Tag: grade 8

Kids News

“Adventure” Playgrounds Can Build Confidence

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At a place called The Land, in Wrexham, Wales, the ground is littered with pieces of wood, old tires, packing crates, and shopping carts. It looks like a junkyard, but it isn’t. It’s a playground.
There’s also a fire pit, hammers and saws, and a rope swing across a creek. Some of the equipment can be dangerous, but the people who run the playground believe that letting children take some risks is good for them.
The Land was created by Claire Griffiths, who has two children of her own. She wanted to build a space where children could play the way they wanted and experiment with different things, without a lot of rules.

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Health News Politics

Students March “For Our Lives”

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Young people in more than 800 cities in the United States and around the world took to the streets last Saturday to protest.

It was called “The March for our Lives.” The students were protesting for “gun control” which in this case means they want stricter gun laws in the United States.

Canada’s gun laws are different than in the United States, in terms of when and how someone can buy a gun. Canada has “fairly strict gun laws,” according to a recent article in The Walrus magazine. Canada has “detailed licensing procedures, age restrictions, and background checks required before you can purchase a firearm.”

The students want politicians in the United States to make it harder for people to buy guns. They say that will make everyone safer.

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News Politics

Viola Desmond On New Canadian $10 Bill

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Canadian hero Viola Desmond is the face on the new $10 bill in Canada, which goes into circulation at the end of March.

Viola Desmond was thrown in jail in Nova Scotia in 1946 because, in a movie theatre, she wanted to sit downstairs where the white people were allowed to sit. She didn’t want to sit up in the balcony, where the black people had to sit. The police held her in jail overnight. The dignified and brave Desmond paid a fine of $20 the next day, even though she had done nothing wrong. Today, we think of her for being a brave advocate for the rights of African-Canadians and helping to inspire the human rights movement in Canada.

It is a great honour to have your face on a country’s money. This is the first time an African-Canadian woman has been featured on Canadian paper money.

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News Primary

China’s Xi Jinping Could Become President For Life

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Under the current laws in China, the country’s president, Xi Jinping, would have to give up his job in 2023.

Now, he is trying to change that law.

That is causing some people to be concerned that he may try to become a “dictator” and retain power for many years.

The issue is about China’s “term limits” for its president. In other words, one person can only be president for a certain length of time–in this case, 10 years (two terms of five years each).

Xi Jinping became president in 2012. His term would end in 2023, although he could choose to continue on in another high-level job in the government. But he appears to have decided that he would rather remove term limits altogether, which means that he could choose to be president for the rest of his life.

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Science Technology

The Truth About Tech

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Some of the people who created many popular apps are telling kids to put their phones away–at least, a bit more often.
The Center for Humane Technology is made up of people who used to work for big tech companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Now they want kids to stop using those apps and websites so much.
In early February the Center, along with Common Sense Media, launched an awareness campaign called the Truth About Tech. Its goal is to teach students, parents and teachers about the dangers of spending too much time on smart phones and tablets.

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News Sports

Inspiring, Heartwarming and Funny Stories From The PyeongChang Winter Olympics

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The Olympics and Paralympics bring out the best in people, and the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics are no exception.

As athletes set aside their countries’ differences and test themselves against the best of the best, a sense of mutual respect puts everyone on a level playing field. And that can make for some inspirational, funny and heart-warming moments.

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News Politics Sports

Winter Olympics More Than Just Sports

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The 2018 Winter Olympic Games are on now, in PyeongChang, South Korea.
The location is very significant. South Korea and North Korea are not on friendly terms. But the Olympics may be bringing them closer together, politically.
North Korea is a “dictatorship.” That means, one person rules it. That person is Kim Jong-un, known as the “Supreme Leader.” He is known for being extremely strict and harsh with his country’s people. He keeps his country separated from the rest of the world. It is usually hard to know what is going on in North Korea, because free communication is not allowed in or out of the country.
But the Winter Olympics may help to thaw relations between North and South Korea.

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News Politics

“In All Of Us Command”

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Some of the words to Canada’s national anthem have been changed. In O Canada, the line, “in all thy sons command” has been changed to “in all of us command.” Last week, Canada passed Bill C-210. That bill changes “the National Anthem Act to substitute the words “of us” for the words “thy sons” in the English version of the national anthem, thus making it gender neutral.” Once the bill is approved by the Governor General, it will be come a law.

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News

Nutella Chaos In France

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People in France love Nutella, a sweet chocolate-hazelnut spread.
So when a large chain of grocery stores offered the spread last week for 70 per cent off its regular price, customers clamoured to get it. They pushed and shoved their way through crowds to buy as much of it as they could, according to news reports by many organization such as CBC News, The Guardian, Forbes, Le Parisien and The New York Times.
A 950-gram jar of the spread normally sells in France for 4,70 €. For three days, from Thursday, Jan. 25 until Saturday, Jan. 27, the grocery chain Intermarché offered Nutella for 70 per cent off, or about 1,41 €.

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Breaking News News Politics

US Government Shuts Down (ARTICLE UPDATED)

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The federal government of the United States was shut down Friday at midnight.

The shutdown means that most of the services provided by the federal government won’t be available.

It happened because the government failed to get enough votes to pass its 2018 federal budget; it needed 60 votes but only got 50. (The budget is an important document that details how the government will spend money. Without a budget, the government cannot fully operate.)

Both of the major parties in the United States are blaming each other. The Democrats are blaming Trump and his Republican Party and vice-versa.

The reasons for the shutdown are complicated, and they have to do with the fact that government bills are usually about more than one thing. Voters have to agree to the whole bill when they vote for it. One of the reasons the Democrats didn’t vote to pass the budget had to do with the “DACA” part of the bill.

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