Innholdsfortegnelse for 332 i The Week Junior

There have been calls for the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to resign after they were both fined by the police for attending a party in No. 10 Downing Street (the Prime Minister’s official residence) during lockdown. A fine is money people have to pay as punishment for breaking a rule. What happened? On 12 April, it was announced that Johnson and Sunak had been given fines by the Metropolitan Police (London’s police force). This was for a birthday party for Johnson at 10 Downing Street in June 2020, which broke the rules against social gatherings that were in place at the time to stop the spread of coronavirus. This made Johnson the first person in British history to be punished for breaking the law while…

To update or not to update William Shakespeare? That is the question. Shakespeare was born more than 450 years ago and has become one of the world’s best-known playwrights. He wrote comedies, tragedies, histories and poems that are studied in schools all over the world. His plays are still performed to packed theatres. The plays are full of gripping drama, beautiful poetry, betrayal, confusion, romance and wit. However, Shakespeare’s time was different to today. His language is old-fashioned and can be hard to follow. Also, attitudes were different and women and people of colour were sometimes not treated fairly. This has led to people saying his work should be reworked for today’s audiences. What do you think? Should Shakespeare be updated? Yes – Shakespeare needs reworking Shakespeare might be a…

More than two billion tonnes of rubbish is created around the world every year. Old clothes, electronics, food, metals and plastic add up to a huge problem and it’s getting worse. Rubbish affects not only the environment but human health. To mark Earth Day on 22 April, find out about the damage rubbish does and how we can make a cleaner future. A history of rubbish On the Greek island of Crete, now popular with holidaymakers, waste was put in pits and covered with soil as far back as 5,000 years ago. This is called “landfill” and is used widely today. However, in many countries, including the UK, waste was once just left in the streets. In the 19th century, governments realised this caused air pollution and spread diseases. In…

Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US have designed a robot that can help humans put on clothes with sleeves. This is a tough task for a robot to learn because people’s arms and elbows move around. A team taught the robot to guess the position of a person’s elbow and work out just how to move and how much force is needed to pull up the sleeve. They say this opens the way for many other applications, such as setting a dinner table or tidying up spilt building blocks. Enjoy these stories? Find more in this month’s The Week Junior Science+Nature magazine sciencenature.theweekjunior.co.uk…

In November, the 2022 men’s football World Cup kicks off in Qatar. In the run-up to that tournament, London’s Design Museum is hosting the first big exhibition on the design of the world’s most popular sport. With more than 500 historical objects, this exhibition will show how design has made football a beautiful game, from badges and boots to shirts and stadiums. Created in partnership with the National Football Museum in Manchester, England, this exhibition is divided into five sections: Performance, Identity, Crowds, Spectacle and Play. Performance will look at how boots and balls have evolved over the years to make the game more fun and faster. Objects on display include the footballs used in the very first World Cup final in 1930 and match boots worn by players such…

Twelve Minutes to Midnight by Christopher Edge (Nosy Crow) In Victorian London, 13-year-old Penelope Tredwell is the owner of a bestselling magazine, The Penny Dreadful. She’s always on the look-out for mysteries to fill the pages but when she receives a strange letter, she is quickly entangled in an adventure more mysterious and terrifying than she could ever have imagined. Ajay and the Mumbai Sun by Varsha Shah. Illustrated by Sònia Albert (Chicken House) Abandoned on the Indian railways, Ajay has grown up longing to be a journalist. When he finds an abandoned printing press, he and his friends decide to create their own newspaper. Can they use it to reveal the truth, fight for justice and save their home? Write and Design Your Own Magazines by Sarah Hull (Usborne)…

As you might guess from the name of the game, the aim of dodgeball is for players on a team to dodge soft balls being thrown at them by the other team. If a player is hit by a ball thrown at them, they are out. It’s a fast, fun and at times frantic game that’s a very popular school sport. Dodgeball is usually played with mixed teams of boys and girls. Generally, a game will have six players in each team. Each game is called a “set”. It begins with players lined up on the back line on their side of the court. If six balls are placed on the centre line then when the set starts, three players from each team will rush to pick up their three…

Holly King-Mand, widely known as the nation’s favourite English teacher, taught thousands of children online during the pandemic. She’s an expert on reading and writing and loves creative writing, cool vocabulary and trips to the library. Here she shares the best ways to prepare for tests. Parents can find out more about Holly’s Classroom on Instagram, Facebook and at hollysclassroom.com 1 Don’t overthink it When you spend too long thinking about something, you can focus too much on the wrong thing. For example: what happens if I fail? What happens if I miss the bus that day? Remember that tests are intended to give an accurate reflection of where you are in your learning journey so that your teachers can work out what to help you with next. 2 Talk…

