Author: Lisa Mungovan

Happy World Whale Day! Whales are mammals that live in the ocean. They range in size from the 8-foot dwarf sperm whale, to the 98-foot blue whale, the largest creature that ever lived! Whales are endangered. Some species were nearly hunted to extinction. Whale songs can travel thousands of miles through the water!

Today is World Pangolin Day! Pangolins live in Asia and Africa. They are the only mammal with scales. The nocturnal animals can have tongues that are longer than their bodies! They curl into balls for protection, but it doesn’t work against humans. Pangolins are endangered, and are the most smuggled animal in the world.

Poor little Pluto. It used to be one of the 9 planets in our solar system, until it got down-graded, because it can’t clear it’s neighborhood. It’s now classified as a dwarf planet, along with Ceres, Makemake, Haumea, and Eris. But at least Pluto gets its own day to celebrate. Happy Pluto Day!

At school, you have fire drills. But at the Hitachi City Kamine Zoo in Japan, they had an escaped animal drill. An employee dressed up in an bear costume, then pretended to escape. He ran around acting like a bear, while other employees attempted to capture him with nets, before fake-tranquilizing him.

One downside of electric vehicles, is that the batteries wear out. A company in California, is giving those batteries new life, by using them to store excess solar and wind energy. When the sun’s not shining, and the wind stops blowing, the batteries supply renewable energy back to the power grid.

Did you celebrate No One Eats Alone Day last week? You get another chance, because some places celebrate it today instead. Does your cafeteria have a table where kids can go to find a lunch buddy? Stop by and make a new friend. If you learn from home, have a Zoom lunch date!

Get your smiles ready, because it’s Random Acts Of Kindness Day! Give someone a flower or a compliment, or help out around the house without being asked. Write a nice note to a friend, or hold the door open for a stranger. It’s so easy to be kind. Let’s just do it every day!

Today is Cabbage Day. It’s a good day to try cabbage soup, fried cabbage, or coleslaw. Think about growing cabbage in your garden. You can start the seedlings inside, and plant after the last frost. Maybe your cabbage will beat the world record, held by Alaska’s Scott Robb. His green cabbage weighed 138 pounds!

A 16-year-old in Nigeria, set a new jump-roping world record. Gbenga Ezekiel did the most skips on one leg in one minute, managing an astounding 265 skips! He beat the previous record, set by Rasel Islam of Bangladesh, by 3 skips. Gbenga hopes to set more records with his rope-skipping skills in the future.

Manatees, also known as sea cows, are slow-moving aquatic mammals, that are vulnerable to extinction. They’re about 10 to 15 feet long, and live in warm shallow waters. The Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership, just released 12 manatees back into the wild in Florida, that had been injured or orphaned. They’re ready to explore!