did Russia invade Ukraine? Russian president Vladimir Putin claims that…

WATCHING POKÉMON From 18 to 21 August, Pokémon fans gathered for the Pokémon World Championships in London. It was the first Pokémon World Championships to take place in the UK, and there were prizes on offer worth thousands of pounds. A SEA TURTLE REVIVAL For the first time in 75 years, Kemp’s ridley sea turtles have hatched in the Chandeleur Islands in the US. They are the world’s smallest sea turtle and an endangered species. In 2010, the turtles were badly affected by an oil spill. Scientists working to restore their habitat called the hatching an “exciting discovery”. TRAVELLING BY WHEELIE BIN A couple who pushed each other across Wales in a wheelie bin have raised more than £30,000 for a mental health charity. Craig Holmes and Aimee Bannister travelled…

The Pixar film Lightyear tells the story of Toy Story space ranger Buzz Lightyear, but there’s another character in the cast who really knows about life in space. British astronaut Tim Peake spoke to The Week Junior about his latest mission – as a voice in Lightyear. More at home on a spaceship than in a studio, Peake hadn’t done any acting since school. The astronaut drew on his experience of voicing his book Limitless, which had taught him how to control his voice and tell a story well for an audience. Besides Peake, Lightyear’s cast includes new characters such as fellow space ranger Alisha Hawthorne, to reflect the diversity of today’s space missions. Peake points out that the European Space Agency (ESA) is encouraging women, people of colour and…

A recent study shows that there could be far more types of mammal on Earth than we had thought, and many unidentified species could be right in front of us – we just don’t know it. At the moment there are more than two million species listed. However, scientists believe that between 90% and 99% of all species haven’t yet been identified. In the past, scientists would decide which category an animal belonged to by studying its physical features. However, this method is not always reliable because it depends on the scientist’s own ideas and point of view. Research published in New Scientist magazine shows that groups of animals can be divided into more species than we had thought. Professor Bryan Carstens, of Ohio State University in the US, looked…

Dublin Zoo in Ireland recently welcomed the birth of an okapi, a large-hooved mammal. Okapis are related to giraffes but they look more like a deer and have black and white stripes on their back legs, a bit like a zebra. The okapi is listed as endangered. ● LIFESPAN: In captivity, 30 years. ● HABITAT: Rainforests in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa. ● DIET: Buds, fruit, leaves and twigs and sometimes bat poo for nutrients. ● FUN FACT: It is one of the few mammals in the world that can lick its own ears, thanks to its incredibly long tongue.…

The idea that robots could one day be our friends has been around for a long time but until now they have always seemed more machine than person. A new study by a researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology has found that in fact it’s possible for robots to fool us, they just have to be less than perfect. Inspired by the Turing Test (see panel), Agnieszka Wykowska came up with an experiment using a child-sized humanoid robot called iCub. Sitting in front of a screen, the people in the test were asked to press a button when a green box appeared on the screen, whereas iCub responded to red boxes. Wykowska programmed the robot to take different lengths of time to respond, just like a person would. Afterwards,…

Laura Wolvaardt Playing for the Northern Superchargers in their win against Manchester Originals in The Hundred, she scored a fantastic 90 from 49 balls. Charlton Athletic Women In the opening game of the FA Women’s Championship football competition, Charlton beat Southampton 2-0. Harry Kane Kane scored for Tottenham in their 1-0 win against Wolves. It was his 250th goal for the club and he’s now the fourth-highest scorer in Premier League history. Oleksandr Usyk The boxer from Ukraine beat Britain’s Anthony Joshua to keep his WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles. The contest was in Saudi Arabia.…

by Catherine Doyle (Bloomsbury Children’s) Amy and her brother Liam are spending the summer holidays at their gran’s house, in the damp, foggy Irish countryside. With nothing but stony mountains and old fairytale books to entertain her, Amy is bored at first. Then, on an early morning walk, Amy and Liam follow a hawk to a waterfall and see the bird disappear inside it. They’ve discovered an entrance to Tír na nÓg, the land of eternal youth. The mystical kingdom is a dangerous place, and almost as soon as they step through the waterfall, Liam is captured by headless horsemen. He is taken to the evil magician ruler Tarlock, who has a sinister plan. Can Amy save her brother, stop Tarlock, and free Tír na nÓg? This enthralling fantasy, inspired…

