Tabla de contenidos para December 2024 en News Flash

We hope you had a great Science Week last month and that you tried some of the super-cool experiments we told you about. Even Flashy had a go! You might have noticed his dinner in one of the beakers on page 12. He really should know better – you should never eat when in the lab! But he is pretty forgetful. This month, Flashy is getting ready for Christmas, but he’s only gone and lost his Santa hat. This is what it looks like. Can you help him find it? If you do find it, let us know by emailing win@newsflash.ie. If you are correct, you will be entered into a draw for a super-cool News Flash hoodie. Don’t forget to include your name and school with your entry! Last…

Date of painting: 1891 Artist: Viggo Johansen Nationality: Danish Born: 1851, Copenhagen, Denmark Died: 1935, Copenhagen, Denmark Style: Realism/Genre painting Medium: Oil on canvas On display at: The Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen, Denmark Viggo Johansen studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, but never passed his final exams, though he tried several times! He then became a member of an artists’ group in Skagen, a fishing town in the north of Denmark. Despite failing his exams, in later years he became a respected teacher at the new Women’s School at the Academy! He mostly painted scenes of everyday life, called ‘genre painting’. He liked to create warm but dimly lit interiors, often featuring his family. Exhibiting his work in Paris, he was inspired by the French Impressionists…

December 15th Nine days until Christmas Eve! 355 days gone since the last Christmas Eve. The elves and I have been mega-busy – over a billion presents made and over a million mince pies eaten! And that’s not even counting the extra chocolates from the Advent calendars – so much still to do! December 16th Woke up late today – 3 am! That’s one minute later than normal. Mrs. Claus is not pleased! My friend Binty brought me a hot cocoa to start the day, which I thought was nice until I realised he had put lots of salt in it – vile! He will not have the last laugh. December 17th So, do you remember how Binty put salt in my hot cocoa yesterday? I hatched a plan to…

The Parthenon is one of the world’s most famous buildings. It was built almost 2,500 years ago in Athens, the capital of Greece. It replaced an older temple that had been destroyed by the Persians, who were enemies of the Athenians. The Parthenon was built in honour of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war, who was also the patron of ancient Athens. Its main function was to house a 12-metre-tall gold and ivory statue of Athena. Its location on the Acropolis (the highest point of the city) meant that Athenians could take shelter in the building if they were attacked by their enemies. The Parthenon was built with 100,000 tonnes of marble, which was carried 16 kilometres from Mount Pentelicus on wagons. Some of the blocks of marble weighed…

Everybody should be helpful. It’s not only good manners but it’s also kind and it makes everyone’s lives better. When we help someone, we connect with them and become closer to them. By helping, we can raise the spirits of those around us, whether that's our friends, our families or our communities. It makes other people happy, and it makes us feel good about ourselves too. So, when we are helpful, everybody wins! Doing helpful things gives us a sense of belonging and gives us confidence. It shows us that we can make a positive difference in the world. Even something as small as helping someone pick up something they dropped or helping them clean up a spill will put positive energy out into the world. Being helpful encourages others…

Wingsuit flying is a sport that takes the world’s most extreme sportspeople through the skies at speeds of over 280 kilometres an hour. Nicknamed ‘Birdmen’, participants wear a specially made suit that creates lots of surface area by using fabric between both legs and both arms of the jumper. This sport is so dangerous and difficult to master that beginners must have at least 200 normal skydives under their belt before they can even attempt a wingsuit jump. Most wingsuit jumps are carried out from a plane travelling at over 3,000 metres above ground. The speed of the plane propels the jumpers away from the aircraft, so they have lots of room to fly, before they eventually deploy a parachute for landing. Although it became very popular in the 1990s,…

Food is an important part of our lives – not just for feeding us, but also for celebrating special times. Often, we celebrate by going out for something to eat in a restaurant. And the person we have to thank for our delicious treat is a chef. FLASHY FACT Great chefs use both art and science to create dishes that will wow their customers. They have a deep understanding of food and know what flavours work best together. Never too many cooks Chefs can be found in many places throughout the community. Restaurants are the obvious place, but they also work in hotels, large office blocks, hospitals and even schools. Everyone needs to eat! Professional kitchens are very busy places. The chef is in charge of the kitchen and everything…