One of the reasons why some people think Johnson should resign is for breaking something called the ministerial code. This is a list of rules for how people in the Government should behave. It says any ministers (senior politicians) who knowingly mislead (give incorrect information to) Parliament should resign. Johnson is said to have misled Parliament when he denied breaking Covid rules. Johnson’s supporters say he thought he was telling the truth because he didn’t realise that the event broke the rules.…

FINDING ART IN A BIN Jared Whipple from Connecticut, in the US, is set to make lots of money after he found hundreds of valuable works of art in a large bin. The paintings and drawings, by the artist Francis Hines, could be worth millions of pounds at auction. A NEWBORN SEA EAGLE The hatching of a wild white-tailed sea eagle has been caught on camera in the UK for the first time. The hatching, which took place in a nature reserve in Scotland, was filmed by a camera that was hidden three metres away from the nest, to avoid disturbing the birds. A YOUNG DARTS PLAYER On 10 April, 18-year-old Beau Greaves, a darts player from Doncaster, England, became the youngest person to win a world championship in the…

Health officials have said that 11,483 people who worked as Covid volunteers during the pandemic have started paid jobs in the NHS. When the Covid-19 vaccine programme started in December 2020, more than 100,000 people offered to help NHS staff. Many volunteers were so inspired that they changed jobs to work with the NHS. Chloe Radley, who swapped life as a make-up artist for work with the NHS, told The Guardian newspaper, “I find the work so rewarding.”…

As she sat in Kyiv, Ukraine, writing an introduction for her book Maya and Her Friends, author Larysa Denysenko could hear missile attacks outside. “I am writing this from the corridor where we are hiding with my mother, who survived World War II as a child, and my dog, because over the Kyiv sky: another missile threat,” Denysenko wrote. Maya and Her Friends was first published in 2017 in Ukraine. It’s the story of a schoolgirl called Maya and her 16 classmates, who all come from different backgrounds and types of families. Denysenko told The Week Junior she wrote a story that “teaches respect for different cultures, for different people, for different families”. Denysenko used what she saw around her as inspiration for her characters, and she wanted to highlight…

A new survey of rare livestock (farm animals and other species used by humans) has revealed a mixed picture in the UK. It’s good news for goats but things look gloomy for some other animals because their numbers are falling. The survey was put together by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST), an organisation that helps to preserve unusual types of animals. Traditionally, farmers create breeds by choosing animals with desirable characteristics (their behaviour, say, or appearance or strength), and breeding from them. Breeds that were popular in the past can be at risk when fashions or needs change – such as the need for very strong horses to pull carts or big dogs to defend houses from thieves. The RBST’s 2022 Watchlist counts individuals in a breed and how…

Crisp packet pitch Old crisp packets have been turned into rubber pellets and used as a soft layer under new five-a-side football pitches. UEFA, which runs football in Europe, worked with Walkers crisps to make the pitches. The first opened in South Africa, then in Brazil, England and Turkey. Cardboard beds Cardboard is used in many ways. At the Tokyo Olympics last year, 18,000 cardboard beds were made for the athletes. This was more environmentally friendly than using metal or plastic. After the Games, when the beds were not needed any more, they were simply recycled. Methane capture Methane gas created in landfill sites can be captured and used as a source of power. It’s collected from the ground using wells, pipes and pumps and is sent to another building…

In AD79, the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, in southern Italy, was destroyed by a volcanic eruption that buried many of its buildings. Archaeologists (experts who study man-made objects to understand history) have been observing it for almost 300 years but now they have a new tool for understanding how Pompeii might once have looked – virtual reality (VR). Researchers Danilo Campanaro and Giacomo Landeschi, from Lund University in Sweden, used data collected by drones flying over the ruined Roman city to create a 3D computer reconstruction of one of its most impressive buildings. They then fed the reconstruction into a video game system called Unity (which is used by the smartphone game Pokémon Go) to make a VR model. The idea is not just to recreate the buildings but…

If you haven’t seen or played padel before, there’s a good chance you will in the near future. Padel is a fun sport that’s easy to pick up. It’s a cross between tennis and squash and it is played on a court with walls around it. There are more than 150 courts around the UK and, thanks to the success of players such as Tia Norton, padel is growing very quickly. “I started playing when I was 12 and when I was 13 I secured the women’s British No.1 spot,” 18-year-old Norton told The Week Junior. “I’d played tennis since the age of seven before moving into padel, and last year I took part in my first World Padel Tour event.” Not only is Norton the first British woman to…

