Wednesday, 21 July, 2021
Brissie Olympics announcement day; Lockdown-a-palooza; Bucks and Suns fight for NBA crown; and Maxi the marvelous escape tortoise.
LINKS
Maxi the tortoise: https://nypost.com/2021/07/19/runaway-tortoise-reunited-with-owner-a-year-after-he-escaped/
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
——
And it’s lockdown-a-palooza across south eastern Australia today after South Australia last night joined Greater Sydney and all of Victoria imposing a lockdown as that dastardly Delta variant of the COVID virus continues to cause havoc across the country.
South Australian school kids will today join their Victorian and Greater Sydney-dwelling counterparts by starting home learning today. That sound you hear? It’s the uncontrolled weeping of parents everywhere.
The southern state will be in lockdown for the next seven days … just like Victoria – which yesterday announced it would be extending its lockdown for seven days. Yep: more learning at home for you too Victorian Squiz Kids.
Of course, kids in Greater Sydney are now in their second week of online classes.
Which is why here at Squiz Kids: we’ve created a new little pop-up segment called Home Learning Herograms: where we’re inviting teachers and parents to send a shout out via us to the hard working little people in their lives. Keep listening for details on how to get involved.
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 England, where a tortoise called Maxi has just attempted the world’s longest, slowest and least successful getaway.
Maxi the reptilian tortoise somehow managed to climb the 30 centimetre fence of his enclosure to sneak away from his owner. Back in August last year.
Yesterday, Maxi was found by some people walking in nearby fields. In one year, he had managed to travel a grand total of 965 metres. So, not even one kilometre in a year. The clever maths people among you will know that means that during his big adventure, Maxi travelled an average speed of 11 centimetres per hour. Which is about as fast as my kids move when it’s time to stop watching television, clean their teeth and go to bed.
Maxi has been reunited with his owner, who was super excited to see him – but told reporters it was the second time Maxi had tried to run away. Hang in there Maxi .. third time’s a charm.
There’s a link in today’s episode notes to a photo of Maxi.
SPORTS TIME
—–
Brisbane … are you ready? Ready to pop the champagne corks and set off fireworks and generally go wild with celebrations? Because tonight – unless something highly unexpected happens – you will be named the host city for the 2032 Olympic Games ..(cheering) .. I know right? What about that? The first Olympic Games on home soil that you lot will know. The announcement will be made in Tokyo around 6pm Australian Eastern time ..
The other big sporting event that will unfurl this morning is the all-important NBA Finals basketball game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns. If the Bucks and their star forward, the Greek basketball god Giannis Antetokounmpo win – it will be their first title in 50 years. If the Suns win, it will be their first NBA title ever. Game on!
ANIMAL KINGDOM
—–
Pigs … cute as a button, curly-tailed little oinkers … what’s not to love? Well, if you live in Australia – which I happen to know a lot of you do – and you give a hoot about the environment: which I suspect a lot of you do: then there’s one type of pig that’s a problem.
I’m talking about feral pigs. Now – what’s a feral pig? It’s a wild pig – as in a pig that lives in the bush. And in Australia, they’re a massive problem. They’re what’s known as an ‘invasive species’ because not only do they kill native animals, destroy crops and spread disease – it has now been found they are a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions – which are a major cause of climate change.
Here’s how they do it: wild pigs are like mini tractors: they dig up soil looking for food. That exposes tiny micro-organisms in the soil to oxygen. Those little creatures multiply rapidly and produce carbon dioxide emissions – which warm the planet.
A new report by Queensland scientists has found the world’s population of feral pigs puts the same amount of carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere as 1.1 million cars! And that here in Australia, there are approximately 24 million feral pigs. That’s one porky pie of a problem.
THE S’QUIZ
—————–
This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- What massive international sporting event is Brisbane expected to host in 2032?
- What sort of a creature is Maxi – the world’s slowest escape artist?
- Which wild animals are causing climate chaos according to researchers?
SHOUT OUTS
——————-–
It’s July 21 … Australia’s softball team will take part in the very first event of the Tokyo Olympics today when they take on the host nation, Japan. Aussie Aussie Aussie …
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today .. Oscar from Orange, Levi from Albany Hills, Maddy from North Nowra, George from Canberra, Chloe from Arana Hills, Lucas from Abbotsford, Grace from Randwick, Juliette from Gerald and Dwelle from Googong.
Belated birthday shout outs too to …Anaya from Box Hill and Imogen from Albany Hills.
And today’s Home Learning Herograms go to class 3H from Lauriston Girls’ School in Armadale, Victoria – whose teacher Mrs Harris reports have a positive attitude every morning they log on for home lessons; and also to class 5/6BM at Ellison Public School in Springwood, in the Blue Mountains of NSW – whose teachers Ms Boundy and Mrs McMahon say are ‘rock stars’ for the way they are helping each other on Google classroom.
And finally – today’s classroom shout outs go to…Miss Cocoran and 5R at All Saints Parish Primary in Albany Hills, Mrs Fields and 3H at St Anthony’s Primary in Kedron, Class 3 Red and Mr Harry at The Fraser Coast Anglican College and lastly a belated shout out from Years 2 & 3 at Kununurra Primary School to Miss Sutton, who recently finished her prac teaching.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- The Olympics
- Tortoise
- Feral pigs