Where in the world? continues.....

This week our news stories happened not only on six out of seven continents (with a tenuous link to the seventh) but also out in space; surely world news worthy of the BBC!

Tanmay gave his story the headline 'Robot Space Truck Docks With ISS' before going on to explain that a huge new space truck has just docked with the International Space Station, delivering supplies of food, water, air, fuel and equipment. He added that when it is empty it would be used as a giant rubbish bin. Azri was intrigued by the idea. 'Why do they need a giant rubbish bin?' he asked. Before we knew what had happened, we were onto the thorny question of bodily functions in space. I don't feel I should go into any more detail here!

Still out there in space, Michelle gave us some background information about Mars and then told us that Scientists in America sent spacecraft to Mars to see if there is water or life. They are still there after four years (even though they were only supposed to work for three months!) She told us that the spacecraft can take photos and send them back to Earth. Joe wondered when the spacecraft left Earth.

Let's begin our earthly travels in Asia, where we learned from Naoya that the Olympic torch relay arrived in Japan on the 26th April and that the person carrying it was the woman who won the marathon at the last Olympics.

Per wanted to pay him a compliment; 'You read it really well,' he said.

We'll stay in Asia for now, but travel a little to the west; to India and the Indian Express newspaper, which reported the following story that Maya interpreted for us. In your body you have a 'body clock'

(an intriguing idea for some; Swati wondered, 'Is it invisible or not?') which tells you when to go to sleep and when to wake up. It doesn't really work properly at this time of year, because at bedtime, even though you are supposed to be asleep, if it is still light you stay awake. In fact, the article explained that scientists have discovered it is actually light which makes you wake up (and so dark that tells you when to go to sleep). Matthew exclaimed, 'So that's why I find it hard to get to sleep!'

Let's head south with Fiona, to the Wilkin's Ice Shelf in Antarctica

(our second continent). She told us that it is breaking up; a piece if ice the size on Connecticut is falling off. That, she went on to say, is about three quarters the size of Switzerland.....'It's so important,' she continued, 'because we are spraying out bad things and we made a hole in the ozone layer and that makes it become hotter and the ice melts and that makes the water rise.' Justin looked worried. 'How are the penguins going to survive?' he wondered.

Which is interesting.....

Joe's story began with a joke. 'What's black and white and warm all over?' Answer: A penguin in a wetsuit. Eh? A wetsuit is what divers wear to keep them warm in the water ('wet' because it lets in a layer of water which your body warms up; that then keeps you warm). Anyway, Pierre the penguin is 25 years old who lives in California (North America, continent number three). He is losing his feathers which means he can't swim - it's too cold. So they made him a wetsuit.

Rekik wondered why he could swim in cold water without feathers, but that a penguin couldn't. Joe explained that penguins feathers are waterproof; that's what keeps the cold water out and so keeps them warm. They don't have fat like we do.

To South America (number 4) now, specifically Brazil. Giulia updated us on the story of the priest who had been trying to break the record for staying up in the air using party balloons.

He had disappeared and now they have found balloons floating in the sea - but so far, no priest.

Matthew W thinks he has probably drowned.....

To Europe (continent number 5) for the next batch of stories. Matthew W and Isabella, coincidentally, had chosen the same story; that of the giant football that is to be seen above the jet d'eau in Geneva.

As Matthew said, 'There is a football balanced on the jet d'eau. It's really cool - it glows in the dark!' Patricia told Matthew, 'I like the picture you found. It looks like the ball is really balanced there'. 'How,' wondered Fiona, 'did that happen?' We discovered, that if you look closely at the photograph, you can just about see the strings (cables) that hold the football-shaped balloon up. We found out that 12 people in the class have already seen it. Isabella told us that they have put the football-balloon there because of the European Cup. She said that when she went to her friends' house (twins!) the balloon was in the lake....

