Thursday, 10 June, 2021
Snow, snow everywhere!; NSW win State of Origin; Collingwood needs a coach; and whales blowing bubbles.
LINKS
Whales bubble net feeding https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2021/jun/09/researchers-confirm-first-sighting-of-humpback-whales-bubble-net-feeding-in-australia-video
Judy Garland’s famous Wizard of Oz song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZxmZmBfnU
QUESTIONS FOR SQUIZ KIDS in MELBOURNE – ‘My Lockdown Life’
Remember to answer in full sentences, with lots of good details!
1) What was the best part and the worst part of your lockdown day today?
2) What do you miss the most about school? Why?
3) How are your parents coping in lockdown? And what about your brothers, sisters and grandparents?
4) What’s the one thing you think we should all do to beat this coronavirus once and for all?
5) Close your eyes and imagine the one place you’d rather be right now instead of in lockdown … where is it?
What To Do:
Get a big person in your house to sit down and record the questions and your answers on a smart device (a phone or tablet, for example). Try to do it somewhere quiet! And remember to make sure when you speak, you’re nice and close to the microphone! Then email the audio file to [email protected] – and listen all this week to see if you’ve been featured!
Squiz Kids Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/squizkids/?hl=en
Got a birthday coming up and you want a shout-out? Send us an email at [email protected]
Squiz Kids is proudly supported by the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
Snow in the Sunshine State? Frost on the ground in Queensland? Surely not! But that’s the prediction from the weather bureau for today as large parts of Australia shiver under what, for some places, will be the coldest temperatures for almost 40 years.
The Bureau of Meteorology – whose job it is to track weather patterns and predict the weather every day – expect that temperatures across large parts of Australia could drop to 10 degrees below average over the next couple of days.
What does ‘below average’ mean? It’s a maths thing. It means if you added up all the temperatures recorded for this time of year since records have been kept, and then divided that number by the number of years – you would get a number that is the average temperature. And right now, the mercury is sitting much lower than it normally would for this time of the year. So, look, yes, it’s getting cold in here.
There were huge dumps of snow in the NSW and Victorian ski fields yesterday with blizzard conditions predicted for today. Snow was falling too in country NSW towns including Orange – as a polar blast direct from Antarctica swept across south-eastern Australia and made its way north.
Safe to say winter has well and truly arrived. Stay warm out there people…
SPIN THE GLOBE
Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops. And today we’ve landed in New Zealand – where our cuzzy bros in Auckland are celebrating after being named the most liveable city in the world.
What is a liveable city? It’s a measure of how safe and nice and inexpensive it is to live somewhere compared to other cities in the world.
And thanks to New Zealand’s relatively good handling of the pandemic – Auckland has jumped to the top of the global list, nudging out European cities, like Vienna, which came first last year.
On the home front: Adelaide is the big winner – coming in as the third most liveable city in the word. Take a bow Adelaide! Followed by Perth at number 6, Melbourne at 9 and Brisbane at 10. Poor old Sydney – which was last year ranked the world’s third most liveable city – slipped down to 11th place. But overall, with six of the top ten cities being in either Australia or New Zealand – we should be feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. And dare I say, grateful?
SPORTS TIME
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If you live in an AFL state, the big news yesterday was that Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley had quit as coach of the Pies. After ten years in charge, Buckley yesterday told reporters that ‘nothing lasts forever’ and it was clear that it was time for change.
If you live in NSW or Queensland – or happen to be one of those people who lives in an AFL-mad state but loves rugby league – yesterday was otherwise all about State of Origin. And yes, you have to say it exactly like that.
And what a game it was … you’ve heard the expression ‘whitewash’, yeah? To describe a result where one team completely dominated the other one? Well this was a blue-wash … as in the NSW Blues wiping the floor with the Queensland Maroons. The final score was 50-6 … making it NSW’s biggest winning margin in the history of Origin. Boom!
ANIMAL KINGDOM
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The waters off the east coast of Australia have become something of a humpback highway as whales make their way north from Antarctica to the warm waters of the Great Barrier Reef to have their babies. And it’s during this migration that scientists have observed a hunting method among the humpbacks that previously had only been seen in the northern hemisphere.
Called ‘bubble netting’ – the whales dive deep, swim in a circle blowing bubbles – as the bubbles rise to the surface, they force fish and plankton into the middle of the circle, and the whales come charging up and gulp them down. So clever.
There’s a link in today’s episode notes to a video of bubble netting whales in action. You’re very welcome.
My Lockdown Life
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And it’s back to school tomorrow for Melbourne kids following news some of the stage four lockdown restrictions will be eased at midnight tonight … And if the responses we’ve had for the past fortnight to our special segment, My Lockdown Life, are any indication – it will come as a blessed relief. Missing friends, missing teachers, missing sports time on the oval, missing the playground were all given as reasons why Squiz Kids in Melbourne – and Victoria more generally – couldn’t wait to get back into the classroom .. and then there’s the issue of how other members of the family are coping… as these contributions from Melbourne Squiz Kids show …
AUDIO
Thanks to Lolly, Lilla, Jackson, and Eloise, for those answers.
Don’t forget if you’re in Melbourne and you want to share your Lockdown Life – simply record yourself answering the five questions in today’s episode notes and send the audio file to [email protected]. And be listening tomorrow to see if you’ve been featured in our special episode … Oh – and if you’re near a TV tomorrow morning, tune in to the Today Show where some of the ‘My Lockdown Life’ contributors will be featured … yep – Squiz Kids on the telly … we’re totes excited…
THE S’QUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- Which city in Australia has been ranked the third most liveable city in the world?
- Which team has AFL coach Nathan Buckley just stepped down from coaching?
- Which marine animals have been filmed bubble-net feeding off the coast of Australia?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s June 10 … birthday of Where The Wild Things Are author, Maurice Sendak; and birthday of Judy Garland, who played Dorothy in the movie version of The Wizard of Oz. I’ve stuck a link to a famous song from that movie in today’s episode notes …
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today… Sara from Bateman’s Bay, Scarlett from Gosford East, Rose from Leichhardt, Alexis from Croydon Park, Ryan from Albany Hill, Eli from Tweed Heads, Alfie from Ferntree Gully, Claudia from Concord, Eva from Newcastle East, Mya from Como West, Aarav from Erskineville, Albert from Double Bay, and Alexis from Croydon Park.
And some belated birthday shoutouts to … Brandan from Wallaroo, Frederick and Isaac from Mt Eliza and Jenna from Albury
Classroom shoutouts… Miss Wade’s Year 5/6 class at Trinity school, class 5B at North Ryde Public School, Mr Doran’s 4H class at St Mary’s in Swan Hill, Mrs Fordyce and Mrs Vella’s classes at St Brendan’s Catholic Primary School in Mackay, and class 3/4M with Miss Colwill at Temora West Public School
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Adelaide .. or Radelaide as it’s known to locals.
- Collingwood
- Humpback whales