Tag: Archive

Today is Violin Day, the first instrument that many kids learn to play. If your school has a strings program, be sure to sign up! You can always listen to classical, bluegrass, or Irish music to hear some fantastic violin playing! Listen with a cup of hot chocolate, because it’s also National Cocoa Day!

In Los Angeles California, a package was swiped off the front porch, by a squirrel! A video shows the sneaky squirrel pulling off the heist. It apparently wasn’t his first robbery, because residents often find their packages in nearby bushes! ‘Tis the season for package thieves, and you can’t even trust the wildlife!

It’s common to see people walking and looking at their phones, wearing headphones or earbuds. It can be dangerous, because they’re not paying attention to traffic. Researchers are working on new smart headphones, that could warn the wearer of danger. They are testing them out near Columbia University. Save the preoccupied college students!

2 years ago, Alan Tripp wrote a poem about growing old for his 100th birthday. His friend, Marvin Weisbord, wrote music to go along with it. Last month, the songwriting duo released their first jazz album, the Senior Songbook, at ages 102 and 88! You’re never too old to try something new!

Churchill Manitoba, in Canada, is the polar bear capital of the world. You’ll see polar bears from your hotel room, if you stay at the Tundra Lodge. It’s a hotel on wheels! The train-like structure, crosses the tundra, taking you right to the bears. You don’t even have to get out of bed!

Today is Gingerbread House Day. If you try to make a gingerbread house and it breaks, just make it look like a giant jawbreaker-asteroid smashed into it! It’s also Poinsettia Day, a plant indigenous to Mexico. Its vibrant red and green leaves make it a favorite around Christmas, and it has tiny yellow flowers.

Children in Moriyama Japan, helped set a new world record, for Christmas tree with the most notes attached. They wrote down their wishes for the city and themselves on cards, which were then attached to a 100-foot-tall Christmas tree. The 51,626 messages will be put into a time capsule when the display comes down.

New York City’s skyscrapers with gleaming windows, are a problem for 10’s of thousands of birds every year. They fly into the glass, because they can’t see it. A new law may soon pass, that would require all new buildings to use bird-friendly glass, that the birds can see. Having dirty windows also works!

A new statue was erected in Richmond Virginia. Although it’s a large bronze sculpture of a man on a horse, it’s not the typical military memorial. The rider is a modern African-American man, dressed in a hoodie and sneakers. The sculpture, titled Rumors of War, was created by artist Kehinde Wiley.

An elementary school in Ireland, is trying something different for the month of December. Instead of homework, kids will be assigned random acts of kindness! The acts could be connecting with elderly people, helping out family members, or taking care of their own mental well-being. Kindness Diaries remind them to keep doing good works.