Have you seen pieces of litter around where you live? Dropping litter doesn’t look nice; it can harm the environment and it is actually against the law. Litter means all sorts of things that have been dropped in a public space, including bottles, cans, cigarette ends, crisp packets and sweet wrappers. Litter collects on streets and paths, in bushes, parks, rivers and trees. It can take hundreds of years to decompose (slowly break down and disappear) and can damage the soil. Crisps take a few minutes to eat but the packet takes up to 80 years to decompose. Wildlife suffers because of litter. Animals can get tangled in plastic bags, injured by sharp cans or glass or they might even accidentally eat bits of plastic. Litter is blown by the…

Word fill in All these words fit in the grid. Can you work out where each word goes to complete it? 3 letters BUG TAG 4 letters IPAD LINK SPAM 5 letters SHARE VIRUS YAHOO 6 letters FRIEND GOOGLE 7 letters GRAPHIC MALWARE 8 letters DATABASE FACEBOOK 9 letters BROADBAND MESSENGER Word jumble Rearrange the scrambled letters to form four words connected with airports. Wordsearch Can you find all of the words listed here? They are hidden horizontally, vertically or diagonally and may read forwards or backwards. BELL BICYCLE BRAKE CHAIN DYNAMO FRAME GEAR GLOVES HANDLEBARS HELMET LANE MUDGUARD PUNCTURE RACER REFLECTOR SADDLE SIGNAL SPOKES TYRE WHEEL Number tower Place a number in every circle to complete the tower. The value in each circle is the sum of the numbers…

Lots of individuals and organisations across the UK have been helping people who have left Ukraine because of the war. A charity called Love Bristol organised a week-long summer camp for a group of eight to 16-year-old refugees from countries affected by war. The camp was at Croft Farm Water Park in Gloucestershire, England, and activities included raft-building and kayaking. One of the guests, 15-year-old Vladelna, told the BBC, “I really love it. I’ve met a lot of people and I’m just so happy that I have this moment in my life. I think I’ll have many, many memories.”…

A bright and colourful bug, the green tiger beetle is also a ferocious and agile predator, most likely to be seen between April and September when the Sun is out. It has a large, shiny green body with cream spots, purple-bronze legs and goggle eyes. Found all over the UK, this mini-beast favours grasslands, heath, sand dunes and abandoned corners of cities – anywhere with bare batches of sun-baked earth. It eats ants, caterpillars and spiders, and is a fast and nimble hunter, running on its long legs and grabbing its prey in its ferociously strong jaws. If disturbed, it will often fly a short distance before running off. The larvae (younger versions) of the green tiger beetle hatch in burrows, and wait for prey to fall in so they…

“Most mammals at our zoos give birth by themselves, just like they would in the wild. We make sure they have quiet, private spaces to do this. Many of our animals – including tree anteaters, sloths, okapis and our elephants at Whipsnade Zoo – are trained so that we can do ultrasound scans to check the baby. It is wonderful to see a baby anteater stick out its long tongue while still in its mum’s tummy.” 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…

Recent research has shown that, millions of years ago, snakes had legs. Allen Pan – a YouTuber, engineer and snake lover – felt bad that evolution had taken snakes’ legs away, so he built a set of robot legs that they could use to get around without slithering. Pan visited pet shops to study the movement of lizards. His invention involves a snake lying in a long, open tube that has a pair of robot legs at each end, controlled by remote. The snake was able to leave but it seemed to be happy to stretch its new legs. Enjoy these stories? Find more in this month’s The Week Junior Science+Nature magazine sciencenature.theweekjunior.co.uk…

Many of you will be starting a new school this September, which can mean making your own way there for the first time. You may feel nervous or excited about travelling to a new place on your own, but it’s also an opportunity to become more confident and independent. Plan your route Travelling to a new school can mean a longer journey and catching a bus or train by yourself. Planning a route and working out the easiest and safest way to get there will help you feel more prepared and confident. For example, if you’re going to walk or cycle to your new school, think about the safest places to cross the road. If you’re travelling by bus or train, find the nearest stop or station and work out…

Kirby’s Dream Buffet is Nintendo’s newest game based on its cute and squishy character called Kirby. With its knockabout challenges and races, Kirby’s Dream Buffet is kind of a cross between Fall Guys and the Mario Kart games, with four-player races and power-ups that you can collect to knock your opponents off course. The game sees Kirby and his bouncy-ball friends rolling down a series of dessert-themed racing tracks, collecting – and eating – strawberries and trying to finish first. The more strawberries your character can collect and eat, the bigger you grow and the faster you go. There are also mini-games where you collect strawberries while bumping your rivals out of the way. As you play, you can unlock new items like costumes and colours for your character. The…

