Tag: school

Kids Lighter News

Banning “Best Friends” At School?

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Some kids in London, England are being discouraged from having a best friend at school.

Psychologist Gaynor Sbuttoni, a specialist in children’s behaviour, told a London newspaper that some elementary teachers aren’t letting students have a best friend. Instead, they are urging children to play together in groups.

The Sun newspaper reported that Russell Hobby, of the UK’s National Association of Head Teachers, said some schools there have best-friend bans.

Teachers say the reason they do this is so kids don’t get hurt if they split up with their friend.

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Kids News Technology

New Video Game Helps Kids With Autism

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An amazing new “video game” is helping kids with autism show their emotions in their facial expressions.

Autism affects the brain’s development of social and communication skills.

People with autism typically have difficulty recognizing facial expressions and emotions.

The new video game, called FaceMaze, was developed to help kids with autism recognize what certain emotions look like, and what they mean—for instance, smiling, frowning or looking sad.

The video game looks and plays a lot like Pac-Man, a popular video game from the 1980s.

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News Science Technology

Toronto Teens Send Legonaut Into (Near-) Space

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Two teenagers in Toronto, Ont. have taken a giant leap – for themselves, and for one little Lego man.

The teens launched a Lego figure into near-space.

They hooked a helium weather balloon, a home-sewn nylon parachute and four cameras to the figure. And then they went out to a soccer field and let their contraption go.

The cameras were set to take pictures every 20 seconds.

When their figure came back to Earth, they looked at the pictures the cameras had taken.

They were shocked to see their little Lego figure, clutching his Canadian flag, with a picture of the curved horizon of the Earth in the background.

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Kids Lighter News

Lady Gaga’s Message To One Toronto School

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Students at the Etobicoke School of the Arts had a special guest at their anti-bullying assembly last week.

Lady Gaga sent the Toronto school a specially recorded video message.

The student council president, Jacques St. Pierre, is a huge fan of Lady Gaga.

He had sent emails to several celebrities, asking them to help launch the school’s anti-bullying campaign.

He was thrilled when Lady Gaga read his email and responded.

St. Pierre was the only student at the school who knew about the video until the assembly.

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Kids News

Toronto School Bans Balls

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Students at Earl Beatty Public School in Toronto aren’t allowed to play with balls in their school playground any more.

The school has banned balls – including soccer balls, footballs, baseballs and tennis balls – from its playground.

Kids can only play with soft, foam balls such as Nerf balls.

The ban was put in place after a parent was hit in the head with a soccer ball and suffered a concussion.

The school’s principal, Alicia Fernandez, said kids were often getting hurt by balls in the playground.

She said they were sometimes scared.

She also pointed out that the school has a very small outdoor play area.

Some parents say the ban is an overreaction.

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Politics

Young People Can Get Involved In Upcoming Election

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Ontario, like four other Canadian provinces, will hold a provincial election this fall.

Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) and the Premier of the province will be chosen.

Depending on the province and district, other positions will also be elected.

In one of Ontario’s districts, Scarborough-Agincourt, Soo Wong is running for MPP.

TKN asked her what young people can do to feel part of the political process when they’re not yet old enough to vote.

“It is the responsibility of every Canadian to understand what elections are about,” she said. “All of the young people will sooner or later become adults. It’s not just about today, but about moving this province forward.”

She said that young people need to be knowledgeable about the candidates and the issues so that when it is their time to vote, they are prepared.

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Kids

Nine-Year-Old Kids Pass University Math Exam

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If you took a university math exam, how do you think you’d do?

Paula and Peter Imafidon are nine-year-old twins. They live in England, and last year they became the youngest people to ever pass Cambridge University’s advanced mathematics exam.

A reporter asked them how hard they had to work in order to pass the exam. Paula said she treats math like a game, so it’s not really “work” to her.

Peter said the exam had some questions that “may seem difficult but are very easy once you get in the swing of it.” Of course, Peter is speaking as someone to whom math comes very easy—the questions are very tough, especially for kids their age.

The family’s other children, Anne-Marie, Christiana and Samantha are also exceptionally good at math.

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News

Catholic School Board Could Turn Libraries Into “Tech Zones”

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Last month the Catholic School Board in Windsor, Ont., decided to eliminate all of its libraries and librarians.

Paul Picard, the director of the school board, recently changed this decision, saying the libraries just need to be “retooled.”

They wanted to get rid of the libraries to save money, since the school board in Windsor was hit hard by the recession.

The goal was to make libraries less book-centered, instead putting the books into classrooms throughout the school and making the library a tech-zone. The library would become a ‘learning commons area’ and would not need to be a quiet place for reading. The libraries would be a place for research and digital literacy.

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Health Kids

Exercise + Learning = Better Test Scores

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Combining exercise and school work may boost kids’ ability to learn, according to a new study.

Researchers looked at students in grades 1 to 6 in a school in South Carolina where students often didn’t do well on tests. They increased the children’s gym classes from 40 minutes a week to 40 minutes a day and changed their exercise programs so the kids were doing exercise and learning at the same time.

For instance, the kids in grades 1 and 2 hopped through ladders while naming the colours on each rung. Or they crawled across the floor, recognizing and calling out different shapes.

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News

Students Don’t Want Cellphones In Class: Survey

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Recently, a survey was done to find out what highschool students think is important.

The survey was done by the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association. more than 2,600 students, mostly in Grade 12, were asked their opinions on many issues. The survey was done through Facebook and e-mail.

Here is what students said:

* Cellphones should not be allowed in the classroom. Less than one-third of all of the students surveyed said cellphones should be used in class as an educational tool.

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