Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 137 i The Week Junior

22 July 1940 The Home Guard is born Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. By 1940, there were serious fears that Germany might invade the UK. The Local Defence Volunteers (LDV), made up of ordinary citizens, was set up to defend Britain against attacks. On 22 July 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill changed the name of the LDV to the Home Guard, and gave them uniforms and weapons. Although Germany never did invade Britain, the Home Guard was widely praised for its contribution during the war.…

Now that you’ve read a bit more about it, tell us what you think by voting in our poll at theweekjunior.co.uk/polls . Vote YES if you think there should be homework in the holidays, or NO if you don’t. We’ll publish the results next week. The aim of the Big debate page is to present two sides of an issue fairly and objectively, in order to stimulate discussion and allow our readers to make up their minds. The views on the page do not reflect those of The Week Junior, and the page is not funded by third parties. The page is created in association with the English-Speaking Union, an educational charity helping young people discover their voice and realise their full potential. For more information, please…

Gemma Metcalfe ZSL London Zoo keeper No, the okapi is the only living relative of the giraffe and a totally separate species to the zebra. They are found in the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it is too wet and muggy for zebras. Although both are striped, an okapi’s stripes mimic light coming through trees, providing great camouflage. A zebra’s stripes confuse predators when they are in large groups. Do you love animals? ZSL London Zoo’s Junior Zoo Academy is a great way to learn about creatures from all over the world. Find out more at zsl.org/experiences…

Your skin contains millions of sensory receptors that allow your body to sense and respond to the environment around you. These sensory receptors are made up of nerves that detect changes in pressure, temperature, texture, pain and movement and send information from your body to the sensory cortex in the brain. Here the information is processed and the brain identifies what you feel. The most sensitive areas of skin include lips, tongue and fingertips. This is because the nerves in these parts of the body are closer to the surface of your skin. The skin contains around 45 miles of nerves, which, if laid out in a straight line, would stretch from London to Brighton.…

Angelique Kerber and Novak Djokovic won the women’s and men’s tennis titles at Wimbledon. Kerber won the tournament for the first time on 14 July, and Djokovic lifted his fourth Wimbledon trophy the following day. Kerber, from Germany, beat the favourite, Serena Williams, in the final. Williams was playing in her fourth competition since having a baby in September 2017, and was hoping to become the first mother to win Wimbledon since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980. Her loss means that Kerber has now won three Grand Slam titles. Wimbledon, the US Open, French Open and Australian Open, are the four biggest annual tournaments and are called Grand Slams. Kerber won the Australian and French titles in 2016. Djokovic, from Serbia, now has 13 Grand Slam titles in total. He…

The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Raúf (Orion Children’s Books) There used to be an empty chair at the back of the class, but now the new boy, Ahmet, sits there. At first, the other children in his class think Ahmet is strange, but they find out that he is a refugee from Syria. Soon they set out on a bold adventure that sees them breaking all the rules in order to help Ahmet and his family. This heartwarming and funny story shines a light on the refugee crisis. Based on the author’s real-life experience of helping refugee families, it also contains some useful notes at the back about refugees, and will help answer some of the questions you might have. Fans of Wonder will…

How did you become a curator? I started in exhibitions with Body Worlds [a human anatomy event] in 2008. I enjoyed it so much that I decided my career would be all about educating and entertaining people by producing and touring events, exhibitions and festivals all over the world. What would you say is the scariest creature living in the sea? Tiger sharks can grow more than four metres long, weigh a tonne and will eat virtually anything that comes their way. What’s your favourite part of the exhibition? The larger sea creatures like the whale shark, great white shark and the minke whale. These specimens fascinate me, as we rarely come face to face with these majestic creatures. If you could be any sea creature, what would it be…

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy PS4 / XBox One / Switch The first Crash Bandicoot videogame was released in 1996 for the Sony PlayStation and it was an instant hit. Now, the orange marsupial is back with a brand new game, based on the three original 1990s releases: Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. You have to jump, spin and run your way through levels, collecting coins and masks and smashing boxes along the way. Collect three masks and you become “invisible” for a short time. If you’ve ever played Crash Bandicoot before, then this game will help you relive your favourite Crash moments. However, if you haven’t played it before, you will enjoy discovering its many characters, challenges and secret levels.…