When you wake in the night with worries going round your head it can be hard to fall back to sleep. Knowing what to do can help you feel confident that you’re able to cope when worrying stops you sleeping. You’re not the only one It can feel like you’re the only person lying awake with thoughts going round your head in the middle of the night, but it’s not unusual. Everyone wakes up with a worry sometimes. Mindfulness teacher Frances Trussell explains why this is natural. “Back in caveman days it would have been really helpful to wake and check there wasn’t a sabre-toothed tiger about. Now if you wake in the night with that ‘Check everything’s ok’ feeling, you can thank your brain and reassure it that you’re…

Sketchbook Available on Disney+ from 27 April A new six-part series in which Disney artists reveal how to draw some of the most famous creations in the company’s history. The series will include Samantha Vilfort teaching viewers how to create Mirabel from Encanto and Mark Henn’s guide to Simba from The Lion King. Polar Bear Available on Disney+ Released to mark Earth Day on 22 April, this new film tells the story of a mother polar bear who uses the lessons of her younger days to help her own cub survive in a rapidly changing environment. The film is narrated by actor Catherine Keener, who voiced Screenslaver in Incredibles 2 and Ugga in the Croods films. Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles Available on Netflix from 28 April This series tells…

by Lissa Evans. Illustrated by Bec Barnes (David Fickling) Ed isn’t happy when he learns that he and his sister Roo have to spend their half-term with an elderly neighbour, Miss Filey, and her ancient, smelly cat. He’s expecting to be bored senseless – but in fact, what happens at Miss Filey’s house is far from boring. Together with a new friend, he finds a box of very old birthday candles and makes an astonishing discovery. Each of the birthday candles will grant them a wish, but it only lasts as long as the candle is burning. Of course, the wishes soon lead to trouble. Miss Filey disappears and they have to set out on a rescue mission. This hugely entertaining tale of magic and misadventure will remind you of…

How safe is dodgeball? Throwing balls at each other may seem dangerous but remember that they are soft, foam balls that won’t hurt. Knee and elbow pads can be worn for extra protection. Dodgeball is not a contact sport and match referees make sure that the rules are followed and the sport is played in a safe and fun way. How can I get involved? Ask your teacher if you can play dodgeball during PE or perhaps your school could organise an afterschool club or session. A group called British Dodgeball helps run the sport in the UK. To find out more and to see if there is already a club near you, go to britishdodgeball.org…

Word fill in All these words fit in the grid. Can you work out where each word goes to complete it? 3 Letters Mir Sky 4 Letters Crew Moon 5 Letters Cabin Eagle Earth Orbit 7 Letters Houston Shuttle 9 Letters Commander Countdown 10 Letters Expedition Navigation Word jumble Rearrange the scrambled letters to form four words connected with falling. Spot the difference These two pictures appear to be the same, but take a closer look. There are actually five differences. Can you spot them? Wordsearch Can you find all of the words listed here? They are hidden horizontally, vertically or diagonally and may read forwards or backwards. CALF CHICK COLT CUB CYGNET DUCKLING FAWN FILLY FOAL FRY HEIFER JUVENILE KID KITTEN LAMB NESTLING PARR PIGLET SQUAB TADPOLE Number tower…

Reading about all those people who helped at Covid vaccination clinics and then decided to change careers and join the NHS (p5) has really set me thinking. I’ve been helping out at my local doctor’s surgery and what really struck me was how good it made me feel. There was a sense of everyone working together: the doctors and nurses giving the injections (it wasn’t me! I was there to help people fill in their forms), the staff booking the appointments, the volunteers managing the queue and the patients turning up in their hundreds to protect themselves and others. At The Week Junior we know how much our readers love to help. On this page we’ve got reports of high school students raising money to support the people of Ukraine…

Create prize-winning poetry If you love writing poetry, why not enter the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award? You can send in poems on any theme, and of any length or style that you like. The competition is open to all young people aged 11 to 17 years and the deadline is 31 July 2022. Last year, the competition received more than 14,000 entries from all over the world. The prizes include writing courses and having your poem published as part of a collection by The Poetry Society, which is organising the competition. Looking for inspiration? Look for tips and advice from past winners at the Young Poets Network here, ypn.poetrysociety.org.uk. To find out more about the competition, visit tinyurl.com/TWJ-FoyleYoungPoets GET INVOLVED Email your news, views and pictures to…

