Author: Lisa Mungovan

The world is full of stuff, that can be used again. Discarded plastics can become new roads. Electronics can be broken down to recover precious metals. Old clothes can be worn again by someone else. Uneaten food can be composted to become soil. For Global Recycling Day, vow to start recycling everything you can.

Today is Forgive Mom And Dad Day. Did they make you eat a disgusting vegetable? Or scrub the dirt off your face? Forgive them for being so mean! Maybe they shared a mortifying photo of you. Don’t stay mad, because it’s also Awkward Moments Day! Everyone does embarrassing things sometimes. Just laugh it off!

To celebrate Pi Day last week, 10-year-old Alberto Davila Aragon broke a world record. Pi is the irrational number 3.14 followed by an infinite string of non-repeating digits. Alberto has the number memorized up to at least the 280th digit, because that’s the record-breaking string of numbers he rattled off in one minute.

A Florida police officer had to try his hand at delivering pizza, to keep people safe. The officer was keeping an eye on an alligator hiding under a parked car, when a delivery driver showed up. He warned the driver about the gator danger, then agreed to deliver the pizza for the worried driver,

A baby sloth was born at the San Diego Zoo last month. The mother, named Xena, has not revealed the name yet. Linnaeus’s two-toed sloths spend 15 to 20 hours a day sleeping and are nocturnal, which means they are active at night. The sloth pup will cling to its mom for 6 months!

12 people have walked on the Moon. Making it to the bottom of the ocean is almost as rare, because only 27 people have visited Challenger Deep, over 36,000 feet down, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The submarines had to withstand 15,750 pounds-per-square-inch. Congratulations to tiny subs, on Submarine Day.

Today is Saint Patrick’s Day. Patrick was British, but became a Christian missionary in Ireland in the 5th century. The Feast of Saint Patrick has become a celebration of all things Irish, from shamrocks to leprechauns to the color green. Bake some Irish soda bread, and dye the butter green. Happy Paddy’s Day!

Spring has sprung, and beautiful flowers are blooming. They’re lovely to look at, but did you know many flowers are also edible? Try making lilac, violet, or dandelion jelly. Turn forsythia, into a delicious syrup. Clover and lavender make tasty teas. Or pick some redbud flowers off a tree, and just eat them.

Scientists are studying the possibilities of using mussels, to get rid of microplastics. That’s not muscles as in strong arms, but as in the clam-like shellfish. Mussels can filter the tiniest pieces of plastic from the ocean, without any harm to themselves. After eating microplastics mixed with plankton, they excrete droppings suitable for biofuel.

Have you ever seen a curlew? It’s a bird with a long, curving beak, and mottled brown feathers. Part of the sandpiper family, there are 9 species of the large, ground-dwelling bird. Curlews wade along coastlines, digging their long beaks into sand and mud for food. Listen to their distinctive calls, for Curlew Day.