The summer holidays are here so what better time to discover a new book or series? Books can whisk you away on exciting adventures, transport you to new worlds and open your eyes to different points of view. Equally importantly, they can shorten plane journeys, make train trips whizz by and stop a rainy day from being a complete wash-out. When I was a child, my family always used to go on holiday to Cornwall, where the weather can be pretty unpredictable. Beach days were interspersed with book-and-hot-chocolate days and, surprisingly, these were just as enjoyable as trips out. You have six weeks to experiment, so try to resist the temptation to re-read Harry Potter for the 15th time, and instead branch out with something new. Or maybe you’re someone…

The Sun is shining, school is out and that can only mean one thing… the summer holidays are here! So how are you going to spend the next few weeks? If you’re in need of some inspiration, look no further than this week’s issue – it’s packed with things to read, make, see and do. Look out for information about this year’s summer reading challenge on page 24. While you are relaxing, The Week Junior team will be busier than ever. Not only will we be creating your weekly magazine, we’ll also be working on this year’s annual AND our brand new magazine, Science+Nature . And, as if that wasn’t enough, we’ll be appearing at festivals around the UK too. On 21 and…

Teacher’s name: Mr Smith School: Hampton Hill Junior School, Middlesex “My favourite teacher comes from New Zealand and started teaching us in Term 2. He is ever so funny and makes us all laugh like crazy. Mr Smith got us interested in journalism and we create our class weekly magazine. It is important to add that he is great at drawing and his favourite thing to draw is Pokémon. Mr Smith is very kind. It will be sad to see him go and I wish him good luck!” Julia, Year 4 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…

Campaigners have criticised ITV for showing too many advertisements for bookmakers during its coverage of the World Cup. Bookmakers are companies that accept and pay out money for betting. Betting is gambling money on the outcome of an event before it happens – such as predicting the result of a football match – with the hope of winning some money. However people can become addicted to gambling and it is possible to lose a lot of money. During the tournament, almost 90 minutes of ITV screentime was used to promote bookmakers. GambleAware, a charity that studies the effects of gambling, said these adverts could be harmful to young people by encouraging them to bet.…

A HOMELESS PERSON When Ryan Davidson, who was homeless, asked a stranger for money, he never expected to be given a job by a local businessman. On 10 July, Davidson turned up for his first day at James Minns’ paint-coating company, where he now works. DOING SOMETHING SELFLESS When Adisynn Kiker from Texas, US, recently turned eight, she didn’t ask for presents. Instead, Kiker asked her friends and family for pet food that she could donate to her local animal shelter.. Her whole town got behind her birthday wish, and in the end, more than 5,000 kilograms of supplies, including dog and cat food was given to the shelter. PRINCE WILLIAM On 12 July, Prince William scored three goals in a charity polo match in Cambridge, helping his team win…

Yes – it will help you do well at school Brains, particularly young ones, need to be regularly stimulated to prevent knowledge being lost. The results of an important study in the US showed that during their 12-week summer break, the average US pupil loses 2.6 months’ worth of maths ability – meaning by the time classes resume, they will be around 10 weeks behind where they were at the start of the summer. Holiday homework makes sure everyone returns to school with at least the same level of knowledge as they had when they left. A few hours of homework won’t get in the way of having fun, and by studying for short stints, you’ll demonstrate great self-motivation. Lots of school work is interesting, so there’s no reason summer…

Until recently Gareth Southgate was better known not for being England’s men’s football team manager, but as the England player who missed a penalty during a semi-final shoot-out. Southgate’s football career has had ups and downs. As a football-mad schoolboy he was released by Southampton FC and rejected by a series of other clubs. In 1988, he joined the youth team at Crystal Palace. He struggled to make the first team but captained the reserves, playing more than 100 games for them. “I learned a lot,” said Southgate. In 1990, Southgate got his chance in Crystal Palace’s senior team. In 1993, he was made club captain at 23 years old, and in 1995, he played his first game for England. Southgate’s first career-defining moment came during the semi-final of the…

