Month: December 2012

Painting by Canadian artist Rocky Green, Redneck Arts.
Arts

Happy Holidays, From Your Team At TKN

by

Happy holidays!

Thank you for reading Teaching Kids News and using it in your home or classroom.

During the winter break, please enjoy our archives. There are more than 400 great articles on lots of topics.

Type a key word into our Search box or click on a topic in the “tag cloud” on our home page.

There are lots of articles kids will enjoy in categories like sports, animals, science, space, England, United States, Canada and yes, even politics.

Please also look at our new “In-Class Ideas” section (tab in the upper menu on the home page). There are some terrific ideas for in-class and homeschooling work based on articles from TKN. These are projects that other classes have done successfully with their students. Fun!

Have a great holiday season, and we’ll see you in the new year.

This beautiful, snowy image is by Canadian artist Rocky Green. (Copyright Rocky L. Green.)

Continue Reading →
Politics

New Rules For Foreign Ownership Of Canadian Companies

by

Recently Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, has been facing a lot of questions about how other countries invest in Canada.

A Chinese company made a bid to buy a Canadian oil and gas company.

The bid had to be approved by the Canadian government.

This was an important decision for Canada because it would be another country owning a major Canadian resource company and Canadians are protective of the country’s natural resources.

Continue Reading →
Sports

Christine Sinclair Is Canada’s Outstanding Athlete For 2012

by

Women’s soccer superstar Christine Sinclair has won the 2012 Lou Marsh Award.

The award is given out each year to Canada’s outstanding athlete. She is the first soccer player to win the award.

Sinclair, 29, is from Burnaby, British Columbia; she is captain of Canada’s women’s soccer team.

She led Canada to a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

She played a spectacular tournament, scoring an Olympic-record-setting six goals.

Continue Reading →
Lighter

What’s In A Meme? Ikea Monkey Goes Viral

by

Who knows why something “catches on” through the Internet?

Somehow it sparks the collective imagination and before you know it, it’s gone “viral.”

That’s what happened last week with the “Ikea monkey.”

Bronwyn Page was in an Ikea (furniture store) parking lot in North York, Ont. on Dec. 9 when she saw something unusual.

A little brown monkey wearing a diaper and a tiny, expensive-looking coat.

Continue Reading →
Lighter News

Lottery Winner In BC Donates Money To Help Community

by

When blankets arrived for the homeless and new cars appeared for those in need, people in the city of Terrace in British Columbia thought it must be magic.

It turned out the magic was coming from Bob Erb, 60, who won $25-million in a national lottery called Lotto Max.

Erb believes in sharing his wealth.

In fact, since he won the lottery about a month ago, he’s given away more than $7-million.

He has given money to the staff at the gas station where he bought the ticket.

He gave $20,000 to the man who sold him the ticket.

He’s given money and shoes to the homeless. And he’s helped support more than a dozen local businesses.

Erb has been buying lottery tickets for more than 40 years.

One day, the clerk he bought the ticket from accidentally rang up more “plays” than Erb had asked for. But he let it ride.

And it’s a good thing he did, because one of those plays hit the $25-million jackpot.

Erb’s generosity has helped his whole community.

The new vehicles he bought and gave away helped the car sellers have a better year.

And if people he chose didn’t need the vans, they passed them on to someone else in need.

Continue Reading →
News Politics

New Egyptian Leader Backs Off On Strict Controls

by

In 2011, during what was called Arab Spring, protests in the Middle East showed that many people were fed up with their dictator leaders.

One of the largest countries in which people opposed their leader was Egypt. 

The protests ended when President Hosni Mubarak was driven out of office and put on trial.

Last June, Egypt’s first freely elected president took office.

But instead of trying to get everyone to agree on how to run the country, President Mohammed Morsi decided to give himself complete power over all laws and all the people.

He said this was the only way to get things done.

Again the protests started as people streamed into the streets because their rights had been removed.

Their message got to Morsi and he cancelled his plans for complete power.

Continue Reading →
Kids Sports

Banning Bodychecking Makes Hockey Safer For Kids

by

Changing the rules of hockey to reduce aggressive behaviour like bodychecking is the best way to keep kids safer on the ice, according to a group of Canadian researchers.

In hockey, body checking is when one player charges into another player.

The researchers looked at the different ways people have tried to reduce injuries among young hockey players.

They found that the most effective method is to introduce a “no bodychecking” rule, or at least raise the age when players can begin to bodycheck.

The number of young hockey players suffering brain and spinal cord injuries has increased in the past 15 years.

On some teams, as many as one-quarter of the players will suffer a concussion during a season.

These injuries are often caused by bodychecking.

Continue Reading →
News Sports

The “Voice Of The Blue Jays” Wins Prestigious Award

by

Grown men have been known to tear up upon hearing the famous words: “Touch ’em all, Joe!”

They were spoken by Blue Jays’ baseball radio broadcaster Tom Cheek back in 1993.

Recently, the Baseball Hall of Fame announced that the “voice of the Blue Jays” would receive the prestigious Ford C. Frick award for broadcasting excellence.

Many fans consider the award long overdue.

Cheek was part of the first Blue Jays radio broadcast. He continued to be the voice of the Blue Jays for 27 years.

From his first game to his last, he never missed a game. He worked 4,306 games in a row–from April 1977 until June 2004.

Cheek also broadcast 41 playoff games.

Cheek experienced struggles in his early years.

He was also witness to back-to-back World Series championships for the Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993.

But topping it all was the call he made in 1993.

Blue Jays outfielder Joe Carter had just hit a huge home run to win the World Series.

Continue Reading →
Animals News

Lonesome George May Not Have Been The Last Of His Kind

by

When the giant tortoise known as Lonesome George died last summer, people thought he was the last of his kind.

Lonesome George lived on Pinta Island, one of a group of islands called the Galapagos, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America.

He belonged to a species called Chelonoidis abingdoni, which was native to that island and not found anywhere else in the world.

When he died, scientists believed the species became extinct.

Now a group of researchers has found giant tortoises, who may be related to Lonesome George, living on another Galapagos island.

These scientists studied the DNA of a group of giant tortoises living on Isabella Island, about 60 kilometres away from Lonesome George’s home.

They found 17 tortoises that had some DNA from the same Pinta Island species as Lonesome George.

These tortoises also had DNA from a different species, which means they had ancestors from both species.

Continue Reading →
Sports

American Skier Lindsey Vonn Breaks Records

by

Skier Lindsey Vonn continues to dominate her sport.

Vonn, is an American ski racer with the United States ski team. She recently had a great weekend in Canada. She raced at Lake Louise in Banff, Alberta.

She ended up winning all three races that were held that weekend.

Vonn earned her 14th career win at Lake Louise.

Continue Reading →
1 2