Page Type: Elementary

What’s the scariest thing about a Tyrannosaurus rex? Probably its gigantic teeth! But a group of scientists say they don’t think the T. rex’s teeth could always be seen. They found evidence that the T. rex had lips that covered its teeth.

Scientists studied the teeth of a Daspletosaurus, a dinosaur that was related to the T. rex. They found that the teeth were in pretty good shape. They hadn’t rotted very much. This suggests that the Daspletosaurus was able to cover its teeth when its mouth was closed, keeping the teeth from dry air that can damage them. Since Daspletosaurus and T. rex were similar in many ways, scientists now believe that both types of dinosaurs had lips.

Zaila Avant-garde has done some incredible things. She’s a world-record basketball dribbler She’s a spelling champ. And now, she’s an author! Avant-garde’s new book is called It’s Not Bragging If It’s True: How to Be Awesome at Life.

The book’s title comes from Avant-garde’s mom, Alma, who told her to be proud of the things she’s done. “It’s not bragging if it’s true!” Alma reminded her. Avant-garde holds three world records related to basketball, including a tie for dribbling the most basketballs at the same time. In 2021, she won the Scripps National Spelling Bee, a spelling contest for kids from all over the United States and a few other countries.

In the book, Avant-garde shares stories about her life and offers advice for kids. She writes that she sets goals for herself and then works to reach those goals. 

“It’s a lot of hard work,” she told CBS Mornings. “But it’s easy to do the hard work because it’s fun.” 

One of Avant-garde’s tips for kids is to help others. Another is, “Don’t be afraid to ask for help.”

Are you right-handed or left-handed? Most people are better at using one hand than the other. Experts say dogs are the same. Some are right-pawed, and others are left-pawed.

Scientists learned this by doing tests on dogs. They had dogs do things like stop a rolling toy, get a treat out of a container, or give a paw to shake hands with a human. Scientists also watched dogs as they began walking to see which paw the dogs put forward first. The tests showed that most dogs used the same paw every time—either the right paw or the left paw.

Scientists also found that about half the dogs were right-pawed and half were left-pawed. That’s different from humans. Only about one out of every 10 people is left-handed. For reasons scientists still don’t understand, most people are right-handed.

Scientists have found that many animals have a hand, foot, or paw they’re more likely to use. Here are a few ways to find out if your pet is a righty or a lefty.

• Watch your pet walk. See if it uses its right foot or left foot first.
• Wave a toy in front of your pet. See if it bats the toy with its right or left paw. (This works best with cats.)
• Before your dog lies down, it may turn in a circle a few times. If it turns to the left, it may be left pawed.

Seeing your pet use one paw one time isn’t enough to figure out which paw they prefer. You’ll need to see them use that paw many times before you know it’s their favorite.

Where can you find a great story? Open a book! Summer is the perfect time for reading. Here are some books you might want to read this summer.

The United Kingdom (U.K.) has a new king! King Charles III will be crowned on May 6, 2023.

King Charles does not need to be crowned to be a king. In fact, he became king when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died on September 8, 2022. But every new king or queen in the U.K. is crowned. It’s a tradition that goes back more than 1,000 years.

In the U.K., a king or queen is crowned at a ceremony called a coronation. Coronations take place at Westminster Abbey in London, England. King Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, will travel to the coronation in a black and gold, horse-drawn carriage. This type of carriage is used only for special events. People will gather to watch the carriage as it goes by.

Will King Charles actually get a crown? Sort of. The royal family has a collection of jewels and other valuable items, including more than one crown. During the ceremony, a crown will be placed on the king’s head. The crown was made in 1661. It is the same crown that was placed on Queen Elizabeth’s head in 1953, at her coronation.

Around 2,000 people will be at the coronation. This includes Charles’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, as well as William’s family. For everyone else, the ceremony will be broadcast and live streamed in many parts of the world.

You can see photos having to do with the coronation in the slideshow below!

