Squiz Kids acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands on which we podcast the Turrbal and Kombomary people.
Squiz Kids! It's your daily news fix.
Fun, free, fresh. Hello and welcome to Squiz Kids Today.
Your fresh take on what's happening in the world around you.
I'm Bryce Corbett. It's Thursday June 5.
in Squizz Kids today.
Plastics battle for World Environment today.
Pilgrims head to Mecca for the Hajj.
Squizzy sniffs a polyporky and sloths the size of elephants.
That's what's making news Kid Style!
The lowdown. Take a look out the window today and take a moment to think about how amazing our planet is.
The blue sky, the trees, the ocean, the amazing landscapes and all the plants and animals that thrive in them.
And that's because today is World Environment Day, organised by the United Nations to get every country in the world thinking about how we can work together to take special care of this precious planet we live on.
And the focus this year is on plastics.
Now, plastic is an amazing thing and so much of our modern lives from medicine to household items to industry relies on plastic.
But it can also be really bad for the environment, whether because of how long it takes to break down in landfill, or how plastic pollution in oceans can hurt seabirds and turtles, or even how microplastics can get into our food chain.
So, there's an international treaty, which will be discussed between all the world's countries later this year, which will hopefully start to control the production of plastics and especially create better processes for recycling it.
Because according to the United Nations, at the moment only 9 % of the world's plastics are being recycled.
And according to the UN, while we need plastics in our modern lives, we just need to get a is called a sustainable way.
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 a city called Mecca, in the country of Saudi Arabia.
And that's because this week more than 1 .2 million Muslims will visit this city and perform form an important religious ritual called the Hajj.
In the Islamic religion, visiting Mecca at least once in your life and visiting important religious sites there and praying to Allah is something that every Muslim should try to do.
Visiting Mecca and performing the Hajj is a re -enactment of a journey that was undertaken back in 1632 AD by the Muslim prophet Muhammad.
It means that over five days, a million or so pilgrims, as they are called, will walk about sixty kilometres in the desert city of Mecca.
It's easily one of the most epic religious ceremonies on the planet.
And if you're keen to learn more, I've stuck a link in today's episode notes to a Video Explainer for Kids.
Believe it or not, Sloths today might be renowned for being sluggish, sleepy, cute as a button, tree dwelling, gentle creatures, but 35 million years ago, they were the size of elephants, had long muscular tongues that would rip foliage from the tops of trees, and even had armadillo type armoured skin to protect them from predators.
According to scientists, the ancient sloth looked like a grizzly bear, but it was about five times bigger than the average grizzly bear.
Can you even imagine?
And because they were so big, they didn't hang from trees like today's sloths do, but they roamed about on all fours, no doubt terrifying everything that came across them.
There were even ancient sloth species that lived in the ocean and spent their days diving for sea grass.
Now how do we know all this?
Because clever scientists called paleontologists have studied sloth fossilised remains and they have even studied ancient sloth poo to draw a picture of the giant herbivore.
Amazing. Every Thursday, Squizzy the news hound sticks his snout into Squiz Kid's HQ to report back on fishy things he's sniffed out on the internet.
And today, he's come across a most concerning piece of misinformation.
And this time, it's not a deep fake video or a photograph or a piece of audio that's been manipulated, but it is in fact a real politician saying something in a real interview on a real news channel that was just plain wrong.
Because that can sometimes happen too, and it's another way of misinformation spreading.
In this case, it's an Aussie politician on a TV news programme stating that solar panels cannot be recycled.
Now, the clever fact checkers at AAP Fact Check took a look at that claim, and they went to check it with the experts, and it turns out not to be true.
In fact, according to experts, about 90 % of solar panels can be recycled here in Australia.
What's the lesson here?
It's to stop, think, and check whenever we come across any piece of content, but especially content online.
Oh, and the other lesson?
Make sure your class is among the four and a half thousand classrooms around the country who have signed up to do NewsHounds – our very free, very cool media literacy program for primary school kids.
And you too can help Squizzy the Newshound in his quest to become the world's first internet detective dog.
