Kids News - Articles for Grades 2-3

While Presidents' Day appears to be largely about sales, there is more to this holiday. Observed on the third Monday of February each year, it is a day to honor all US presidents, past and present. Prior to 1968, Americans celebrated two holidays - February 12th and 22nd in honor of Abraham Lincoln's and George Washington's birthdays respectively....

It's Friday the 13th! While a select few like Taylor Swift will simply "shake it off" and even release a new music video, there are millions of others that will not step out of their homes today. That's because when the 13th which is already considered unlucky by many, falls on a Friday, the fear factor rises exponentially. While nobody knows for sure why the combination of the 13th with Friday is so feared, there are many theories....

While 3-D Printing technology is still a young innovation, it is already being used to create a wide variety of products: action figures, musical instruments, fabrics, and even food! But for all of the fun and whimsical items that can be produced, the most exciting application of this radical invention is the printing of artificial limbs. Its low cost structure makes it ideal for those that are unable to afford traditional prosthetics which can run tens of thousands of dollars....

An underwater diver filming the beautiful coral in the Caribbean captured a rare sight - a perfectly camouflaged octopus emerging from its hiding place with its skin transforming from the dull green of the coral to a beautiful sky blue. Jonathon Gordon says that he was just trying to get a closer look at an unusual shell and had no idea that the creature was there, until he was just about a meter away....

Frank Gehry is famous for his offbeat architectural designs like the enormous glass sails of the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris and the titanium fish scales of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. His latest building, the first in Australia, is as radical - so much so that critics have likened it to a crumpled brown paper bag....

In April 2015, Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group will welcome a new kind of employee - a humanoid robot called Nao. The bank's first non-human hire that stands 58-centimeters (22.8 inches) tall and weighs a mere 5.4 kilograms (12.7 pounds), is the brainchild of France's Aldebaran Robotics - a subsidiary of Japan's Softbank....

The next time you hear someone complaining about their "horrendous" commute you may want to tell them about Detroit resident James Robertson, whose daily round trip journey to and from work is an astounding 46 miles. Not impressed? How about if we tell you that about 21-miles of it is completed on foot!...

February 2nd was Groundhog Day. This meant that woodchucks (and other animals) all across North America revealed their predictions about the length of this year's winter. Among them were legendary weather forecaster Punxsutawney Phil and rising superstar, Staten Island Chuck....

What's better than receiving an e-mail informing you of a "Snow Day"? How about a music video with your Head of School lip-synching "School is Closed" to the tune of Frozen's super hit song "Let it Go?" That's exactly what Matt Glendinning, the Principal at the Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, did to announce that school would not be in session on January 27th....