Tag: kids

Kids Sports

Nick Gilbert: What’s Not To Like?

An unlikely hero helped lift the spirits of Cleveland Cavalier fans last week at the NBA draft lottery.

The draft is when basketball teams choose, or draft, players for the upcoming year. In the draft lottery, which happens every year, the 14 teams that didn’t make the playoffs compete to decide who will get their first overall choice of players. Everyone wants to get first pick so they can choose the best player for their team.

This year Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cavaliers, sent his 14-year-old son Nick, to the lottery to represent the team. He hoped Nick would bring them good luck.

Health Science

High School Student Working On Cystic Fibrosis

Thousands of young students across Canada take part in science projects to learn about the world around them.

Marshall Zhang, 16, in grade 11 in Richmond Hill, Ont., earned first place in a national science competition this year. He discovered something amazing while doing research on a disease called cystic fibrosis.

Marshall used a supercomputer network called SCINET. He had never used the network before, but quickly learned how to use it because he was already good at using computers.

“Marshall applied his interest and skills in computer graphics, which he developed while in Grade 5 and 6, to solve problems presented by cystic fibrosis,” said Tony Legault, the Toronto co-ordinator for the Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge science competition.

Politics

Youngest-Ever Canadian MP Elected To Parliament

Nineteen-year-old Pierre-Luc Dusseault has a summer job. But he won’t be working at McDonald’s or as a lifeguard, like many kids his age. Instead, he’ll be in Canada’s House of Commons in Ottawa, earning more than $100,000 a year.

The first-year university student ran as the local Member of Parliament for his area (or riding) of Sherbrooke, Que., during the recent federal election–and he won.

He now has a seat in the House of Commons, along with 307 other MPs. However, Dusseault stands out because he is officially the youngest Canadian MP ever, at the age of 19 years (and 11 months).

Dusseault is a member of the NDP (New Democrat Party) and was the co-founder and president of the NDP association at his university. It comes as no surprise to his parents that he landed his amazing new job, since he was always interested in politics and was studying political science in university.

Health Kids

Exercise + Learning = Better Test Scores

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.

People playing ball hockey in Toronto; Image: Joyce Grant, www.teachkidsnews.com
News

Street Hockey Banned In Toronto – Or Is It?

Canada loves hockey! It’s one of the country’s two national sports.

Right across the country, lots of kids play street hockey (or ball hockey) after school. A few kids, some sticks, nets if you have them, and a ball – that’s all you need for a great afterschool game.

But you may not know that street hockey is banned in Toronto.

Of course, many people – adults and kids alike – play the game anyway. They may not know it’s banned, or they may simply play and just hope they don’t get caught.

The City of Toronto is deciding whether to keep the by-law or change it to make street hockey legal.

Josh Matlow is a city councillor in Toronto. He thinks the by-law banning street hockey does not make sense since many people play street hockey anyway. He is fighting to lift the ban, especially for people who live on a residential street.

Entertainment Kids

You Can Read It With A Fox: The New Dr. Seuss Book, That Is

Seven new Dr. Seuss stories have been discovered, and publisher Random House is publishing them in a new book called The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss.

The stories were published in the 1950s in magazines, but they have never been put into book form before.

Charles D. Cohen discovered the stories. He is a dentist but his hobby is studying Dr. Seuss. He has the largest private collection of Seuss memorabilia (toys, clothing, books) in the world.

The new book will have seven stories in it, including Steak for Supper, about fantastic creatures who follow a boy home hoping for a steak dinner; The Bippolo Seed, in which a scheming feline leads an innocent duck to make a bad decision, and The Strange Shirt Spot, which was the inspiration for the bathrub-ring scene in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.

Kids Sports

The Shediac Capitals Play Hockey – And Read

The kids on the Shediac Capitals hockey team do all the usual stuff everyone else does: they gear up, put on skates and helmets, then they hit the ice.

During practices they do drills, learn new moves, shoot pucks, and field goals.

After practice, they go into the dressing room, unlace their skates and take off their gear, just like any other team.

But then the Shediac Capitals do something very different. They get out their books.

After every hockey practice, the grade-school aged kids who make up the Shediac Capitals in Moncton, NB have a reading circle.

Lighter News

UK Railway Museum’s “Director Of Fun”

Two years ago, six-year-old Sam Pointon landed his dream job at the National Railway Museum in England. He became the museum’s Director of Fun, a position he still holds today.

While on holiday with his family, his father noticed in the newspaper that Andrew Scott would be retiring after 15 years of being the museum director.

Sam’s hobby was trains. He loved everything about them.

Entertainment Kids

That’s So Weird – Uh, Funny!

Sometimes weird can be good.

Weird can be funny too, as demonstrated on the popular YTV show That’s So Weird. The Canadian television show is a sketch comedy program about a group of teenagers working at a fictional television station called So Weird TV.

That’s So Weird has been running for two seasons. The episodes are made up of silly commercials and even sillier television shows. Skits include spoofs of real-life TV programs like Degrassi: The Next Generation, This Is Daniel Cook and the UFC. They have even poked fun at the Twilight movies and Glee.

Kids News

Bilaal Rajan: Underage Overachiever

Bilaal Rajan is an “Underage Overachiever,” just as the title of his book suggests. The 14-year-old teenager from Toronto has devoted much of his life to helping people. He gave a speech at Ryerson University last Thursday to spread his message of “giving” to students. He hopes that by talking about what he’s done, he can inspire other kids to make a difference in their community.

Bilaal started his life of giving when he was only four years old. After feeling personally affected by earthquake victims in India, he started selling Clementine oranges door-to-door in his neighbourhood.