Author: Lisa Mungovan

Is your name Kyle? The city of Kyle Texas needs your help! They want to set a world record for the number of Kyles gathered in one place. The event is scheduled for September 4th, at their annual Kyle Pie in the Sky Hot Air Balloon Festival. All Kyles, spelled K-Y-L-E, get in free.

The night sky is full of meteors, so spend some time after dark, watching the Perseid meteor showers for shooting stars. The night of August 11th will be the peak, as the Earth passes through fields of comet waste. As the debris burns up in our atmosphere, it leaves blazing trails overhead.

Today is Son’s And Daughter’s Day, which seems a little silly, because everyone is someone’s son or daughter! Any excuse to celebrate is welcome, so try to be the kind of kid that would make your parents proud. Let’s all be nice and helpful, and kind to each other!

Grab your buckets and shovels, because today is Play In The Sand Day. Make a sand castle at the beach, or a construction zone in the sandbox. If you’d rather stay home, you’re in luck. It’s also Global Kinetic Sand Day. The squeezable sand, was originally mixed with beeswax, to make it less messy.

It’s World Calligraphy Day, celebrating the artistry of writing. You can use a fountain pen, a wide-tipped marker, a brush, or a feather quill and ink. Look up calligraphy styles, and practice writing each letter carefully. Even a shopping list can look like a fancy wedding invitation, when written in calligraphy!

The latest world report on climate change, shows that Earth is in crisis right now. It’s necessary to keep global temperatures from rising. A difference of less than 3 degrees Fahrenheit, can still cause ice caps to melt, sea levels to rise, coral reefs to die, and major droughts, heat waves, and extreme weather.

The planet needs to stop warming, but how? The biggest change, is cutting out new coal, oil, and gas operations. Existing fossil fuel energy sources, need to be replaced with green energy like solar or wind power. Vehicles need to be electric. The environment needs to come first, no matter how difficult it seems.

A harmless looking plant found in wetlands, on the west coast of North America, is actually carnivorous. Triantha occidentalis, depends on pollinators like bees and butterflies to survive, but it also has sticky hairs near the flowers, to trap and eat insects. Luckily, the hairs are only sticky enough to trap teeny tiny bugs.

Today is World Lion Day. The “King of the Jungle” actually inhabits grasslands. A lion’s roar can be heard for 5 miles! They live in groups of about 15, called prides, with a male as the leader. The mane of hair around his neck gets darker with age. Lion populations are shrinking. Let’s save the lions!

Today is Skyscraper Appreciation Day. The world’s tallest building is over half-a-mile high, in Dubai. Could you climb to the top? Maybe not today, since it’s also Lazy Day. See if you can sleep 16 hours, like a lion! When you wake up, make s’mores around a fire. S’mores Day celebrates the chocolate-marshmallow-graham cracker treat!