Page Type: Elementary

Except for a possible afternoon nap, most people get all their sleep overnight. But chinstrap penguins get their rest in a very different way. Scientists say these birds take more than 10,000 naps a day!

Scientists learned about this surprising sleep pattern by studying a group of chinstrap penguins in Antarctica. In addition to filming the birds, scientists placed devices in the neck and brain muscles of 14 penguins so they could record any brain activity related to sleep. They found that the penguins took 10,000 very short sleeping periods called microsleeps. Each little nap was only four seconds long! But all that dozing adds up—chinstrap penguins end up getting 11 hours of sleep every day.

Actor and director LeVar Burton has always loved a good story, and he knows that kids do, too. Burton’s new podcast, Sound Detectives, is a juicy mystery series that has kids listening closely.

In the podcast, Burton is getting ready to open the Museum of Sound, which celebrates all the wonderful sounds in the universe. When he discovers that some sounds have been separated from their sources, he hires Detective Hunch to find them. With help from a giant ear named Audie, Burton and the detective work to track down those sounds…and catch the thief who has been stealing them. 

Burton first became famous when he played Kunta Kinte, a man who was captured and then enslaved, in the 1977 TV miniseries Roots. Since then, he has had numerous acting roles. Star Trek fans know him as Geordi La Forge in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

But Burton is equally well known as the host of a kids’ TV series called Reading Rainbow, which ran from 1983 to 2006. In that show, Burton read and recommended fantastic books, inspiring many kids to become enthusiastic readers. Today, many of those same kids (who are now adults) listen to LeVar Burton Reads, a podcast on which Burton reads stories out loud.

Sound Detectives is Burton’s first podcast for kids. He hopes it will take listeners on a great adventure and inspire them to keep exploring.

“[Sound Detectives] appeals to the…curiosity in a child about the world around them,” Burton told the New York Times. “It introduces them to parts of the world that they might not have yet been exposed to.”

For 95 years, Mickey Mouse was owned by only one company—Disney. By law, no one else was allowed to make money selling pictures or movies featuring the famous character. But now that’s changed. Mickey, or at least one version of him, is in the public domain. In other words, he’s basically public property.

To understand what that means, let’s go back to 1928—just over 95 years ago. That year, Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse and made a movie about him called Steamboat Willie. Disney asked the U.S. government to copyright Mickey Mouse, which meant that no one else could copy the character. Anyone who did would be breaking the law. But under U.S. law, some older creative works—including art, books, movies, and fictional characters—can be copyrighted for only 95 years. After that, they enter the public domain, and anyone can copy them. On January 1, 2024, many creative works entered the public domain. Steamboat Willie’s Mickey Mouse was one of them.

A house in Selma, Alabama, where Martin Luther King, Jr., planned a famous civil rights march will soon be open to the public. The house will be moved to Michigan to be part of a history museum called Greenfield Village.

Jawana Jackson, who grew up in the house, sold it to the museum so it could be recognized for its part in the civil rights movement. In 1965, when Jackson was 4 years old, King and other civil rights leaders arrived at the house to plan a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

Jackson’s parents had offered King, an old friend, the use of their home because they knew his work would be important to Jawana’s future.

“[Jawana] and children in this country and all around the world … deserve a better, a more even, a more just society. Whatever we can do to support you, we’re here,” Sullivan Jackson told King, according to the Pensacola News Journal.

Thousands of people took part in three marches from Selma to Montgomery. These events helped lead U.S. lawmakers to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which protected voting rights for Black Americans.

People will be able to visit the home where these marches were planned after it is moved to the museum in Michigan. Jawana Jackson says she wants the public to be able to see where King did some of his most important work.

“It became increasingly clearer to me that the house belonged to the world,” Jackson told the Associated Press.

Greenfield Village is a history museum in Michigan that contains more than 80 historic structures. Soon, the Jackson home will be one of them. Officials are dismantling the home so it can be transported to Michigan, where it will be rebuilt. Once open to the public, the home will contain some of King’s neckties and pants, as well as furnishings dating back to 1965.

The home is expected to open in the next three years.

An artist recently unveiled a statue of legendary candy maker Willie Wonka that’s made entirely of chocolate! The statue was created in honor of the opening of Wonka, a movie about the character as a young man.

Chocolate sculptor Jen Lindsey-Clark spent more than five weeks making the sculpture, which is 6 feet, 2 inches (188 centimeters) tall and weighs 220 pounds (100 kilograms). She crafted everything from chocolate, including the top hat, the buttons, and the shoelaces.

Have you ever noticed that some people are fantastic artists, while others have a way with words? Still others work well with their hands. Why aren’t we all good at the same things? A new book for young readers can help answer that question.