Teacher’s name: Miss Riley School: St John’s Community Primary School, Hoveton, Norfolk “Miss Riley is the most caring and patient teacher. She is like a friend to everyone – we share lots of laughs, like when we did a mini experiment to see if a balloon would pop if we put Blu Tack over it and it popped! She is my favourite teacher I’ve ever had – I really don’t want to leave her at the end of Year 5.”Esme 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…

1 Which ministers were fined for going to a party during lockdown? □ a) Priti Patel and Liz Truss □ b) Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg □ c) Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak 2 True or false? Turner Prize nominee The End featured a giant doughnut. □ True □ False 3 Who created the Invictus Games? 4 Which of these plays was written by Shakespeare? □ a) Romeo and Juliet □ b) Rhinoceros □ c) Harry Potter and the Cursed Child 5 True or false? Larysa Denysenko is a Ukrainian author who wrote the book Maya and Her Friends. □ True □ False 6 The populations of which three breeds of goat are increasing? 7 How many people on Earth don’t get their rubbish collected? □ a) Two billion □…

Asurvey by the Association of Play Industries (API) has found that many children in the UK don’t have easy access to playgrounds. Who has the most playgrounds? The average child in Scotland has access to five times as many playgrounds as the average child in London. The worst affected area is the West Midlands, England, where there is only one playground for every 929 children. London is the second-worst region for access to playgrounds, with 866 children per playground. In Scotland, there are 196 children per playground and Wales has 392 children per playground. The research also highlighted that 44% less money was spent on playgrounds in 2021 than in 2018. The API has called on the Government to invest more money to even up the number of playgrounds available…

Cairo, Egypt Swimmer breaks two world records Swimmer Omar Hegazy broke two Guinness World Records, despite having only one leg. The records are “longest distance swum underwater with one breath” and “longest distance swum underwater with one breath with fins”. He swam 56.48 metres for the first record and 76.7 metres for the second. Hegazy lost a leg in 2015 after a road accident. Kano, Nigeria 15th century dye pits face closure The Kofar Mata dye pits in Kano, Nigeria, have been used to dye fabrics using traditional methods for more than 500 years. However, cheaper fabrics are coming in from abroad and the pits might have to close. The families who work there, and have done for generations, want the government to help them keep up the tradition. Buenos…

At this time of year, gardens, parks and the countryside are alive with birdsong. One of the most distinctive is that of the song thrush, which sings in short “phrases” that repeat several times over, starting well before dawn and around dusk. This shy, mediumsized brown bird is easy to spot, thanks to its pale chest covered in small brownish flecks. Song thrushes can be seen in gardens, hedgerows, parks and woods across the UK. You’ll often see them hopping about near shrubs and undergrowth, where they feed on bugs and worms in summer and fruit and berries in winter. At this time of year, look out for remains of their pale blue eggshells. These are often found under hedgerows once the chicks have hatched.…

Astronomers have confirmed Earth’s first known visitor from another star: a half-metre-wide space rock that plunged into the atmosphere at more than 170 times the speed of sound in January 2014. The rock exploded into tiny fragments high in the air near the island of Papua New Guinea in the Pacific Ocean, but scientists have reconstructed its path after persuading the US government to reveal secret information from a spy satellite. Small chunks of rock are scattered across our solar system. These are left over from when the planets formed about 4.5 billion years ago, and others thrown out when larger rocky bodies called asteroids collide. Sometimes they cross paths with Earth and occasionally even crash into it. The rock plunges into the upper atmosphere, heating up and breaking apart…

Chelsea Football Club Chelsea Women beat Arsenal and the men’s team defeated Crystal Palace in their FA Cup semi-finals. Peres Jepchirchir and Evans Chebet The runners from Kenya, in east Africa, won the Boston Marathon in the US. Jepchirchir was the women’s champion and Chebet won the men’s race. Dylan van Baarle and Elisa Longo Borghini In the famous Paris-Roubaix cycle race in France, Van Baarle won the men’s event and Longo Borghini took the women’s title. Glenn Irwin The Northern Irish motorbike rider won all three races in the opening weekend of the British Superbike Championship.…

Mindfulness teacher Frances Trussell suggests another way to help yourself fall asleep. Send your body and brain the signal that all is well by focusing on your breathing and slowing it down. You can do this by making your “out breaths” longer. Trussell says the following breathing exercises could help: “Try counting each exhale backwards from 300. Or to challenge yourself further, imagine breathing out a cloud that drifts up into the sky as you let go.” This might take a bit of practice but it gets easier.…