Rain or sunshine? Rain! Favourite place on Earth? A wind-swept beach in Connemara, on the west coast of Ireland. Favourite fairytale? The Little Mermaid. What inspired you to write this story? The Celtic myths my dad used to read to me when I was a little girl, particularly the legend of Tír na nÓg, a magical hidden kingdom where time stands still. Join our reading challenge theweekjunior.co.uk/summerofreading…

Where can I litter pick? Litter picking around where you live makes a big difference to your community. If you visit a park or a beach for the day, why not take your picker, gloves and a rubbish bag with you so you can have a quick clean-up there? Take sanitiser so you can clean your hands before and after you do it. What do I do with the litter? When you’ve collected a bag of waste from a litter pick, take it home with you. With adult help, sort it into piles of recyclable and non-recyclable items. These can then be put into your own bins. Use a litter picker and gloves to do this and never touch waste with your bare hands.…

“Splooting” squirrels keep cool People in New York, US, were alarmed when they spotted squirrels sprawled out in parks around the city. However, it’s all perfectly natural. According to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, the animals are simply trying to cool down – by “splooting”. Splooting is when squirrels stretch out their tummies on shady areas of ground to cool down. Squirrels are not the only species who sploot to survive the heat. Chipmunks, hedgehogs and pet cats and dogs have learned to keep cool this way too. Twelve sets of twins start school At the start of the school year, there are always lots of new faces and names for teachers to remember. At one primary school in Inverclyde, Scotland, however, teachers have an even…

Hedgehogs need to travel to get food, water and build nests so the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species have teamed up to run Hedgehog Street – a competition challenging you to help hedgehogs get around more easily. Take part by building “hedgehog highways” – small gaps in garden fences to help hedgehogs travel between gardens. Connect as many gardens as possible, photograph your handiwork and submit it online. The street with the most connected gardens will be crowned Britain’s Biggest Hedgehog Street. You’ll also win hedgehog-themed prizes. To enter, visit tinyurl.com/TWJ-hedgehogst before 10 September. GET INVOLVED Email your news, views and pictures to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk…

Teacher’s name: Brian School: William Patten Primary School, London “Mr Brian is our school football coach, he is always supportive and helpful. Sometimes he organises football tournaments with other schools to help us become better football players. His lessons are lots of fun, we really enjoy his teaching.” Muren and Muyi If we pick your teacher as Teacher of the Week, we’ll send your school three free issues of The Week Junior. Send your nominations, along with a picture of your teacher and your school’s full name and address, to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk…

If you’ve enjoyed this issue of The Week Junior, why not listen to our podcast, The Week Junior Show by scanning the QR code below. This week, we’ll be talking about jokes and a snake trying out new legs. Please include your full name and address so that we can send you a Roving Reporter badge if your contribution makes it onto the page. We will only use the details you provide to arrange delivery of badges, and we will not share them with anyone else. By submitting your reports and pictures, you give consent to The Week Junior to print them in the magazine and digital editions. We reserve the right to edit contributions for length, accuracy and suitability. Ensure you have your parent/guardian’s permission before sending anything to…

Children’s author and illustrator Lauren Child thinks modern society doesn’t allow enough time for idleness. She believes the world is full of distractions, which affect people’s creativity. “Ideas are only formed when you have time to be idle, to think alone and be bored,” she says. Child wants schools to have lessons in idleness. Studies agree with her and have found that minds need peace, quiet and, yes, boredom to get creative. By the age of 11, 90% of UK children have a phone – often with access to fun and distracting apps or the internet. Ofcom, an organisation that regulates communication services, has found that people aged eight to 11 spend an average of four and a half hours a day in front of a screen. So what do…

Across England and Wales, students are returning to school after the summer holidays for the start of a school year. Lots will be changing schools too, and looking forward to meeting different people and taking on some unfamiliar subjects. Before term starts, however, young people will be trying on their new school uniforms. Why do most school students wear a uniform, though, and when did it start? The Week Junior explores the story of school wear. A school uniform is a set of clothes agreed by a school that every pupil has to wear. Around 90% of schools in England have a uniform. They can be very formal and strict – with ties, blazers and coats – but some are more casual, featuring polo shirts and sweatshirts. Whatever the style,…