Titled Different Kinds of Minds, the book is about how each person thinks differently. Its author, Temple Grandin, hopes it will inspire kids to explore how they think and figure out the things they’re great at.

Grandin is known for her studies of animal behavior and for designing devices that allowed farm animals to be treated more humanely. She has also spoken and written about her experiences as a person with autism. Growing up, being autistic made her aware that everyone has their own way of taking in information.

In the book, Grandin explains the different ways people think. She is a visual thinker, which means when she has a thought and idea, she pictures it in her mind. Some people are pattern thinkers, which means they may be good at things like math and music. And some people are verbal thinkers, which means they’re good with words and remember information best by reading it or hearing it read to them. Many people can think in more than one way, but there’s probably one way of thinking they do best.

You can read more about types of thinking farther down on this page.

Grandin hopes to encourage young readers to consider how they think best and explore ways to make the most out of their incredible brains.

Have you ever done something funny without even trying? Wild animals do that sometimes, too! The annual Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards capture the hilarious things critters do when they think no one’s looking. This year’s winning snapshot shows a kangaroo that looks like it’s playing air guitar. But the kooky kangaroo didn’t take home the only prize.

The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards are open to anyone, whether they are a professional photographer or just take photos for fun. The key is to capture an image of wildlife at its wackiest. Winners are chosen in six categories: Creatures of the Land (land animals), Creatures in the Air (flying animals), Underwater, Junior (for photographers who are 18 and younger), Internet Portfolio (for a group of four photos), and Video Clip (for a video of a funny animal). Judges also choose an overall winner, and the public gets to vote on a People’s Choice Award

Toys R Us, which once was the biggest toy seller in the United States, is making a comeback! The company has already opened several new stores, and many more are planned for 2024.

In November 2023, Toys R Us opened a large store in the Mall of America in Minnesota, two years after opening a large location at American Dream, a shopping mall in New Jersey. In the past three years, the company has also opened smaller stores on cruise ships, in airports, and inside Macy’s department stores. Toys R Us is growing—not long after many people thought it might disappear forever.

Toys R Us was founded in 1957 and was successful for many years. But six years ago, Toys R Us declared bankruptcy, which means that it owed more money than it could pay back. Many people were choosing to buy toys online or at stores like Walmart instead of Toys R Us. Hundreds of Toys R Us stores closed.

In 2021, an organization called WHP Global decided Toys R Us could be saved. WHP Global puts money into companies with the hopes of making more money—and it decided to put money into opening new Toys R Us stores. Its goal was to get people to want to shop at Toys R Us instead of other places.

One way to get people to go somewhere is to make it fun. Many of the new stores aim to do just that! For example, the Toys R Us at American Dream has a two-story spiral slide, an ice cream parlor, and places where kids can try out some of the toys.

Will the fun be enough to keep Toys R Us in business? Decide for yourself! The slideshow below shows what you might find if you visit a new Toys R Us store.

Bedtime may be the best time to learn and remember math! In a new study, scientists found that people who learned new math problems just before going to sleep remember them better than if they learned them during the day.

For the study, scientists in the United Kingdom asked 77 adults to learn multiplication problems at two different times of the day. They learned some problems during the day and other problems just before bed. About 10 and a half hours after the adults learned the problems, scientists tested them. The adults remembered the bedtime problems better.

The results of the study are similar to other studies that have been done with children. In 2015, scientists had parents of first graders tell their kids bedtime stories with a math theme. The scientists found that those first graders had higher math scores during that school year than first graders who didn’t hear math bedtime stories. 

Why does bedtime learning seem to be effective? Scientists aren’t sure. They know that the brain makes certain connections during sleep that help us lock in what we’ve learned. But it’s also possible that when we learn something during the day, it becomes harder to remember as we learn other new things later that day. When we’re asleep, our brains have nothing to lock in except what we just learned before bed.

When he was 7 years old, Luke Mortimer lost his arms and legs after an infection. Three years later, he climbed a mountain near his home to help other children with disabilities.

Luke, who lives in the United Kingdom, set his sights on the 656-foot (200-meter) peak called Embsay Crag in 2019, when his family moved into a home nearby.

“When we moved here, we were going down the road to Embsay, and I just saw the crag, and I said, ‘Mum, dad, one day can we climb it?’” Luke said before his 2023 climb. “It’s been a few years now, but I feel very determined about getting to the top and back down. I think the worst thing that can happen is probably rain.”

The climb wasn’t just a personal challenge. Luke set it up as a fundraiser—a way to help others after so many people helped him. The Mortimer family had received many donations to pay for Luke’s prosthetics, or artificial limbs, as well as for changes to the Mortimer home that help Luke get around more easily. So, Luke thought, why not use the climb to raise money for other kids with disabilities?

Courtesy of Adam Mortimer