.....which brings me to today's 'breaking news'.....Hot off this morning's press (Geneva's '20 minutes', cutting below) we have the headline, 'Un ballon qui n'aime pas le vent' with a photo of the jet d'eau surrounded by spray - and the balloon having been blown down by the wind!





Staying in this part of the world (Europe) let's now head south to Lyon where Lyon football team have played against Caen.

Justin told us that even though the score was a draw, it isn't bad news for Lyon because they have 72 points and the other ones only have 68. He told Swati that Lyon is in France.

Evie's story is an interesting one. In an article all about plastic (the Materials unit again raises its ugly head!) she discovered that in Notting Hill (which is in London, which is in the UK, which is in Europe.....) there is a Christmas tree made out of recycled plastic. Justin was puzzled. 'Did they just do it to get in the newspaper?' he asked. We think they might have done!

Actually the FT article, 'Plastic: The elephant in the room' looked at the usefulness of plastic compared with its environmental impact and concluded that not having plastic would be potentially more environmentally damaging.....

Still in the UK, and a bit of 'royal' controversy from Chris. He told us that the King of England (we corrected him here; he was talking about a future king) borrowed an army helicopter to go somewhere and landed in his girlfriend's garden. Isabella saw this on the news; she said Prince William (for that is who we are talking about) wanted to surprise his girlfriend. Chris went on to say that people are cross with him because he took the helicopter and he didn't even pay!

According to the Newsround article he brought in, the Ministry of Defence said his trip was part of a training exercise. But some people are angry because they think it is a waste of money and not a proper way to use military equipment. What do you think?

Azri's news was of a further increase in the price of oil; this led to some interesting thoughts being shared. Joe wondered if it would lead to fewer people driving their cars and Max concurred; he said that not as lot of people would go to the gas station.

We agreed that we would ask our parents what they thought would be some of the effects of the price of oil going up.

And finally, a story with a family connection. Per told us that his cousins live on a farm in Queensland, Australia (our 6th continent). They saw a huge python wrap itself round a kangaroo to strangle it and then the python swallowed it. All. Up. Of course this announcement caused a near uproar as everyone spoke at once (Was it a kangaroo or a wallaby? What colour was the python, How on earth did it do it?) Per explained that he had forgotten to bring the photos but that he would show them to us the next day.

Now, please do not scroll down if you are of a nervous disposition. Because, possibly for the first time, we are about to broadcast these very disturbing photographs. Of a python squeezing and then swallowing a whole kangaroo. All. Up.

You have been warned.....








PS Did you notice which continent was 'missing'? The tenuous link is to Africa . Pierre the Penguin is an African penguin (even though his home is in North America).

A funny thing happened.....but was it possibly too much of a co-incidence ?

This morning I had a quiet chat with Dangi. You see, when I was on the Internet checking the facts for yesterday's news stories, I did a search for frog/bag of spinach. The story I came up with took place in the Goldcoast of Australia, whereas Dangi's notes showed that the frog was found in Bath, England. The type of frog was also a little different (an eastern dwarf tree frog rather than a European tree frog). As you might imagine, I though it a little odd that such important details could be so different.

Anyway I asked Dangi to re-check his facts, and agreed that I would check mine again too. We would get together afterwards to compare notes.

So I went off and did some more 'research' and curiously enough, this time when I did my Internet search for frog/bag of spinach I found not one 'froggie-with-a-bag-of-spinach-problem', but two. It would appear that we were both right; yes, a family in Bath, England did find a green European tree frog nestling inside a bag of spinach. And yes, a few days later, an eastern dwarf tree frog was discovered in Australia, still alive inside a bag of spinach that had been kept in the refrigerator.

The two frogs had both been 'christened' Popeye (but perhaps, given the spinach connection, not so surprising).


Under the title 'Weird Intercontinental Frog Salad Synchronicity' (which put simply just means two strange things, to do with frogs and salad, happening at the same time) this is what I read:

As found by Dangi: Bath, England (5 days ago): A British family got more than they bargained for when they opened a bag of prepackaged spinach and out jumped a tiny green tree frog. It was named "Popeye" after the spinach-loving cartoon character. Popeye survived the incident unharmed and is due to be re-released into the wild.

