Innholdsfortegnelse for 270 i The Week Junior

15 February 1965 Canada unfurls the maple leaf flag Fifty-six years ago, Canada’s new flag was raised for the first time at a ceremony in the capital, Ottawa. The red and white of the flag reflect Canada’s historic ties with England and France, and the maple leaf represents maple trees, found in eastern Canada. The previous flag was the Red Ensign, which featured the Union Jack. Today, Canada is part of the Commonwealth (a group of 54 countries that are mostly former territories of the British Empire) and Queen Elizabeth II is its head of state.…

More than 60 years after leaving school, Bob Bryce has become one of the UK’s oldest apprentices (people learning how to do a job while at work). The 76-year-old is a train ticket inspector in England but is doing a level 3 supervisor apprenticeship (the equivalent of an A level) to improve his skills. During the pandemic, Bryce has been studying online, which he said was a challenge at first. Bryce, who has one exam left, said he loves working on the railways. “It’s the best job I’ve ever had, which is why I want to keep working as long as possible,” he said. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn new things at my age.”…

Parties are great and despite the lockdown restrictions, they are still an essential part of family life. Unfortunately, along with the fun and excitement, they also create a lot of avoidable waste. Here are a few tips to help you reduce the amount of stuff that gets thrown away. When it comes to wrapping gifts, fabrics make a great alternative to disposable wrapping paper. You can also use old magazines – past copies of The Week Junior are perfect. Why not try making gifts this year, or regifting (passing on a loved item that you’ve outgrown) rather than buying new? Ditch plastic balloons for reusable decorations. You can also check out eco-friendly decoration and party kits, like those offered by The Conscious Party Box and The Pretty Little Party Shop.…

Tom Gates Pichon says, “Tom is basically me. He’s developed into his own personality as I’ve written him, but he started off like I was. Very enthusiastic, terrible at spelling, just gets distracted very easily.” Marcus Marcus is a character who annoys Tom all the time. “I really like writing for Marcus,” Pichon says. “He is really annoying but everyone gets on. Marcus never misses an opportunity to have a dig.” Dude3 This is Tom’s favourite band, and in the first book he hopes to see them in concert. Pichon’s previous job was designing album covers, so she wanted music in the series. “I put music and lyrics in right at the beginning,” she says. Mr Fullerman Tom’s teacher has big owl eyes and seems to see and hear everything.…

The largest ever archaeological investigation of Caernarfon Castle, in north Wales, has uncovered exciting new evidence about the history of the site. Archaeologists are experts who dig up and study ancient man-made objects to help us understand history. Caernarfon Castle is a medieval fortress that was built by King Edward I in 1283. Caernarfon is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which means it is considered to be of “outstanding universal value to humanity” by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). In January 2019, archaeologists from Salford University, in England, began a year-long dig at the castle. They have been studying what they unearthed and have now published their findings. Objects brought to light include Roman pottery from the first century, as well as pieces of tile and…

Princess Mononoke This Japanese animated film, released in 1997, is about a prince who sets off in search of a cure for a lethal curse that’s been put on him. He travels with Princess Mononoke through mining towns and forests, and battles enemies. Available on Netflix. Monsters vs. Aliens On her wedding day, a woman is struck by a meteorite and turned into a giant. She is then used by the US government to help a team of monsters tackle an invasion by an alien mastermind who wants to take over the Earth. Available on Amazon Prime. Four Kids and It In this film based on a book published in 1902, a group of four young people meet a mythical sand creature who has the power to grant wishes. However,…

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Anna Brett. Illustrated by Nick Hayes (Laurence King) You’ve probably heard of the scientist Charles Darwin – but do you know exactly why his groundbreaking book On the Origin of Species is so famous and important? Part of the Words that Changed the World series, this illustrated book sets out to explain. It’s beautifully designed, with lots of lovely artwork, and shows how the theory of evolution changed our understanding of the human race – and our place within the animal kingdom. There’s plenty of information about Darwin himself, his life-changing voyage aboard the Beagle, and the theory of evolution he developed. It’s a great read for aspiring scientists, naturalists, or anyone interested in the big ideas that have changed…

