Squeeze Kids acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands on which we podcast the Turrbal and Combermeri people.
Squeeze Kids!
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Hello and welcome to Squeeze Kids Today, your fresh take on what's happening in the world around you.
I'm Bryce Court.
It's Monday, February 9 in Squeeze Kids Today.
Winners and grinners at the Winter Olympics.
Deer rescued on frozen lake.
Super Bowl kicks off with bad bunny.
And the Gruffalo has a granny.
That's what's making news, kids style.
The Lowdown.
With the lighting of the Olympic flame and the marching of athletes into the Olympic Stadium at a dazzling all-star opening ceremony.
The Winter Olympic Games got underway in Italy over the weekend, and already the first gold medals have been won.
Unsurprisingly, the countries who have lots of snow and long cold winters have come out of the blocks the strongest, with Italy Japan, Norway and Sweden leading the medal tally after the first two days of competition.
And while Australia, the famously sunburnt country, is yet to make its mark on the medal table, it's still kicking goals nonetheless.
And a special shout-out to 20-year-old Aussie snowboarder, Valentino Giuselli, who came from nowhere to make the Big Air final at the weekend.
Now, he didn't finish with a medal in the end, but arguably he did finish with something much more important achieving some very important personal goals.
During the final he pulled off a trick on his snowboard that the last time he attempted it saw him fall and very badly injure his knee.
So imagine how scary it must have been for him to get up there and do it all over again.
Yet he plucked up the courage and, with the world watching, pulled off that amazing trick.
Cool as a cucumber.
So yeah, he finished 10th and he didn't have a hunk of metal around his neck at the end of the competition, but he was still flying high.
Props to you, Valentino.
Meanwhile, it was a nervous night last night for residents of the north-west of Western Australia, as tropical cyclone Mitchell was expected to make landfall.
Making landfall is the scientific term for when a cyclone, which usually forms out at sea, crosses the coastline, and that's where it tends to do the most damage.
Mitchell was yesterday tracking as a Category 3 cyclone, where Category 1 is weak and Category 5 is.
Lock up your pets and tie down your trampolines.
Stay safe out there, listeners in WA.
We're thinking of you.
Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a new story from wherever it stops.
Today we've landed in the united states, where a deer has been rescued from a frozen lake.
Oh dear now whether the young deer wandered out onto the frozen lake in the state of washington to try its hand at figure skating inspired by the winter olympics.
Perhaps we'll never know, but it got stuck out there with its little hooves, incapable of getting any traction on the slippery ice, which meant that a human had to walk out onto the frozen lake, secure the deer inside a rescue harness designed for humans and slide it back to dry land and back to safety.
I've stuck a video of the dramatic rescue in today's episode notes.
The deer eventually scampered off into the forest to find a new adventure, while the video of its rescue was shared all over the world.
Of course, it's not just the Winter Olympics that will be holding the world's attention today.
The Super Bowl takes place today too, the biggest sporting event on the US calendar.
We're talking football, people.
American style.
Or NFL, as it's known there, or even gridiron, as it's sometimes called.
And with the 2024 version of the grand final of the NFL championship attracting an estimated 62 million sets of eyeballs all over the world, today's clash is expected to once again stop the world in its tracks.
On the field, it's the Seattle Seahawks taking on the New England Patriots.
Then there's also the halftime entertainment, which last year featured an incredible performance by Kendrick Lamar and this year will hand the mic to Puerto Rico's Bad Bunny, fresh from his success at the Grammys last week.
And then, for viewers in America at least, there are the commercials.
The ads that run on TV during the game are among the most anticipated and clever of the year.
So, my friends, heat up the popcorn, find a comfy spot on the couch, and let the games begin.
In the end, the beach had a little bit more magic than the possum, as Australia's favourite children's picture book was crowned on Friday.
Magic Beach by Alison Lester has taken out the top prize in a competition to see which picture book is most loved by Aussie kids and their mums and dads.
The book, with its famous recurring line At our beach, at our magic beach, and imagining all the adventures kids can have during a day at the beach, attracted the most number of votes to take out the poll, followed closely by the Mem Fox classic Possum Magic.
It seems we do love a bit of magic.
Where is the Green Sheep?
Came in a respectable third place, followed by fan favourite Diary of a Wombat, which took out fourth place.
Other top ten books included.
My Shadow is Pink Room on Our Rock, and One of my favourites.
There's a hippopotamus on our roof eating cake.
Those pesky hippos, always clambering up on roofs to eat cake.
And in other exciting book news it was announced over the weekend that a new Gruffalo book will be hitting shelves later this year.
Called Gruffalo Granny.
The story will see the Gruffalo's grandmother coming to stay with everyone's favourite knobbly-kneed monster.
Colour me excited.
Cannot wait to meet her.
Time for the quiz.
This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you've been listening.
Question number one.
Name the Puerto Rican pop star who will perform at today's Super Bowl.
Well done if you said Bad Bunny.
Question number two.
Which children's book was voted Australia's favourite this weekend?
Yep, that's right.
It was Magic Beach.
Question number three.
In which US state was a deer rescued from a frozen lake?
Bit of a toughie, this one.
Well done to you if you had your listening ears on and you said Shoutouts.
It's Monday, February 9.
Today is a birthday for Thor actor Tom Hiddleston, who you might know as Loki and Black Panther actor Michael B Jordan.
Happy supervillain birthday to you both.
It's also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today and tomorrow.
Harvey from Rosanna, Charlotte from Cleveland, Onyu from Deniston and James from South Australia.
And a belated birthday shout-out goes to Luca and Leon from Deniston Raiden, Thor and Liliana from Mackay and Jacob from Balcombe Hills.
And classroom shout-outs today go to Class 5KG and Mrs Gallagher at Proserpine State School.
Class 6M and Miss Murray at Rainbow Street Public School in Randwick.
And to Class 5C and Miss Tyres at the Willow State School in Townsville.
And a very special shout out to Harry, the awesome fact checker, who wrote in to us to let us know that we'd gotten our Minions movie makers mixed up at the weekend in the quiz.
It is in fact the Illumination Studio that makes the Minions movies and not Pixar.
Well done, Harry.
Now don't forget.
If you've got a birthday coming up and you want a shout-out, or if you're after a classroom shout-out, drop us a line at squizkids at thesquizcomau, 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 a brand new episode of Squiz the World, as we pay a visit to a place that's been in the news a lot lately, a place called Greenland.
You won't want to miss that.
In the meantime, get out there and have a most excellent day.
Over and out.
