Kids News - Articles for Grades 4-5

Every year, around October or November, Hindus, Sikhs, and Jains worldwide celebrate Diwali. Also referred to as Deepavali or the Festival of Lights, the five-day event, whose exact date is determined by the Hindu lunar calendar, dates back over 2,500 years. Hence, it should come as no surprise that Diwali, which will be commemorated from November 5 to November 9 this year, is India’s biggest and most significant holiday....

This year’s Halloween experience was elevated by several spooky surprises from nature. First, there was news of the “Death Comet’s” November 11 Earth flyby . Then, on October 23, 2018, scientists aboard the E/V Nautilus stumbled upon a white octopus with translucent “wings’ that looked more like a ghost from outer space, than the eight-legged mollusks we are accustomed to seeing....

With the Halloween festivities over, most people will spend the next few days taking down the spine-chilling decorations and tossing the pumpkin Jack-o’-Lanterns, or scary monsters, that they spent hours creating. While the millions of gourds that end up in landfills every November is alarming, even more so is the massive amount of food waste generated since most people fail to take advantage of the fruit’s edible flesh and seeds....

From creating crazy mnemonics to constructing elaborate mind maps, all of us have at some point experimented with techniques to help us recall relevant information during tests and exams. Now, a group of researchers at the RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia have devised a new trick to help boost our memories – a gap-ridden, and oddly slanted, typeface that they ironically called Sans Forgetica!...

Those of you having a hard time waking up in the increasingly dark mornings will be pleased to hear that Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends on Sunday, November 4. This means that most North Americans will “add’’ an hour to their day by moving their clocks back. In addition to allowing people to enjoy an extra 60 minutes on Sunday, the simple act will help provide more daylight hours and make getting up for school a little more palatable....

Three years ago, in 2015, the Town of Carefree, Arizona was seeking a pumpkin carver to help their newly-planned fall festival become an instant success. Luckily for them, world-famous American sculptor and artist Ray Villafane fell in love with the Carefree Desert Gardens, and the annual Enchanted Pumpkin Garden was born. Now in its fourth year, the free event, which took place from October 19 to 28 2018, includes numerous fun Halloween activities for both kids and adults. However, it is the pumpkin carvings that remain the star attraction....

Always wished the Earth had a second moon? Then you will be pleased to hear that the Chengdu Aerospace Science and Technology Microelectronics System Research Institute has plans to launch multiple mini moons, the first one of which will appear in the skies as early as 2020....

Many people, including successful entrepreneurs like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, wear the same clothing daily because they want to focus their decision-making energy on more important things. However, Julia Mooney’s, “One outfit, 100 days” challenge, has a more altruistic motive. The art teacher at the William W. Allen Middle School in Moorestown, New Jersey is wearing the same dress for the first 100 days of school to create awareness of the environmental costs of fast fashion....

It’s creepy, spooky, and scheduled to rendezvous with Earth shortly after Halloween, on November 11, 2018. Before you get your hopes up, we are not talking about an alien, but asteroid 2015 TB145, a skull-shaped space rock nicknamed ”Death Comet.” This is the second appearance of the eerie-looking asteroid that was first observed by the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS-1 (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) telescope on October 10, 2015....