How can I watch street dancers in action? The United Dance Organisation runs big competitions around the world. Visit udostreetdance.com to find out more and to see events planned for this year. Go to tinyurl. com/TWJ-streetdance to watch highlights from the British Street Dance Championships. What should I wear? Street dancing can be done wearing trainers and in any comfortable gear: tracksuits, leggings, baggy T-shirts or jumpers. Your clothes need to let you move freely. Street dancing has a cool style – some dancers wear hats, jackets or even matching outfits if they are performing in a pair or team.…

Design your ultimate cycling jersey Looking for something fun and creative to do this half-term? Our friends at Cyclist magazine are offering you the chance to win an incredible bundle of cycling goodies, including a new bike. All they want you to do is design your ultimate cycling jersey by 24 February. The crazier the design, the better! For more details on how to enter, go to cyclist.co.uk/cyclistkidsjersey…

Teacher’s name: Mrs Elsworth School: Our Lady Queen of Martyrs RC primary school, York “Mrs Elsworth is so kind and supportive. Mrs Elsworth introduced Fun Fridays, in which all lessons are made fun. In the afternoon, music is on and we are all allowed to have a sitting down disco whilst doing our work. If we ask questions on Google Classroom, she responds immediately, and she always puts positive and constructive feedback on our work.” Emilia If we pick your teacher as Teacher of the Week, we’ll sendyourschoolthreefreeissuesof 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…

This new year ushers in the Year of the Ox in the Chinese zodiac. The Year of the Ox is every 12 years – like all 12 of the animals in the Chinese zodiac. So if you were born in 2009 (or 1997, 1985, 1973 and so on), it is your year. Each animal has certain characteristics. The ox is highly valued for its role in agriculture and farming. It is thought to be a dependable, hard-working and strong animal, traits that are reflected in those born in the Year of the Ox. The next Year of the Ox will be in 12 years, in 2033. In 2022 it will be the Year of the Tiger.…

AN ASTONISHING FIND A man called Paul Grisham, who lost his wallet while working in Antarctica in the 1960s, has been reunited with it 53 years later. Now 91 years old, Grisham said he was astounded after he was tracked down by people who used the cards they found inside the wallet. HELPING A BLIND DOG When Chad Lalande, from Canada, noticed that his 18-year-old dog Sienna needed help navigating their home after losing her sight, he used a 3D printer to find a solution. He has produced a safety “halo” that helps Sienna avoid bumping into furniture and walls. He hopes to make versions for larger breeds too. THIS GRANDAD A grandad has become the oldest person to row across the Atlantic Ocean unassisted. Frank Rothwell, who is 70…

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 event TV is better than bingeing, 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 see esu.org…

Daniel Kane Zookeeper ZSL London Zoo Scientists know that sea turtles somehow use the Earth’s magnetic field to navigate. Female loggerhead turtles, for example, can find the exact beach where they hatched to lay their own eggs, often covering hundreds of miles to get there. When the Earth’s magnetic field shifts, so do the locations of the turtles’ nesting sites. 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…

• Try eating foods that release energy slowly like nuts, oats, and seeds. If your energy drops too fast, you might feel tired and grumpy. • Feed your brain with good fats, like oily fish and sunflower seeds. • Eating protein like beans, eggs and lentils helps your brain manage thoughts and feelings better. • Try to drink around six glasses of water each day. If you don’t drink enough you will become dehydrated, making it harder to think clearly and concentrate. • Eat a rainbow of fruit and vegetables. They contain the fibre, minerals and vitamins to lift your body and mind.…

You’ve probably seen squirrels going about their business in local parks, or even in people’s gardens. That’s during the day, of course, but what do they get up to at night? A new game called Nuts lets you play detective and find out. You play a researcher at a university who’s studying the squirrels that live in the nearby Melmoth Forest. You place cameras there during the day in order to track the animals’ movements after dark. That’s a large part of the game: working out where to put your cameras so that they capture the squirrels’ routes through the woods, then studying the video footage to decide where to put the cameras the next day. This might sound a bit boring at first, but there’s more to Nuts than…

