Tag: grade 4

Xenia Benivolski (l) and Stephanie Guthrie help two kids who have come to make a donation to help Attawapiskat. Image: Joyce Grant
Breaking News Politics

From Our Homes To Theirs – Responding To Attawapiskat

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When Xenia Benivolski heard about the problems in Attawapiskat, she wanted to do something to help.

The people in the northern Ontario community of Attawapiskat are living in terrible housing conditions, often without heat or running water.

Temperatures there drop to -20C at night.

The community has declared a “state of emergency.”

Benivolski set up a Facebook page, asking people to donate items to help the community.

“Then people started Tweeting it… and it just kind of snowballed,” says Stephanie Guthrie, a friend who is helping with the drive. “You see something (like this) happening and you just can’t not do anything.”

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Animals News

Rhinos Being Poached For Horns

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Rhinos are being poached in South Africa.

“Poaching” is when people (“poachers”) illegally kill a wild animal.

This year so far 341 rhinos have been poached in South Africa.

That’s the most, ever, for one year.

Rhino horns are believed by some people, particularly in Asia, to be able to cure ailments like nosebleeds and fevers.

No one knows if this is actually true.

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Kids Lighter News

Lady Gaga’s Message To One Toronto School

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Students at the Etobicoke School of the Arts had a special guest at their anti-bullying assembly last week.

Lady Gaga sent the Toronto school a specially recorded video message.

The student council president, Jacques St. Pierre, is a huge fan of Lady Gaga.

He had sent emails to several celebrities, asking them to help launch the school’s anti-bullying campaign.

He was thrilled when Lady Gaga read his email and responded.

St. Pierre was the only student at the school who knew about the video until the assembly.

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Sports

Dream Weekend For Canadian Football Fans

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Last weekend, Canadian football fans had a lot to be happy about.

First, they were treated to one of the best Vanier Cups of all time.

Then, the Canadian Football League’s (CFL’s) biggest prize, The Grey Cup, was also awarded.

On Friday, two very different teams competed for the Vanier Cup, the trophy for Canadian Inter-university Sport (CIS) football.

Laval, the defending champions, boasted an incredible defense which allowed opponents a measly 12 points a game throughout the 2011 season.

McMaster, which hadn’t appeared in the CIS final in 41 years, possessed a strong offense featuring one of the league’s top quarterbacks, Kyle Quinlan.

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Science Technology

New $100 Canadian Bill Has A Window

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The Bank of Canada introduced a new $100 bill recently – and it has a window in it.

It’s Canada’s first “polymer” (a type of flexible plastic) bill.

The new $100 bill features a picture of Sir Robert Borden, who was the Prime Minister from 1911 and 1920.

The back of the bill celebrates innovation in medical research, including the Canadian discovery of insulin, which is used to treat diabetes.

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News Politics

Occupy Toronto Protesters Peacefully Leave St. James Park

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For more than a month, the people of Occupy Toronto staged a peaceful protest on behalf of what they call “the 99 per cent.”

They built a tent village in St. James Park in downntown Toronto and camped there.

They set up a media centre, so TV news stations, newspapers and websites like Teaching Kids News could get information about them and their cause.

They used “social media” tools like Twitter and Facebook to communicate with each other.

This allowed them to talk to each other and let people know what was happening at all times.

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Environment News

TKN Exclusive: How Thailand’s Floods Have Affected Me

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Nat Atherton is a Canadian living and working in Thailand. He gave TKN a first-hand account of the day-to-day havoc this year’s floods have caused.

The flooding here has been horrible. It hasn’t yet come into the centre of the capital (Bangkok), where I live, but has affected many of the people I work with.

Many of the poorer Thais live in the surrounding areas, which are flooded chest deep (1.5 metres) in some places.

I know a great many people who have lost their houses.

Many others haven’t been able to go home to check on their homes since rivers of dirty water separate their work from their houses.

Many well-known tourist districts have also been affected, including the world’s largest outdoor market, Chatuchak.

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News Politics

Quebec Gets A New Political Party

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A brand new political party, the Coalition pour l’avenir du Quebec (Coalition for the Future of Quebec), was launched last Monday.

A coalition is a group of people, often from different backgrounds, with the same goals.

This makes six registered political parties in the Province of Quebec, where the Liberals are in power and the Bloc Quebecois is in second place.

The leader of the the new party is Francois Legault.

He is known to Quebecers as a separatist, someone who would like to see Quebec separate from Canada to become its own country.

But last week Legault spoke as though separation was not as important to him as it once was.

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Kids News

Toronto School Bans Balls

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Students at Earl Beatty Public School in Toronto aren’t allowed to play with balls in their school playground any more.

The school has banned balls – including soccer balls, footballs, baseballs and tennis balls – from its playground.

Kids can only play with soft, foam balls such as Nerf balls.

The ban was put in place after a parent was hit in the head with a soccer ball and suffered a concussion.

The school’s principal, Alicia Fernandez, said kids were often getting hurt by balls in the playground.

She said they were sometimes scared.

She also pointed out that the school has a very small outdoor play area.

Some parents say the ban is an overreaction.

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Breaking News News

Occupy Toronto Staying Put – For Now

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On Monday, the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters at Zuccotti Park in New York were evicted.

“Evicted” means made to leave. Anyone who didn’t leave the park was forcibly removed by the police.

The people in the park had been there for months. It was a peaceful protest against what they see as the gross differences in wealth between the “one per cent” of very wealthy people and everyone else (the “ninety-nine per cent”).

Zuccotti Park is owned by a company called Brookfield Properties. Brookfield had allowed the protesters to camp there since September.

Now that the protesters are gone, Brookfield is cleaning up the park. Brookfield said in a letter to New York’s mayor the park had become “unhealthy and unsafe.”

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