Author: Lisa Mungovan

Today is Mushroom Day. There are over 10,000 kinds of mushrooms, but only around 600 are edible. That means, if you see a mushroom in your yard, don’t eat it. It might be poisonous! Instead, choose a variety of mushrooms at the store, for your fungi feast. Save the wild mushrooms, for your photo album.

Today is Stop Bullying Day. Think really hard about yourself. Are you ever a bully? Bullying is more than beating someone up, or taking their lunch money. It can look like making fun of people, purposely leaving someone out, or saying things about someone online. Stick up for others, and don’t be a bully.

Today is Bring Your Teddy Bear To Work & School Day! Maybe your teddy will learn something new, and he’ll for sure make everyone smile! On your lunch break, be sure to eat with your parents, for Take Your Parents To Lunch Day. Your teddy bears can bring their parents too. Time for a picnic!

Today is International Top Spinning Day. How long can your top spin? The world record for a non-mechanical top, is 51 minutes. Mechanical tops, which have an electric gyroscope inside, can spin even longer. The record-breaking mechanical top spin, lasted more than 41 hours! The largest spinning top, is 6 1/2 feet tall.

The US National Park Service is celebrating National Fossil Day today. Fossils are prehistoric plants or animals, petrified and preserved in stone. Paleontologists study fossils, like dinosaur bones! You can download a Junior Paleontologist Activity Booklet online ,at nps.gov/subjects/fossils, to help you celebrate. Have you ever found a fossil?

Hair. Who needs it! It’s Be Bald And Free Day! If you shave your head, you never have to brush your hair, and you’ll never get hat head when you take off your winter cap. It’s also Dessert Day. Cakes, pies, and cookies, are waiting for you to eat them all up.

In Berlin Germany, taking care of trees has become a community project. An app called Water Your Neighborhood, displays a map with locations of the city’s 900,000 trees. Users can adopt a tree, and water it when the tree turns orange on the map. It helped the city stay green throughout the hot summer.

There’s a new world record, for heaviest pumpkin ever. The gargantuan gourd, named Bagheera, weighs 2,856 pounds. Twin brothers Ian and Stuart Paton have been growing gargantuan gourds in England, for 50 years. Ian sometimes spent 6 hours a day tending to his li’l pumpkin, which drank 130 gallons of water per day!

Have you ever heard of Ada Lovelace? She was one of the first computer programmers. She and Charles Babbage, created an Analytical Engine, in 18 33. Ada’s “Sketch of the Analytical Engine, with Notes from the Translator,” was published in 18 42. 100 years later, it inspired Alan Turing’s work on the first modern computers. Happy Ada Lovelace Day!

Today is M&M Day. The candy-shell covered chocolates, first introduced in 1941, were named after their creators, Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie. Do you prefer plain, peanut, or one of the limited edition flavors, like Thai coconut or jalapeño? At mms.com, you can order customized M&Ms, with your own photos and favorite colors!