Anna Brett The creator of the new Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species on a love of learning. Did you discover anything new when you were writing this book? Yes, lots! It was interesting to learn that instinct is part of natural selection. This means knowing how to do something without previous experience. Darwin used the example of honeybees knowing exactly how to build their honeycomb in a dark hive from the moment they are born. Do you have any pets? No, but cockatoos and lorikeets live in the trees around my home and they are very friendly! What question would you like to ask Darwin? Did you ever get seasick on your voyage around the world and do you think animals get motion sickness? Have you ever been…

Olaf Falafel is a children’s author, illustrator, dad of two daughters and a comedian. During the first lockdown he created an online Art Club (tinyurl.com/TWJ-olafart). Each episode is filled with jokes, useful tips, animations and facts about his favourite artists. Over to you, Olaf... “If you thought that mobiles were only for hanging above babies’ cots then you couldn’t be more wrong. The one that I’ve just made is currently hanging in my studio and it’s super relaxing to sit and watch, so relaxing in fact, that I nearly forgot to explain why I made it. As the weather’s been a bit miserable I thought I’d spread a bit of sunshine by focusing on the artist Joan Miró, who is famous for his bright colours and bold shapes. His work…

A few months ago, a friend recommended a book about trees that changed the way I see the world. I’d never given trees much thought – except when I was younger and was told a pine was an orange tree and couldn’t work out why the prickly cones didn’t turn into delicious fruit. I knew trees were important, releasing oxygen and providing homes for birds, but I didn’t realise how fascinating they are. One of the things I learned was how trees help one another. Their roots create underground networks that share resources, supplying water and food to saplings or trees in need. Trees like acacias can warn each other if animals are coming to eat them. Trees might look as though they stand alone but, similar to humans, they…

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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 less foreign travel is a good thing. You said... “Travel is great, because you get to explore, but it’s against the restrictions to do this currently because of Covid-19.” “Travelling abroad can be fun, but there’s lots to do in places closer to home, like parks and gardens.” “I think less travel is a good thing, because it means there will be less pollution.” Tell us what you think of this week’s issue and we’ll print some of the best comments here.…

Jordan Nash plays the character Peter Pan in a new film called Come Away, which combines the adventures of Alice in Wonderland with Peter Pan. “I took the original Peter and tried to make him my own,” Nash tells The Week Junior. He combined elements of his own personality with Peter from the story by J.M. Barrie, which was first published in 1911. “Peter’s very brave,” says Nash, “which is confusing, because I’m a scaredy cat.” Jordan, who is 13 years old, grew up in London and “luckily”, he says, has no siblings. He is home-schooled so his parents accompany him on set, teaching him lessons in the trailer between scenes. Jordan got his first big role when he was five, but says “I don’t have a clue how I…

Cranes in Scotland The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Scotland says that cranes could be set for a big population increase. The long-legged, long-necked birds were once extinct in the UK. Now, a record number of seven breeding pairs in Scotland are among 64 pairs in the UK. City songbirds Scientists in the US have found that traffic noise limits songbirds’ ability to forage for food. They tested zebra finches in a laboratory, setting them tasks while playing the sound of road traffic roaring past. The birds were almost twice as successful at finding food without the noise.…

Plans have officially been submitted for a new space rocket launch centre for the UK, to be built on the island of Unst, in the Shetland Islands, in Scotland. If approved, the centre would have three launch pads and could make the UK a popular spot for space travel. Scott Hammond, the project’s director, said that if the plans get the go-ahead, it will create hundreds of jobs. Unst is considered a great place for space launches because it is so remote, far away from big cities.…

Scientists at the Chemnitz University of Technology in Germany have developed a way to print rolls of surround-sound speakers that are literally paper-thin. The design was inspired by an illustrated book made by the same team called the T-Book, which had speakers hidden inside the pages that made noises as readers turned them. The team have now found a way to make rolls of this paper, rather than one sheet at a time. They used this to make the T-Ring, a 360-degree printed paper speaker. Enjoy these stories? Find more in this month’s The Week Junior Science+Naturemagazinesciencenature.theweekjunior.co.uk…

