Junior Blog Issue No.7

Monday 8th June 2020

We know that many of you are missing your friends, so are we! We thought that it might be nice to concentrate on how you can connect with your classmates. We wanted to share some of the fun ideas that we have had to help you to connect with your friends.
This week we shall also take a wonderful journey into the world of hedgehogs or hoglets as they can also be known. A few weeks ago, I was out in our back garden stargazing with my twenty-year-old son and we heard a slight rustling in the hedge. On investigation, we discovered a lovely hedgehog out on its evening walk. To my surprise this was the first time my son had seen a hedgehog, they have become so rare that what was once a familiar sight to my generation was unseen to those of younger years.
This fascinated me, so I did a little research and found out that this July will see a boom in the hoglet numbers in the UK. Our feature this week is all about those wonderfully amazing little creatures that are making a comeback.
Enjoy this week’s blog and look forward to seeing you all next week.
Sam

Hedgehogs

In the last 18 years the UK has lost 30 percent of its hedgehogs, numbers are now at less than one million. If you would like to help the hedgehog population recover, why not build a hedgehog house for your garden. You are more likely to see hedgehogs in your garden if you build a small house for them because it provides them with a safe and warm place to hide.

Hedgehogs hibernate and rely on a secure place to have their young baby hoglets. Making a hoglet house does not have to be difficult or expensive. Look at our hog house here. The important thing for your hedgehog house is that it protects your hog from the winter weather and predators.

What will you need to make your hedgehog house?

A sheet of wood or an old patio slab
About 30 bricks, maybe less
Logs
A spade
Leaves
Gardening gloves
An adult

It is important to find a quiet spot as hogs do not like the limelight. Hedgehogs are easily frightened, so try and make sure that they are undisturbed. Build your hog house on a nice flat area.
Ask your Mum or Dad to dig a hole approximately eight centimetres deep and 40cm wide.
Add dried leaves to the base of the hole.
Start to build up the bricks around the hole in a square shape leaving a gap for a door. Build up either two or three bricks high. Hedgehogs may need guidance on how to enter the house, so you could lay a brick either side of the door making a porch type entrance for them.
Top the bricks off with your sheet of wood covering with logs to weigh it down and also camouflage the house slightly to ward off predators, or just place your patio slab on the bricks and lay your logs on the top. You can stack logs up the side of the brick walls on the outside too if you like.
To help your hedgehogs move around outside it is a nice idea to leave a space underneath fences so that they can move around through the gardens easily. You can also help your hogs in the winter months by providing them with a food source. Try putting out dog or cat food and a bowl of water and remember hedgehogs do not like milk as it gives them an upset tummy. Or you can ask your parents to consider buying hedgehog food (see the link below).

Hedgehog Food Suppliers

I hope your hedgehog house encourages a hog, you will be able to tell by the little huffing and puffing sounds characteristic of the little creatures. Let us know how you get on.

My Little Hedgehog Barney.

Competition

You could complete this week’s writing competition with a friend.

Why not do this week’s competition with a friend? If you love food, why not enter the Young Food Writer of the Year competition in partnership with the Guild of Food Writers. With your friend, write a short story around the theme of ‘Food and Heroes’. Your hero could be anyone as long as you write about the role that food plays in their life.

For example, do you have a family member who always makes you a wonderful birthday cake each year or perhaps makes you a warming soup when you are feeling unwell. Whoever it is – write all about it!

The competition is divided into three different age categories, each with their own word limit.

10 and under – 250 words

11-14 – 500 words

15-18 – 750 words

There will be a winner and a runner-up in each category. Please include the word count at the end of your story, this includes the title of the piece. GOOD LUCK!

When you’ve finished your story, send it by email to this address or to The Week Junior, Dennis Publishing, 31-32 Alfred Place, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7DP by the 30th June. All entries must include your name and age, as well as the address, email address and phone number of your parent or guardian.

The winning entries will receive:

An invite to the prestigious Guild of Food Writers Awards ceremony in October. There will be a tea party beforehand to give prizes out.

£100 book token per category winner.

A bundle of cookery books per category winner.

A certificate per category winner.

Name in the awards brochure per category winner.

For the 10 and under and 11-14 category winners: The winners’ stories will be featured in The Week Junior. They will also win a visit to The Week Junior office and a year’s subscription to The Week Junior.

One runner up per age group will win a £25 book token and will be invited to the October awards ceremony.

Good luck!

Katie Jayne’s Interesting Fact

There are some very interesting facts out there and I wanted to share a few with you from time to time. Some of these really made me laugh…

Did you know?

It is impossible for most people to lick their own elbow.

A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

A shrimp’s heart is in its head.

It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

Thought for the Week

To keep in touch with your friends, why not join the Katie Jayne Book Club together. Each month we will be looking at a different book and then chatting about it. Or you could set up your own book club with your own friends. Choose a book to read, spend the month reading it and then organise a Zoom call with your friends to chat about the characters in the book and which parts of the book you enjoyed and why.

This month we are going to choose the book ‘Open Very Carefully’ by Nick Bromley. Click the link here to either listen and watch or just read by yourself. Then we can chat about it next month. We will be interested to see what you think.

Open Very Carefully

Virtual Tea Party

Cook’s Corner

Because this week’s idea is to connect with your friends, we thought that Cook’s Corner should be a virtual tea. All you need to do is gather your friends.

First things first, you need to invite your favourite group of friends and set a time and date when everyone is available. Ask your Mum and Dad to help you set up your laptop in a comfortable location in the house. Lay the table, prepare some sandwiches and healthy nibbles (like carrots and hummus dips) or some fruit, get yourself a fruit juice and connect to Zoom. Now you and your friends can eat your special tea and chat like you would when you normally have a friend over to play after school.

Zoom Link Make sure you ask for your parents’ permission before downloading the Zoom application.

Enjoy!

Walk on The Wild Side

Continuing the theme of spending a little time with friends, and now that the government have allowed some outdoor exercise with a friend, as long as it is at a two metre distance, we thought this week it would be nice for you to meet a friend with your parents and go for a walk. A good way to keep two metres apart at all times is to take a skipping rope. You hold one end of the rope and your friend can hold the other, make sure the skipping rope is tight, then you know you are definitely two metres apart.

Educational Activity

Why not join this great dance workshop for 2-6year olds. This week their dance workshop is all about animals. Get your whole family involved.

Animal Dance Workshop

Do you love tigers? Take a look at these ten tiger facts.

Tiger Facts

History of Queen Elizabeth II

Head of the British Royal Family

Learning German

Join the children who are setting up a tuck shop.

German for KS2

Learning French

Join in the song to help you learn body parts.

French KS2

Junior Blog Issue No.7

Regular items...