A study of reefs surrounding islands in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean has uncovered a new and unexpected threat to the world’s corals: rats… and not enough bird poo. Black rats, which travelled the world by sneaking onto ships during the 18th and 19th centuries, live on about two thirds of the Chagos Archipelago islands, whereas the other islands have none. The Chagos’s human inhabitants left in the 1960s, so the rats have had the islands to themselves for the past 40 years, and the rat-free islands have been left to nature. This situation, according to a team from Lancaster University in Lancashire, makes them ideal for study. The difference is clear: islands with rats are empty of seabirds; islands without rats have vast colonies of seabirds. Rats…

Northern police dogs Crime-fighting canines working in Northumbria’s Police Dog Section have been given special shoes to protect their paws from any sharp objects or dangerous chemicals while on duty. They were given training to prepare them for wearing their new boots. Hawaiian monk seals Results from tests on two female Hawaiian monk seals found dead on a beach on the Hawaiian island of Oahu have worried scientists because the seals died of a disease. There are only 1,300 Hawaiian monk seals left, so any illness could be bad news for the breeding population.…

Meet Ingentia prima (which means first giant), a new species of dinosaur found in Argentina. Ingentia prima was a four-legged dinosaur that lived in the late Triassic period (between 252 million and 201 million years ago). It is part of a newly categorised group of dinosaurs called lessemsaurids. These were the first dinos to grow really big, reaching 10 metres long and weighing around 10 tonnes. While lessemsaurids weren’t as large as the colossal sauropods like Diplodocus and Apatosaurus that lived in the Jurassic period (between 201 million and 145 million years ago), they show that dinos could grow to a vast size 30 million years before previously thought. Just like the sauropods that evolved in the Jurassic era, lessemsaurids had some key characteristics that allowed them to grow gigantic.…

Millions of disposable plastic cups are thrown away every year and many end up in the oceans where they harm marine life. A company called Loliware has come up with a tasty solution: edible cups. Once you’ve finished your drink, you gobble up the cup. Loliware cups are made from seaweed, natural sweeteners and colours taken from fruit and vegetables. They are 100% plastic-free and come in five different flavours including tart cherry and vanilla bean. The company is also creating edible straws that look and feel like real plastic. The straws will hold their shape in any drink for 24 hours before they start to break down.…

GB junior athletics team They picked up seven medals at the World Junior Championships in Finland. The men’s 4 x 100 metre relay team won bronze in the final event on 15 July. GB men’s quadruple sculls The team of Tom Barras, John Collins, Graeme Thomas and Jonny Walton took gold at the World Rowing Cup in Switzerland. US athletics team The US won the first ever Athletics World Cup event, at London Stadium on 15 July. Great Britain finished in third place, and Poland were second. Tahnee Seagrave The British cyclist won round five of the Mountain Bike World Cup in Andorra. Britain’s Rachel Atherton came second.…

What did you want to be when you were little? I changed my mind daily between wanting to be a safari-park owner (mainly because I wanted to live in Africa and own at least two elephants and at least seven zebras), an astronaut, and in my must-be-realistic days, an architect. If you could only keep five possessions what would they be? Gosh that’s hard. Precious albums/photos of my loved ones, books (I’m hoping a stack of my favourite books will count as one!), my diaries, my writing books and my favourite inkwell. What is a skill you would u like to learn, and why? I would love to be able to speak more languages – like Hangul or French or Italian or Hindi – so that I could not only…

Where do I start? If you have friends who are keen readers, then ask their advice on what to read. Booksellers and librarians (at school or your local library) are a wonderful source of information. Some schools produce lists of reading suggestions. Where can I find help and advice online? Booktrust, the UK’s largest children’s reading charity, has lots of information and brilliant suggestions (look at booktrust.org.uk/books). Equally helpful are blogs run by young readers, such as RoboEpicGuy – a blog for eight to 13-year-olds (roboepicguy.com). Which books are best? There is no such thing as a bad book. Find something that matches your interests or captures your attention. If fiction isn’t your thing, try non-fiction, or something more visual instead. Lots of libraries have graphic novels and manga books.…

The Martin Roberts Foundation is a charity that promotes child protection and safety through author Martin Roberts’s Sadsville book. The story is centred around a boy named Herman, who uses his problem-solving skills to work out why people are sad. The foundation hopes that reading this book will encourage children to speak up about their own problems and get help if it’s needed. For more information, go to martinrobertsfoundation.org…