Maia and Alex Shibutani are amazing. The sister and brother won bronze medals in ice dancing at the 2018 Olympics. And now, they’ve written a book about other amazing people. It’s called Amazing: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Inspire Us All.

The picture book tells the stories of 36 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who have done great things. (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have ancestors from Asia or the islands in the Pacific Ocean. This includes more than 75 countries.)

Did you know that trees can help control floods? Their roots take in some of the water. This gave one woman an idea. Why not plant old Christmas trees?

Many Christmas trees are cut down, which means they can’t be planted again. These cut trees no longer have roots. Sara Tomkins, who lives in the United Kingdom, decided to plant Christmas trees in pots. These trees have roots. They keep growing, just like houseplants. 

Tomkins has a company called Rooted Christmas Trees. The company rents potted trees to people who celebrate Christmas. People decorate the trees and enjoy them until the holiday is over. Then, they return the trees to Tomkins. Tomkins keeps the trees at her farm all year. She rents them out again the following Christmas.  

At some point, the trees get too tall to fit inside people’s homes. So Tomkins plants them in the ground, in places where floods often happen. She knows that trees can help stop floodwater from reaching towns, where it can do a lot of damage. 

When people heard that Tomkins’s trees were being used in this way, they wanted to rent their Christmas trees from her. Now Tomkins has a lot of customers. They know that their Christmas trees will someday become an important part of the environment.

How do you get from Minnesota to Alaska? You could drive a snowmobile. That’s what three men who call themselves the “3 Old Guys” did! Rob Hallstrom, Rex Hibbert, and Paul Dick drove snowmobiles about 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) from Grand Rapids, Minnesota, to Fairbanks, Alaska. It wasn’t easy, but the 3 Old Guys had a lot of support and a great time.

The 3 Old Guys (they chose that name because they are all in their 60s or 70s) left their homes in Minnesota on March 6. They had planned the route carefully. They would take snow-covered trails northwest into Canada and then Alaska. What they didn’t count on was how many challenges they would face. Even in March, the weather in Canada and Alaska is freezing cold—and a snowmobile provides no protection from low temperatures. Sometimes snowstorms made it hard to find the trails. At one point, a stick got stuck in one of the snowmobiles, and the group had to stop for repairs. 

“Every bend in the river seemed to bring on a new challenge of some sort,” Hallstrom told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). 

But the 3 Old Guys also had plenty of help. When people read about the men’s journey online, they started keeping track of where the guys were. At times, the men would arrive in a small town and find people waiting for them. Sometimes they were given meals and even warm beds.

When Licypriya Kangujam was 6 years old, a strong storm called a cyclone hit her town in India. Soon after, her family moved to a city called Delhi, where the air was very polluted. Licy realized that there were serious problems with the environment all over the planet. She decided she had to do something about it. Now 11 years old, Licy is a climate activist. That means she is working to slow climate change. 

Licy’s own experience taught her that climate change is leading to warming temperatures, stronger storms, flooding, and more. Licy says people have the right to live on a healthy planet. She wants leaders to pass laws to stop pollution such as greenhouse gases, which are causing climate change. 

Licy’s work started close to home. At age 6, she went to India’s Parliament House, where the nation’s laws are made. There, she held a protest to get the attention of India’s leader, the prime minister.

Have you ever tried to solve a puzzle cube, such as a Rubik’s Cube? It’s not easy! But 9-year-old Yiheng Wang of China solved a 3×3×3 cube in seconds.

Yiheng solved the cube at the Yong Jun KL Speedcubing 2023 event in the nation of Malaysia on March 12, 2023. (Speedcubing is the sport of trying to solve the Rubik’s Cube or other puzzles like it in the fastest time.) Each person had five chances to solve the cube. Their times were recorded, and then three of the five numbers were averaged. (The fastest and slowest times didn’t count.) Yiheng’s average time was 4.69 seconds. 

Yiheng set a new world record for average speedcubing time. The old record was 4.86 seconds.

The fastest time ever for a single cube solve was 3.47 seconds. That record was set by Yusheng Du of China in 2018.