Eye Spy Time for the magnifying glass, everyone! To solve this puzzle, all you have to do is find the 15 objects hidden in Santa’s workshop … in under 90 seconds. Time starts … NOW! Your teacher has the answers to all these puzzles (not that you'll need them… but just in case you do). Just ask nicely … AFTER you’ve tried them all, of course! Sum It Up Check out this rather lengthy sum and see if you can make it work out so that you end with the number 4. Word Search For this month’s word search, we’ve packed the grid with festive words for you to find. As always, we’ve included a secret word not listed below. Here’s a clue: Three kings were guided by this. □…

Official Name: Kingdom of DenmarkPopulation: 5.9 millionCapital: CopenhagenArea: 43,094km 2 (around half the size of Ireland)Highest Hills: Yding Skovhøj, Ejer Bavnehøj and RytterknægtenMajor Rivers: Gudena, Stora, Odense, Skjern, Susa and VidaOfficial Language: DanishMoney: Krone Denmark is in Northern Europe and is the smallest of the Scandinavian countries. It is made up of the main peninsula of Jutland and 443 other named islands, the largest of which are Zealand and Funen. Denmark has 11,771 kilometres of coastline, which is longer than the Great Wall of China! No place in Denmark is more than 55 kilometres from the sea. Not surprisingly, the sea has always been very important to the people of Denmark, who are known as Danes. These days, practically all Danes know how to swim, and swimming must be taught in…

One of the world’s best-known and most-loved Christmas carols is ‘Silent Night’. It was first performed during Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve 1818, in St Nicholas Church in the small Austrian village of Oberndorf, just north of Salzburg. Earlier that day, the local priest, Father Joseph Mohr, paid a visit to his friend Franz Xaver Gruber, a local schoolteacher and the church organist. He handed Gruber a poem about the birth of Jesus that he had written two years earlier, and asked him to set it to music. Gruber did as he was asked, and later that night it was heard for the very first time. The carol was written in German and was called, ‘Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht’. It told the Nativity story in simple words that the villagers…

The Boy Who Slept Through Christmas Author: Matt Lucas Illustrator: Forrest Burdett Publisher: HarperCollins Year: 2024 Age range: 8-12 Available now! Everybody loves Christmas – especially Leo. And this one has to be extra-perfect, to help him forget that it is the first Christmas without his mum. But, of course, everything keeps going wrong. The fairy lights are tangled, the Christmas cards haven’t been written, the tree still isn’t decorated and how did the Christmas cakes all get ruined? It’s such a big mess and Leo wishes that it would all go away! And guess what – his wish comes true. Now Leo must try to undo his wish and bring Christmas back. Can he do it in time? You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll love…

Across 1 The red-nosed reindeer 3 The night before Christmas 5 The month when Christmas is celebrated 8 Frosty the ___ 10 The colour of Santa's suit 12 The season when Christmas happens 14 Warm drink with marshmallows, popular in winter 16 What you put on a Christmas tree to make it shine 18 Santa's home at the North ___ 19 Santa climbs down this to deliver presents Down 2 Santa's large sack is filled with these 4 Santa's helpers who make toys 6 The animals that pull Santa's sleigh 7 Santa says this when he laughs 9 You hang these sparkly items on a Christmas tree 11 Hung by the fireplace for Santa to fill 13 People sing these festive songs 14 Snowmen wear these to keep their heads…

G’day, mates! Nora here. I am a numbat, and I live in eucalyptus forests in Western Australia. Sometimes people call me the banded anteater, but I only ever eat ants by mistake. I love termites, and if there are some ants hunting in the termite mounds when I’m hungry they get eaten too. My eyes are high on my small flat head, and I have long ears. I have a dark stripe with a white band below it on each side of my face. My coat is reddish-brown with white bands running across my back. This helps to camouflage me from foxes, snakes, lizards, dingoes, cats and dogs. If predators get close to me, I freeze on the spot and hope they don’t notice me. If that doesn’t work, I…

Match of the Month December 15 Manchester City vs Manchester United We have an early Christmas cracker in the Premier League as new United boss Ruben Amorim takes his side across Manchester to face fierce rivals City. One of Amorim’s final games in charge of Sporting CP was a 4-1 win over Manchester City in the Champions League. Can he achieve a similar result with the Red Devils? NF PREDICTION: MY PREDICTION: Littler Targets World Title Luke Littler will look to continue his incredible year when the World Darts Championship begins on December 15. The teenage darts sensation won the Grand Slam of Darts last month, beating Martin Lukeman 16-3 in the final. That was his 10th trophy of 2024, and he is now targeting a first world title at…