It’s the summer holidays, so it’s the perfect time to grab a pen and paper, and let your imagination run wild. Every fortnight, the My Summer Rant & Rave writing competition releases summer-themed activities for primary school children to complete. The four topics include writing about how your school year has been, your favourite place, plastic in the environment and what you got up to in your summer holidays. Submit work by 7 September. To find out about each writing activity, visit tinyurl.com/TWJ-rantandrave…

Follow The Week Junior on Popjam@TheWeekJunior. You can download the free Popjam app from the App Store or Google Play. The UK celebrated Japanese culture last weekend at Hyper Japan Festival. You said… “This all looks so cool! Wish I was there!” @pinkunihorse8 “I love Japanese comics called manga! My favourite is One Piece!” @saphire_snowflakes “Wow that must have taken a lot of time and effort to set up that shop! I’ve always dreamed of owning a shop! Great work!” @fluufycat2008 One of this month’s sporting winners was sprinter Dina Asher-Smith. You said... “Wow she is amazing” @fantasticgymnastic0 “Unbelievable” @violet_sunset3209 Tell us what you think of this week’s issue. We’ll give you a shout-out if your post is printed here. The Week Junior is delivered in a recyclable LDPE plastic…

Cube king sets one-hand record The fastest time to complete a Rubik’s Cube is 4.22 seconds, but there are plenty of other records involving the cube that are up for grabs. One man in India has managed to break a Guinness World Record by completing 2,474 Rubik’s Cubes in 24 hours – using just one hand. It helps that Krishna Sai can solve the puzzle in 10 seconds. He spent three months preparing for the competition and is now waiting for his feat to be officially recognised. Stork runs up huge phone bill A white stork called Kajtka has left a Polish wildlife charity with a £2,000 phone bill. The charity attached the phone to the stork to track it on its journey to Africa. However, after the stork flew…

On 12 July, Donald Trump arrived in the UK for his first official visit to the country as US president. He was greeted by Prime Minister Theresa May, the Queen, and plenty of protesters. What happened? On the day Trump arrived, he had dinner with May and 150 guests at Blenheim Palace, in Oxfordshire. He was welcomed by marching bands from the Scots, Irish and Welsh guards. That evening, a newspaper revealed that in an interview given before their meeting, Trump had criticised May over the way she is dealing with Brexit (when Britain leaves the European Union in March 2019) and said that May’s plans would make a trade deal between the UK and US unlikely. What was the reaction? Trump called the interview “fake news”. He said that…

● Summer holidays are under way across the UK, and some pupils will have taken home a list of assignments to complete. ● The Government used to decide how much homework pupils should do each week in England, with a maximum recommended amount of two and a half hours a night for 14 to 16-year-olds, but now it’s up to headteachers to decide. They also decide whether to set homework during the holidays – some schools do, and some don’t. ● A global study of 15-year-olds found that British students spent an average of 4.9 hours per week on homework during term time, less than France, Italy, Spain and the US.…

Knapdale Forest, which covers much of the Knapdale region in Argyll and Bute, is known for its ruins including Castle Dounie and a number of abandoned villages. It is home to a wide variety of wildlife. From the Crinan Canal, visitors have the chance to spot red and roe deer, golden eagles and even minke whales out to sea. There’s also a walk called the Scottish Beaver Trail, where visitors can explore the forest keeping an eye out for signs of the local beavers. Find out more at tinyurl.com/TWJ-knapdale…

Skin may seem as if it is just the wrapping paper on the outside of your body – there to make you look presentable and stop your internal organs falling out – but it plays a vital role in your health. Skin prevents harmful germs and chemicals entering your body and, if the weather gets too hot or too cold, it helps you maintain a constant body temperature. Skin also nourishes you by converting sunlight into vitamin D, which helps your body absorb the calcium that is essential for your bones to grow. Without skin you would not be able to move freely, nor feel or touch things and experience the world around you. If you had no skin, you would evaporate because all the fluids in your body would…

Largest land animal A titanosaur called Patagotitan mayorum is thoughtt to be the largestt land animal everr to roam the planet. The long-necked creature lived around 102 million years ago, was more than 36 metres long and weighed a mighty 69 tonnes. That’s the same as about 12 adult, African elephants – today’s largest land animal. Largest flying animal Quetzalcoatlus dominated the skies between 144 and 66 million years ago. It was as tall as a giraffe and had a wingspan of up to 10.9 metres – about the same length as a double-decker bus. Largest underwater animal Measuring up to 30 metres long and weighing a whopping 150 tonnes, the blue whale is not only the largest sea creature alive today, it is also the largest animal that has…

