Author: Lisa Mungovan

Much of the United States, is seeing the emergence of cicadas. A trillion Brood 10 cicadas spent the last 17 years underground as nymphs. They are crawling out, shedding their skins, and singing loudly to find a mate, starting the next 17-year cycle. Cicadas are large, harmless and amazing, so don’t freak out!

Today is World Turtle Day. Have you ever spotted a turtle trying to cross a road? You can help him across, but make sure to follow the direction he was headed! Always leave turtles in the wild. A box turtle’s lifespan is around 40 years, but some tortoises can live more than 100 years!

Find a penny, pick it up, all the day you’ll have good luck. It’s always lucky to find money! Today is Lucky Penny Day.  Some rare pennies are worth thousands of dollars. Keep all the pennies you find in a little bank, and next year on Lucky Penny Day, buy yourself a treat!

11-year-old Sanaa Hiremath, has math in her name, and math in her brain. The math whiz recently set a world record, for largest mental arithmetic multiplication. Sanaa multiplied a 12-digit number in her head, without using pen and paper. She was diagnosed with autism at a young age, but nothing can hold her back.

When you go to the store, you probably see 1 or 2 types of carrot, even though there are hundreds of varieties. The same thing goes for bananas, which have over 1000 varieties, or corn, with thousands of different kinds. Today is the International Day for Biological Diversity, so try something new at a farmer’s market.

Do you play the fiddle, or the violin? They’re the same thing! When you play folk music, like Irish jigs or bluegrass, you call it a fiddle. Today is World Fiddle Day. If you’re a violinist, be sure to share your talent with the world, and play some fiddle tunes for everyone!

Today is Buy A Musical Instrument Day! Maybe you’ve been renting an instrument and you’re ready to own your own. Or maybe it would be fun to play the nose flute or the kazoo! It’s also World Goth Day. Celebrate goth music, fashion and art. Listen to Bauhaus, wear black, and play goth nose flute music!

Do you love solving a good mystery? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created the most famous detective of all, Sherlock Holmes. For Sherlock Holmes Day, read or watch a case that he solved. Then have a family mystery day, and take turns being Sherlock, his sidekick Dr. Watson, and the nefarious Professor Moriarty.

There’s been a baby boom at the North Carolina Zoo. In just 3 days, 3 litters of American red wolves were born. Only 15 to 20 red wolves remain in the wild, so the Zoo’s breeding program is helping to save them from extinction. The zoo will ask the public, to help them name the 12 new pups.

A piece of the Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica broke off and is floating away. The ice chunk, named A76, is 105 miles long, and 15 miles wide, making it the biggest iceberg in the world right now. Since the Ronne Ice Shelf floats over water, the iceberg won’t change the sea level when it melts.