Tom Brady Brady won American football’s Super Bowl in the US for a seventh time. Brady currently plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who beat Kansas City Chiefs 31-9. Joe Root The England cricket captain played his 100th Test match against India, scoring 218 runs in his team’s 227-run victory. Clarisse Crémer The French sailor finished the Vendée Globe boat race in 87 days, 2 hours and 24 minutes. It is a record time for a female sailor in the round-the-world event. Manchester City Their 4-1 Premier League win over Liverpool extended their lead at the top of the table. City haven’t lost since November.…

The Broken Leg of Doom by Pamela Butchart. Illustrated by Thomas Flintham (Nosy Crow) When some extreme dancing leaves Maisie in hospital with a broken leg, deeply peculiar things begin to happen. Is the hospital ward haunted – and could Maisie’s leg, in fact, be cursed? This new book from Pamela Butchart is certain to make you laugh out loud. The Paninis of Pompeii by Andy Stanton. Illustrated by Sholto Walker (Egmont Books) If you haven’t discovered the wickedly funny writing of Andy Stanton yet, you’re in for a treat! The creator of the bestselling Mr Gum books returns with this silly and surreal series about the last days of Pompeii. It’s packed with ludicrous characters, crazy capers and lots of outrageous jokes. Uma and the Answer to Absolutely Everything…

Have you ever heard of locking, popping and waacking? They are all types of street dance where you twist, swing and sway to funky music. Street dancing is fun, energetic, exciting and teaches you to remember routines. When you know the basics and feel confident, it also encourages you to create your own moves, which is called free styling. Street dancing began in the US in the early 1970s. Dancers were influenced by Latin-American and African-American music and culture and started to perform eye-catching stuff in public places such streets and parks. It’s now popular all around the world; dancers appear on TV shows such as Britain’s Got Talent and there are lots of videos and competitions on YouTube. There are classes to join all over the UK and many…

Leaves are stitched into art Hillary Waters Fayle is a US artist who stitches embroidery patterns into leaves. When she was 14, she went on holiday to a summer camp that focused on environmental education. As a result, she decided to combine her love of nature with her art studies by collecting leaves from parks and her garden. Fayle sketches out the pattern before stitching it onto the leaf. She says, “I want this work to ask people to slow down and think about this leaf – what beauty can be achieved when working with care.” Lightspeed Lego fan sets new world record A 12-year-old boy in Kentucky, US, has set a Guinness World Record by building a Star Wars Millennium Falcon micro fighter Lego set in under two minutes.…

Name: Toby “In 2019, we (Toby, Jemma, Amillie, and Rachael) were challenged to come up with an innovative product idea to compete in the Design Museum’s flagship learning programme, Design Ventura. Having been shortlisted from over 300 schools, we pitched our design idea, called Creative [Un]Blocks, to a group of leading industry designers. Creative [Un]Blocks is a fun idea-generation tool, offering the solution to the age-old problem of creative block. To our surprise, our idea was chosen to be manufactured for sale in the Design Museum shop, with all proceeds going to our chosen charity, Rainforest Alliance UK. Winning felt like such an achievement because we had worked hard designing and making the product, as well as practising our presentation. Design Ventura taught us invaluable design and enterprise skills, as…

1 What year is 2021 in the Chinese zodiac? a) The Year of the Ox b) The Year of the Rat c) The Year of the Pig a □ b □ c □ 2 True or false? A Great Dane is a type of cat. 3 What is the name of the groundhog that predicts the weather in the US town of Punxsutawney? 4 What was the most-watched UK TV broadcast? a) Prince Harry and Megan’s wedding in 2018 b) The 1966 World Cup final c) The 2020 Strictly Come Dancing final a □ b □ c □ 5 True or false? Peter Pan was first written as a film script. 6 Where do England’s last wild mountain hares live? 7 Who wrote the Tom Gates book series? a) Michael…