As later discovered by me: Gold Coast, Queensland (1 day ago): An Australian woman got more than she bargained for when she opened a bag of prepackaged spinach and out jumped a tiny green tree frog. It was named "Popeye" after the spinach-loving cartoon character. Popeye survived the incident unharmed and is due to be re-released into the wild.

The article went on to suggest that it was more than a co-incidence.....
I wonder. Do you believe in the co-incidence of two green tree frogs being found in a bag of spinach on two separate continents (Australasia and Europe) within a couple of days of each other - or do you think perhaps that's too much of a co-incidence?



I am not sure what kind of frog it is lurking in amongst the 'spinach' leaves, but for the record, the photo in the earlier post is of an eastern dwarf tree frog (err.....at least I think it is!)

And by way of a final (yes, really!) addendum; I am reliably informed that the Spanish for spinach is espinaca. Canonigos (as printed on the label on the bag) are some other kind of edible leaf (probably what we call 'lamb's lettuce' in English). So the photograph of the frog in a bag of spinach ? Possibly not spinach at all! Curiouser and curiouser - as they say.

Where in the World?

Tuesdays are special days in our class. Tuesday means 'Tuesday Newsday'. And 'Tuesday Newsday' means that we have to come to school prepared to share with the rest of the class, an item of real news, which we have recently heard on the radio, read in the newspaper, discovered on the Internet or watched on the television.

With our current unit in mind, this week we also tried to tell 'Where in the World' our news happened.

Here are some of the things we learned from our friends:

Max told us that in Japan, a female driver became the first woman to win an 'Indy' car race. He added that instead of making excuses for losing, the men drivers were all very impressed by how good she was! "She passed me fair and square," commented one of the men she beat.



Michelle found out that a scientist who was studying monkeys in the continent of Africa felt hungry and he used a stick to try to get some fruit from a tree; but he was unable to get any. A monkey saw him, grabbed some fruit from the tree and then gave it to the man!



Fiona's news story was about hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean. The hurricane season is just getting under way, she explained; experts say that these days, hurricanes happen twice as often as they did 100 years ago. Some people think this might be because of Global Warming; that the seas are getting warmer.



Which is interesting, because Evangeline wasn't sure whether her news was good news or bad news! She told us that in Scotland, even though there is supposed to be Global Warming right now, (Max explained that Global Warming is where the Earth's temperatures are rising) instead of warm Spring-like weather, it is snowing and people are enjoying being able to ski at the 'wrong' time of year. Good news or bad news I wonder.



Tanmay told us news of the first South Korean astronaut who was on the capsule that was supposed to land back in Russia but missed the target by 400km. As he explained, that would be like heading for Geneva but instead, ending up in Zurich! Luckily, everyone on board was OK.



Next, Chris took us to Sweden, where they have discovered the world's oldest living tree; a spruce tree that is nearly 10,000 years old. It was discovered in 2004 and its age has been determined by American scientists using Carbon Dating (Max explained to us that this is a complicated way of using something - 'radioactivity' - to tell the age of something).



Now, let's head to Bath in the south west of England with Dangi; where surprise surprise, we find a European tree frog that has survived for days trapped inside a bag of spinach in the refrigerator! No wonder they called him Popeye! We think he had a lucky escape.



And finally (and excuse me for saving my favourite story until last) let's head with Per to America to the poor confused male emu, who is trying hard to hatch a green plastic ball.



Emu eggs are green, so when a green ball accidentally got thrown into the pen where the emu lived, he started sitting on it. He won't even leave the 'egg' for food. He hasn't yet been there for 40 days (which is how long it takes an emu egg to hatch) and the owners plan to remove the ball from him before then, so he shouldn't go hungry for too much longer.



Now, do you think you could use a map to find 'Where in the World' our stories happened? Ask a grown-up to help you.