Author: Lisa Mungovan

Clear out a big space and get 7 more people, because today is Square Dancing Day! 4 couples form a square, then perform the moves that a caller calls out. Bough to your partner, doe-see-doe, then eat a box of candy for Chocolates Day! It’s not a square dance move, but it will be yummy!

First comes Thanksgiving, then Black Friday. Well, today is Cyber Monday. It first started back in 2005, when people went back to work after the Thanksgiving holiday and shopped online using their fast internet connections. It’s the best day to buy gifts online because there are lots of special discounts. Did I tell you how much I love hats?

Animals use their whiskers, much like humans use their fingertips. They can sense something’s size and texture, or to help them travel or find food. A sea lion’s whiskers are even more impressive. Researchers found, their thick whiskers are specialized, and sea lions can move them, to complete different tasks.

The bar-tailed godwit, is a bird that’s been compared to a fighter jet, because of its aerodynamic shape. Bar-tailed godwits breed in Alaska, then fly south to Australia and New Zealand. Scientists placed a tracking device on one bird, who made the flight without stopping. The 8,108-mile journey, took him 239 hours.

Tonight at sundown, Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, begins. The Jewish holiday commemorates an ancient miracle in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. A one-day supply of oil lit a menorah, which is a type of candelabra, for 8 days. Hanukkah is celebrated for 8 days by lighting the menorah to prayers, songs, food, gifts and games.

Today is Red Planet Day, named for the planet Mars. It looks like a reddish-orange star in the night sky. Mars is red because the surface is full of iron oxide. It’s rusty! We’ve sent multiple rovers to its surface, to explore and take pictures. Someday, humans might live on Mars!

Today is French Toast Day. Some people call them bread-eggs, because you make them by soaking slices of bread, in a milk and egg mixture, before cooking them on a skillet. It’s also Make Your Own Head Day. Sculpt a replica of your head, using clay, paper mache, or maybe even french toast!

Some places in Toronto Canada, are ditching traditional air conditioning. Instead,180 buildings will be cooled, by pumping cold water through pipes in the walls and floors. The frigid water comes from the depths of Lake Ontario. Deep Lake Water Cooling, will save enough energy to power 25,000 homes each year!

Sauropods were once the biggest dinosaurs on Earth, with long necks and tails. But paleontologists have found unusual tracks in Texas, that suggest sauropods sometimes walked, on just their 2 front feet! They think it’s possible, that the large dinosaurs were walking in shallow water, and let their hind legs float.

A team of British archaeologists, are excavating an amazing mosaic, under a farmer’s field in England. The artwork is 36 feet long, and dates back to the Roman Empire, around 2500 years ago. The mosaic, made of small tiles, was probably the floor of a large dining or entertaining area, in an ancient villa.