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ABC Listen. Hey there, my friends, it's Ruby here, and you're listening to News Time.
Hello, Ruby. Hello.
On News Time today, we're going to hear about a week that's especially for celebrating kids.
We'll also witness a battle of the bugs, and we'll hear about a turtle in the spotlight.
How does that sound?
Let's hear news. Starry number five.
Next week is Children's Week.
We can share with kids because they like sheeps and stuff.
Because children are important.
They sure are. Children's Week is held every year in Australia, and it celebrates children and their place in our society.
It celebrates their rights and their achievements.
What are your favourite things about being a kid?
My favourite thing about being a kid is my birthday.
My favourite thing about being a kid is learning new stuff, like learning about space.
Going to school so we can see friends.
Being a kid sounds awesome.
In each state and territory, there are events held to celebrate children and childhood.
Childhood is the word for the time that you spend being a child.
Not every kid in the world has a great childhood.
So Children's Week is also a time to think about how we can make things better for all kids, no matter where they are.
The theme for Children's Week this year is Children have the right to a clean and safe environment.
That means children should get to live in a world where the environment is healthy, and it means adults have to work hard to make sure that's the case.
We need a clean environment to be healthy.
Kids can cook after the plants and the animals.
You are so right. Kids do a great job caring for the environment, and grown -ups are getting better at it too.
There are lots of ways you can get involved with Children's Week, and there are ways you can celebrate being a child in the comfort of your own home.
Maybe you can share something you're passionate about with your family, or head to the park, or draw a picture of your favourite thing about being a kid.
Happy Children's Week!
Recently we celebrated a very different kind of week.
Fat Bear Week. I like to see a big chubby bear.
In Katmai National Park in the United States of America, the brown bears that call the park home are gearing up for a cold winter.
People watch online as the bears eat kilos and kilos of fish, and berries, and flowers, and herbs, and roots, and they fatten themselves up for a time called hibernation.
Hibernation is when animals slow down and sleep for most of the winter time.
Because bears will be resting for so long, they need enough food in their tummies not to have to hunt for a few months.
People love to watch online because the bears start summer as skinny and they finish their summer well fed and chunky.
A girl like, oh baby, it's like that, not this.
At the end of the summer, the viewers vote on who they think did the best job bulking up for winter.
The winner of Fat Bear Week this year is a female brown bear named Grazer.
If you've been following the event for a while, you may recall Grazer won last year as well.
The mama bear ate above and beyond the bear minimum to take the crown two years in a row.
That is a big bear.
She looks like she's a bit grumpy because she had to eat all those foods.
She looks very fluffy.
That's the biggest bear I've ever seen!
Grazer was an audience favourite.
The fierce mama bear took care of her cubs, defended them from predators, and managed to eat and eat and eat and eat.
Congratulations Grazer.
See you next summer.
Story number three.
At special greenhouses across South Australia, farmers grow heaps of delicious nutritious fruits and herbs and veggies.
They need sunlight, water and the right type of soil.
Yes, those are some things that plants need but what they could do without are the unwelcome visitors who sometimes stop by.
Some bugs chomp and chew on crops and plants and cause big headaches for farmers.
To get rid of them, growers have to use something called pesticides.
Pesticides are chemicals that get rid of pests, but it's not very good for the plants if too much pesticides are used.
Can you think of any other ideas to get rid of bugs?
We could put something around it so that bugs can't get it, like in it.
We could like catch the bugs and put them in a tub with holes in the top because we still want bugs to survive.
They can be very good for our world.
These growers have come up with a different way to get rid of unwanted bugs.
More bugs! What? They're getting bugs to solve other bugs.
It's a bug fight! Yes, it's a battle of the bugs!
The growers have introduced a little wasp called an aphidious wasp.
They find little bugs called aphids.
The wasps lay their eggs inside the aphid and use the aphid as a sort of mini cocoon.
The aphid dies and a new wasp flies free.
Pretty gnarly stuff.
I think the wasp will win.
One female wasp can lay eggs in 300 aphids so these growers have a pretty good feeling about this plan.
They're hoping it will keep their plants free from pests and they won't have to use as much pesticide.
So far the results have been good.
No wonder the growers of South Australia are a buzz with excitement.
Story number two. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have told stories on this land for thousands of years.
They tell stories orally.
That means by speaking.
But they also share stories through song and dance.
One of these stories is Waru.
It's been told by a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dancers called Bangarra.
Waru is a dance show for kids and it tells the story of a little turtle finding its way back to the beach after it's hatched.
The turtle faces lots of challenges like nets and hunters and predators, but she powers on through it all.
A lady's gone like, why is this turtle out of the water?
A woman is looking after a turtle and putting it back into the water.
The story is mostly told through dancing, but there are some words spoken in a language called Creole too.
That's one of the languages of the Torres Strait Islands.
In fact, Waru means turtle in the language Creole.
The show Waru makes the audience think about the environment and how to take care of it, and about Torres Strait Islander values, like respect and kindness.
I think it's cool. It's a good idea.
I want to go see that show.
The dancers love telling the story of Waru and sharing part of their culture.
They're teaching it a new generation about the importance of our environment.
It's good to tell people about your culture.
The Bangarra dancers plan to share their show with lots of people around the country, and recently they had a special performance on Wyburne, a Torres Strait Island, and the source of the story.
The dancers said it felt extra powerful to tell this important story in a new way.
And now, my friends, it's time for...
Wow, the week. This story made me go wow because it must be really tiring to ride thousands of kilometres.
Sazari Carmichael and Leo Norman are teenage friends and bonafide bird lovers.
Recently they finished high school, and they spend their spare time out in nature, keeping quiet and seeing which birds they can spot.
This hobby is called Twitching or birdwatching.
They take their birdwatching so seriously that they're spending a whole year travelling around Australia on bicycles.
The bikes move slowly enough that Leo and Sazari can really take in the landscape as they travel, and hopefully spot more birds than they'd be able to if they were in a car.
The pair are going to travel 15 ,000 kilometres over the year, trying to catch a glimpse of 700 different species of Australian native birds.
Really? Wow. 15 ,000 kilometres is a huge distance.
It's like going back and forth across the whole of Australia four times.
They must be going uphill down here, even in deserts.
Pretty tiring. Maybe they'll just love riding their bike.
It's not just the love of bike riding and birdwatching that's beckoned Sazari and Leo to the road.
They're also using their trip to raise money to help build a school in a country called Timor -Leste.
The biking buddies have raised $100 ,000.
Sazari says you could spend that money on a big fancy car, but in the country Timor -Leste, that money can build a whole school for more than 100 kids.
It's a pretty impressive project for two friends to embark on, don't you reckon?
Maybe they're just generous people.
So the kids can have fun and learn.
Leo and Sazari are still out on the road right now, cycling along and stopping for a rest when they need it.
They've still got a little way to go and some more birds to spot before they're through.
They plan to finish their journey in Melbourne by November.
Happy travels, Sazari and Leo.
Keep it up, great job.
You can do it. Keep riding that bike.
We believe in you. And time to squeeze the brakes on our bike now because we are at the end of our countdown.
Thanks Ruby. Bye Ruby.
You are so very welcome.
I'll catch you next week with five new stories.
Bye, see you later.
See you later, or as they say in Serbian, Dovi Dnya.
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