Check it all out at squeezekids .com .au Q &A call out.
Hear ye, hear ye. His Majesty King Charles III hereby proclaims a very special guest has agreed to take the Squiz Kidz hot seat and answer questions that you send in.
Yes folks, to mark her one -year anniversary in the job, we're excited to share that none other than Australia's Governor -General, Her Excellency the Honorable Sam Mostyn, has agreed to take part in a Squiz Kidz Q &A.
And that's because she's keen to answer any questions you might have about her job, about how Australia's system of government works and how and why kids just like you should get involved in it.
Because while you might think that what goes on in our parliament in Canberra is none of your business, it's your country after all and you'll one day be in charge of it.
And how can you grow up to look after something if you don't understand it or value it?
Here's some ideas of questions you might ask our Governor -General.
What's a democracy and why is it important?
Why is the king our head of state?
And have you met him?
How did you get your job?
What's it like inside Government House?
Why should kids care about elections if they can't vote until they're 18?
And what does media literacy and squeezy the news hound have to do with any of it?
Parents, this is a great chance to get your kids thinking about where they sit in this democracy of ours and teachers a great opportunity to get the whole class involved.
Send in questions from your students and use this Q &A as a chance to dive into the civics part of the school curriculum.
Questions need to be submitted by Friday, June 13 and should be emailed through to squizkids at thesquiz .com .au.
So, what are you waiting for?
Don't just sit there, get involved.
Time for the squiz.
This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you've been listening.
Question 1. What sort of modern day creature did ancient sloths resemble?
Except that they were five times bigger.
Yep, that's right! They resembled grizzly bears.
Can you imagine? Question 2.
Pollution caused by what man -made material, found in all sorts of common daily products will be the focus of today's World Environment Day.
Yeah that's right, I'm talking about plastic!
Question number 3. What's the name of the Islamic religious pilgrimage currently underway in Mecca?
Yeah that's right, it's called the Hajj.
It's Thursday June 5, the Sockaroos play Japan Tonight in a World Cup Qualifier.
Come on sockaroos, you've got this.
It's also a special day today for these squiz kids celebrating a birthday today.
Stella from Toowoomba, Scarlet from Marburg, Alirar and Phoenix from Ashmont, Willow from Shaukhayna from Walkerville, Jaden from Warrumu, Ania from Plumpton, Avinia from East Linfield and Henry from Erskineville.
And Classroom shout -outs today go to Class 6B and Mrs. Morton at Hume Anglican Grammar Frere Campus in Mt Ridley.
Class 6A with Miss Kelly at Ripley Valley State School.
Class 1R with Mrs. Ross at Newington College in Stanmore.
Class 4F with Mr. Alitsi at Our Lady of the Way Catholic Primary School in Petrie And Year 3 with Ms. Moony Doe and Ms. Night at Pimpala Primary School And as promised, it's time to reveal the winners of the Classroom Shoutout Challenge from the month of May Every class that sent in a Classroom Shoutout request in May went into the draw to receive a virtual visit from me and, well, because there were so many of you and I like to spread the love around, we've decided to offer up the prize to not one, but three lucky classrooms. And the winners are...
Drum roll please...
Class 6 -C with Mrs Smith at Echuca Primary School!
Amaus class, with Mrs Spruce at All Saints College in Maitland!
And Class 5 -6, with Mrs Hutt at Exeter Public School.
Congratulations! I'll soon be beaming into your classroom from Squid's Kid's HQ to say hello!
Emma will be in touch with your teachers to work out the logistics and to all the other classes that entered, don't lose hope, we'll do it again in a couple of months.
I promise. Otherwise, don't forget if you've got a birthday coming up and you want a shout -out or if you're after a classroom shoutout, drop us a line at squizkids at thesquiz .com .au or fill out the form on our website.
Well, that's all we have time for.
Thanks for listening to Squiz Kids today.
We'll be back again tomorrow with the Kids vs Adult Weekly News Quiz.
In the meantime, get out there and have a most excellent day.
Over and out. for watching.