The European Championships ended on 21 August. The host country, Germany, finished top of the medal table, and Team GB was in second place. The competition in Munich started on 11 August and 4,700 athletes from 50 European nations took part. There were nine sports in the contest: athletics, beach volleyball, canoe sprint, cycling, gymnastics, rowing, sport climbing, table tennis and triathlon (running, cycling, swimming). Germany won 60 medals, with 26 golds, 20 silvers and 14 bronzes. Team GB also won 60 medals, made up of 24 golds, 19 silvers and 17 bronzes. Gymnast Joe Fraser was Britain’s most successful athlete at the Championships. He was one of five athletes to win three gold medals – in the all-round, parallel bars and team gymnastics events. Zharnel Hughes also had a…

Over the final weekend of August, Europe’s largest South Asian music festival, the Sandwell and Birmingham Mela, will take place in the West Midlands, England. The event started more than 10 years ago and is a celebration of South Asian culture and creativity. It is held at Victoria Park in Smethwick and attracts tens of thousands of visitors. The West Midlands has a big South Asian community – South Asia is a region that includes Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Music is the main focus of the event. Performances this year will feature modern British Asian music, as well as folk and classical musicians from around the world. In previous years, stars from Bollywood (India’s film industry) have performed. As well as listening to music, visitors can enjoy…

The Accidental Diary of BUG: Sister Act by Jen Carney (Puffin Books) In the third hilarious instalment of Billie Upton Green’s diaries, there’s an exciting new addition to the Upton Green family. However, Billie soon discovers that having a new baby sister isn’t going to be nearly as straightforward as she thought. Supernan’s Day Out by Phil Earle. Illustrated by Steve May (Barrington Stoke) When Stanley joins his nan and the other residents of her care home for a day at the seaside, the last thing he expects are plane crashes, robberies and fires. Luckily an unexpected superhero is on hand to save the day – but who could it be? Quick and easy to read, this is a funny and delightful family story. The Mystery of the Missing Mum…

Name: Pranit Crater Lake By Jennifer Killick “Witty, suspenseful, thrilling. A hilarious and riveting novel that sees a group of 11-year-olds try to survive a hostile residential centre and an evil deputy head.” YOUR TURN Email your book review to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk. If your review is printed in the magazine you’ll receive a Roving Reporter badge. Tell us what you liked about the book and why you’d recommend it to others, and don’t forget to include your name and address.* *If you are the competition winner, we will only use the details you provide to contact you and arrange delivery of your competition prize. Further details about how we manage the data you provide can be found at www.futureplc.com/privacy-policy…

“Hedgehogs – why can’t they just share the hedge?” This won the best joke of the Edinburgh Fringe a few years ago, by a comedian called Dan Antopolski. We’ve been enjoying this year’s winner too (p3) by Masai Graham. I love jokes. They pick you up and plop you down in a totally new place in an instant. They use words so cleverly that you really have to think, just like Charlie’s clock joke on this page. They’re like a little workout for your imagination. We chuckle at your jokes every week, so please keep sending us your favourites. The way a joke sparks the imagination and sends you to another place makes it a bit like a book. I love that feeling of opening to the first page and…

Follow The Week Junior on PopJam @TheWeekJunior. You can download the PopJam app from the App Store or Google Play. Last week, we asked you if workers should strike. You said… “Yes, they should have the right to fight for their salaries and better work conditions.” “Overall no because loads of people can’t get to work or get home because of train strikes.” “If they want to, yes.” “No, because it’s used for selfishness normally and often, companies can’t do what strikers ask.” Tell us what you think of this week’s issue and we’ll print some of the best comments here.…

1 What was the Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s funniest joke about? ◻ a) Pasta ◻ b) Cereal ◻ c) Bread 2 True or false? A medieval map has revealed that a mythical lost land off the coast of Scotland could be real. ◻ True ◻ False 3 Which country is phasing out battery-farmed eggs? 4 What percentage of UK children have a phone by age 11? ◻ a) 80% ◻ b) 90% ◻ c) 100% 5 Who holds the world record for running the fastest marathon in space? 6 What has caused more than a third of the world’s sharks and rays to become extinct? 7 What is the most common school uniform colour in the UK? ◻ a) Dark brown ◻ b) Navy blue ◻ c) Deep red 8 True…