The Disney+ adaptation of the much-loved fantasy book series Percy Jackson and the Olympians now has a lead actor. Walter Scobell will star in the series as Percy Jackson himself. Scobell, who is 13 years old, has already acted with some big stars in the science-fiction film The Adam Project. The series tells the story of the adventures of 12-year-old Percy Jackson, who discovers that he is the son of the ancient Greek sea god Poseidon. When the lightning bolt of Zeus, the most powerful of the Greek gods, is stolen, he must locate the bolt and stop the US from being destroyed in a war between the gods. The producers (the people who deal with the making of a film or TV series) are working closely with Rick Riordan,…

A new study by the Office of Communications (Ofcom) has examined how young people are using apps and online services. Ofcom is an organisation that monitors communication services in the UK, including TV and radio. It asked thousands of young people and parents about their media habits. This won’t surprise you: nearly all eight to 11-year-olds (97%) play games in some form on consoles, tablets or mobile phones. The most popular games for this age group were creative and building games such as Roblox and Minecraft, which 57% of eight to 11-year-olds play. Multiplayer online games, such as Fortnite, Fall Guys and Among Us, were the second-biggest category. Ofcom also talked to parents about their concerns with online gaming. Those worries include their young people talking to strangers while playing…

What was the last thing that made you laugh? When my dog rolled over, fell off the sofa and was too lazy to get back on again. Have you always wanted to write a book? Yes. I still have the little yellow notebook in which I wrote my first long story when I was about eight. Dream holiday destination? Venice, Italy. It’s like a jewel box and there’s so much to look at – I could stand by the Grand Canal all day, watching the water traffic. Favourite childhood story? Too many to list. I’ll tell you the one I didn’t like: that annoying fairy story about Chicken Licken running about complaining that the sky’s going to fall on his head. Greatest fear? Rock climbing. I did a bit at…

“I am a member of Eden Dodgeball Club and enjoy training sessions and tournaments. I love dodgeball because it is a fast, tactical, fun team sport that helps you learn skills such as throwing, catching and dodging. I like that all ages can play and I enjoy playing in mixed or all-girl teams in training and tournaments. It is great for keeping fit, making friends and when you play you feel the adrenaline rush inside!”…

Huge face seen in Cornish cliff Walkers on a coastal path in Cornwall, England, have reported spotting a huge human face staring out to sea from the side of a cliff. Although it looks like it’s been deliberately carved from the cliff, it’s probably the result of a recent rock fall. Louise Coe, whose husband noticed it, took some photos of the massive mimetolith (the word for a natural rock feature that resembles a living thing) and described it as a “brilliant sight”. Man finds gigantic “mutant crisp” Man finds gigantic “mutant crisp” A man who found a 15 centimetre-long crisp has pledged to sell the supersized snack to raise funds for charities helping refugees from Ukraine. Michael Landford made the surprising discovery when he went in search of a…

Name: Avery “I love reading because it is like a movie in my mind. I can pull out a book and immediately be transported into an imaginary world. I started with graphic novels and moved onto chapter books. Starting with graphic novels helped me develop the images in my mind before moving onto chapter books. I want other kids to love reading as much as I do so I started a YouTube channel called Avery’s Reading Channel where I discuss all things reading. I hope kids will check out my YouTube channel, be inspired to read more, and learn about new books. Find out more at tinyurl.com/TWJ-Avery” What have you been up to lately? Which books have you enjoyed reading? What have you made? Have you written a poem or…

“At Cannock Chase High School we have been supporting Ukraine. Students have made messages around the school and fundraising has been a top priority.”Deb “I made an Easter tree inspired by The Week Junior issue 329. I painted paper to make the feathers and hung Easter decorations. It was fun. Thank you for the idea.”Jessica “This was our first swim of the year at Harlyn Bay, Cornwall. Even though it was sunny, the water was freezing!”Ruby and Tilly…

Follow The Week Junior on PopJam @TheWeekJunior. You can download the PopJam app from the App Store or Google Play. Last week we asked if we should stick to classic hot cross buns… “Maybe make ones with chocolate as well as the classic.” “They remind everyone of the Easter story and are tasty, so why change them?” “They are my favourite food and embrace the spirit of Easter.” “Keep the originals but have other ones as well so people can choose.” Tell us what you think of this week’s issue and we’ll print some of the best comments here.…