Readable, teachable news.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
The kids at many elementary and high schools in Ontario may not be participating in after-school sports or clubs for awhile.
That’s because the teachers who run the programs have been asked by their union to consider stop running them and to stop coaching.
Teachers in Ontario are part of a “labour union.” A union is a group of workers who band together for a common goal.
An “underpass” is a road or a tunnel that goes beneath another road. Toronto has some dark and gloomy underpasses.
Dark and gloomy, that is, until this summer.
That’s when an organization called Waterfront Toronto built something incredible.
Where there used to be garbage and weeds, there is now a fun playground with a safe, rubbery floor, a skateboard and scooter park and a basketball court.
There are also swings, climbers, a teeter-totter and benches for people to relax on.
Underpass Park covers 2.5 acres underneath three on- and off-ramps that lead to the DVP in East Toronto.
Before the park was built, Toronto’s Mayor Rob Ford said he wasn’t sure the space could be transformed.
But when he came to open the park on Aug. 2, he loved it.
It’s hot outside. But just how hot? It’s “heat-wave” hot.
That’s according to Environment Canada, the official source for weather information in Canada, particularly for severe weather watches and warnings.
A heat wave is when the temperature outside reaches 32-degrees Celsius or higher for three or more days in a row.
Southern Ontario and Quebec are experiencing temperatures in the mid-30s. With the high humidity the provinces are also experiencing, the temperature outside feels more like 42 degrees.
Toronto is banning plastic shopping bags in stores.
Starting in January 2013, you’ll have to bring your own reusable bag to the store to cart your goods away.
More than 250 million bags end up in landfill every year, never breaking down into compost, according to a report by CBC News.
Plastic bags can also clog drainage systems and, when they are washed out to sea, can hurt fish and other marine animals.
The people who are rebuilding the High Park castle are getting some high-profile help.
Mike Holmes is a celebrity contractor. A contractor is someone who is skilled at the kinds of jobs needed to build or renovate homes. Contractors hire and oversee all of the work—for instance, electrical, plumbing, carpentry and design work.
Holmes became famous for his motto, “make it right.” On his TV show, he rescues homeowners from renovations that have gone wrong and he brings in workers who fix the house properly and “make it right.”
Holmes also does a lot of charity work. On one of his TV shows, he helps people in New Orleans whose houses were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Now he’s lending a hand to help rebuild the children’s play castle in the High Park neighbourhood of Toronto, Ont. Much of the wooden structure was destroyed by a fire last March.
If you were sitting outside on April 16 in Eastern North America, you may have seen a wondrous site. That day, millions of Red Admiral butterflies flew in – or perhaps “blew in” – from the southern United States.
Drew Monkman is a local natualist (“nature watcher”) and writer, living in Peterborough, Ont. He tracks the habits of animals including butterflies.
He told TKN that the April 16 migration was “completely unprecedented. (The Red Admiral has) never been seen in these kinds of numbers.”
He said on that day there were probably several million butterflies, most of them Red Admiral, but there were other species as well.
Drew Monkman is a naturalist and butterfly expert living in Peterborough, Ont.
Why did this happen? This year in the southern United States like Texas, where the butterflies began their journey, the winter was “amazingly mild,” said Monkman. This allowed more butterflies to survive the winter and reproduce.
On Tuesday, Brett Lawrie — a baseball player for the Toronto Blue Jays — lost control of his emotions during a game.
Lawrie was batting, and the umpire made a couple of calls that Lawrie disagreed with.
In Major League Baseball (MLB), there are four umpires including the home-plate umpire.
He is the one who decides if a pitch was a “ball” or a “strike.”
The pitcher pitches and when the ball crosses home plate the umpire makes a quick decision as to whether it was a good pitch (called a strike) or a bad pitch (called a ball).
If a batter gets three strikes against him he strikes out.
If a batter gets four balls against him he gets a ‘walk’ and is allowed to go to first base.
Last year around this time, a royal couple visited Canada.
Prince William (second in line to the throne of England) had just gotten married to Catherine Middleton and the two spent much of their honeymoon touring Canada.
Next month Canada will get a visit from another royal couple—this time, it’s the father of the groom. Prince Charles is William’s father.
Charles is first in line to the throne. That means that when his mother—Queen Elizabeth—steps down, Charles will become king.
Charles will come to Canada with his second wife, Camilla.
Charles’ first wife was one of the most well-known and popular celebrities in the world, Princess Diana.
(Princess Di, as she was known, was killed in a car crash in 1997. When that happened, millions of people around the world mourned.)
Charles and Camilla will tour New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan from May 20 to 23.
Toronto’s mayor is involved in another bizarre situation. This time, mayor Rob Ford, had a confrontation with a reporter from the Toronto Star newspaper.
(You may recall a past TeachingKidsNews article when Mayor Ford was confronted by a CBC comedian on his property, and called the police. Here is a link to that article.)
In this case, the Star found out that Ford intends to buy some property next to his home. Ironically, Ford wants to buy the property in order to erect a security fence.
Star reporter Daniel Dale went to Ford’s home around 7:45 p.m. to look at the property and take some pictures of it.
One of Ford’s neighbours called the mayor and told him someone was snooping around his house.
Ford got very angry. He drove home and confronted the reporter.
Last week Canada’s Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, spent $138.98 on a new pair of black dress shoes.
Why? Because he was announcing a new budget.
Flaherty is in charge of presenting Canada’s budget, which is why he bought the new shoes.
It’s a tradition in Canada that the Finance Minister wears new shoes to present the budget.
According to Wikipedia no one really knows why, but it’s something most Canadian Finance Ministers have done since the 1960s. It’s a tradition.
This year, the federal government structured its budget to reduce Canada’s annual deficit to zero by 2015.
A deficit happens when a government spends more than it collects in a year.