Making a splash Swimmers take part in an annual crossing of Lake Zurich, Switzerland. Colourful clouds Hundreds of participants enjoy the Colour Run in northern Poland. A world of art The Luminarium, an interactive artwork, in Harrogate, Yorkshire. Up in the air Acrobats performing in Yantai, eastern China. Lunar landscape A model of the Moon hangs over Beijing’s Olympic pool. Panda party Meng Meng marks her fifth birthday in Berlin, Germany with a special cake.…

Bonkers about Beetles by Owen Davey (Flying Eye Books) Did you know that there are roughly 400,000 different species of beetle? Or that they make up about 25% of all animals on our planet? There’s all kinds of information to be found in this stunning book, which is packed with brilliant pictures featuring everything from the iridescent scarab beetle to the mighty Goliath beetle. Bee Boy: Clash of the Killer Queens by Tony De Saulles (Oxford University Press) Melvin Meadly is half-bee, half-boy. As a bee, he is ready to defend his hive, taking on enemies including killer wasps, terrifying hawkmoths and deadly queen bees, but as a boy, can he protect his bees (and himself) against Nasty Norman Crudwell? Illustrated in buzzy black and yellow, this is an entertaining…

The world’s oceans are full of creatures big and small. From microscopic plankton to the blue whale – the largest animal ever – the sea is home to some truly remarkable wildlife. Now, in an exciting nationwide tour, you can get up close to 50 animals, including the great white shark, to learn all about how they live beneath the sea. The Sea Creatures exhibition, which is travelling around the UK, has cut the preserved bodies of real-life specimens in half so that you can see their insides and discover how these sea creatures have adapted to survive and thrive in their watery home. You don’t have to worry, though, the show isn’t scary or gory, and all of the animals on display died of natural causes; none were harmed.…

Trism II iOS (£2.99) Apple’s App Store is celebrating its 10th birthday this month, and a puzzle game called Trism was one of its first big hits back in 2008. A decade later, Trism is finally getting a sequel. Don’t worry if you never played the first game – it’s easy to pick up. Trism II is like a lot of other mobile puzzlers: you match coloured shapes – triangles in this instance – to make them disappear. As with games like Candy Crush Saga, each level sets you a challenge: for example, scoring a certain number of points in 20 moves, or defeating the game’s villainous Hexels characters by matching triangles wherever they’re lurking on the screen. The big difference to Candy Crush Saga is that after paying £2.99…

“I entered a bird art competition for the RSPB; there were three categories (drawings, paintings and pictures) and each was separated by year groups. I won for painting in the Year 7 division and, due to the quality of the picture, I was the only one to get a book. The names of the other winners from Year 7 at Kings’ School, Winchester, were Florence, Evie and Sasha. I did the painting when I was bored and I saw a small bird in the garden and I decided to recreate it. In the end it took me only about 15 minutes. I would like to thank my art teachers, Mrs Johnston and Mrs Churcher, for helping me to enter the competition and I thank the RSPB a lot too. ”…

“I read my Week Junior while I waited for my dad to do the British Heart Foundation Pier to Pier Swim in Bournemouth.” Rosie, Year 4 “My sister and I recently went litter picking. We couldn’t believe how much rubbish we found when we looked carefully at the side of the roads. We found plastic, drinks cans, food wrappers and even bits of car tyre! We felt pleased to have tidied up our lanes and plan to do it again very soon.” Oliver, Year 3, and Megan, Year 5…

1 Where will the UK’s first spaceport be built? a) Scotland b) Wales c) England 2 True or false? Donald Trump had sticky toffee pudding for dessert during his dinner with Theresa May. 3 What kind of aircraft was skilfully landed on the side of a mountain to complete a daring rescue? 4 Pupils in China spend how many hours per day doing homework on average? a) Two hours b) Three hours c) Four hours 5 True or false? Gareth Southgate, the current England manager, scored the winning penalty as a player against Germany in the Euro 1996 semi-final. 6 What sort of special kit have police dogs in Northumbria been given? a) Special shoes b) Special hats c) Special whistles 7 What is the outer layer of the skin…