Bees are important for our food, economy and environment and help propagate plants. But, there’s so much more about them. Let’s see how we can get to know them better.
Though we love honey, bees may not be our favourite insects. Regardless, let us get to know more about bees and what they mean for the environment.
Did you know that a colony of bees consists of 20,000-60,000 honey bees and one queen? Worker bees are female and they live for about six weeks and do all the work.
Did you know that honey bees communicate with one another by dancing?
There is so much about bees that we do not know but let’s get familiar with them.
Read the following statements and decide which of these are true, and which are false.
Did you know there was such a day as ‘Sponge Cake Day’? It’s celebrated on August 23, learn to make one with a game and celebrate the occasion.
Ah, the famous yet simple sponge cake. It is considered to be one of the most classic cakes in the world and a favourite to have on any occasion, even tea-time! August 23rd is National Sponge Cake Day, and probably one of the most yummiest days to celebrate.
Even though it can seem very simple, this cake is considered to be a bit hard to perfect. Would you like to try and make your own? Put on your oven mitts and follow the recipe below.
First, however, here’s a memory game for you to find all the different ingredients you will need.
Ingredients:
– 225g softened butter
– 225g golden caster sugar
– 4 large eggs
– 1 tsp vanilla extract
– 225g flour
– 1 tsp baking powder
– splash of milk
– Optional fillings: jam and/or lightly whipped cream
– icing sugar for dusting
Directions:
(Remember to ask for help from an adult when handling the oven and hot cake tins)
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C, butter and line two cake tins with baking parchment.
2. Whisk together the butter and sugar together until it is pale and fluffy. Add the eggs in one at a time and whisk well, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add, vanilla, flour, baking powder, milk and a pinch of salt. Whisk until just combined then divide the mixture between the two cake tins.
3. Bake in the the oven for 25-30 mins until a skewer inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean. Remove the tins from the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes, afterwards remove the cakes from thee tins and leave to cool completely.
4. Fill however you would like. One option could be to add just jam between the two cakes or it could be a combination of jam and whipped cream. Dust the top with icing sugar, or top it with cream and fresh strawberries. You could also leave it plain or not have a filling, it would still be excellent for an evening snack with tea or coffee.
Photos: Flickr
A stroke of red, a splatter of blue, a dab of green, a splash of yellow…it’s a paint party here! When colours combine, there’s more colours. Can you guess the combinations?
Did you know there’s a bit of chemistry in art? Combining two different colours of paint will result in a new colour!
The next time you run out of pink, mix a bit of white with red, and voila! You have pink paint!
Need a specific shade of green for the leaves you are painting, try combining regular green paint with yellow, you’ll get leaf green. Or combine green with blue, you’ll end up with blue-green, perfect to colour water.
Now try this game. Different colour combinations are given here. What will be the resulting colour? You have a choice of six (on the right) to choose from. Drag and drop the correct colour into the circle. You can check to see how many you have got right.
If you are someone who loves to read mystery novels, then you would be a fan of ________ Christie. Try out this fun activity to find out the names of some famous mystery novels.
They say you should never judge a book by its cover. However, you should most definitely remember what is on the cover.
In this fun activity, we have wiped out a word from the book titles of some famous mystery novels authored by Agatha Christie. Fill in the blanks to find out these names, and then maybe later you can solve the mystery in the book too.
An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters to form a different word or phrase. Here’s a crossword with anagrams as clues. Can you solve it?
This is a special crossword where all the clues contain ANAGRAMS of the answers!
An anagram is created by rearranging the letters of a word to form another word.
So, the answer to the clue “Garbage makes me sweat” is WASTE because the word SWEAT can be rearranged to form WASTE which is related to Garbage!
The Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. Find out more about them.
The Inca civilization (c. 1400 and 1533 CE) and it extended across western South America to Santiago in the south, making it the largest empire in the world at that time.
They were famous for their unique art and architecture. Their finely-built yet, imposing buildings. This is apparent even in regions they conquered. One such is Machu Picchu.
A quipu system of knotted and colored strings was a method used by the Incas to keep records and communicate information. This simple and highly portable device achieved a surprising degree of precision and flexibility. The Incas used a , a ‘quipu’ for records, math and possibly even language.
Inca art is best seen in highly polished metalwork (in gold – considered the sweat of the sun, silver – considered the tears of the moon and copper, ceramics, and textiles, with the last being considered the most prestigious by the Incas themselves
It was a combination of factors – a perfect storm of rebellion, disease, and invasion, which brought the downfall of the mighty Inca Empire.
Batting in a Test match is never easy. And batting on all five days of a Test match is a rather rare occasion. In fact, it has happened only 10 times in Test history. And Burns is the 10th to do it…
The first Ashes Test between England and Australia that was played from August 1-5, 2019 was the 2353rd in Test cricket history. In that game, England’s Rory Burns became only the 10th player ever to bat on each day of a five day match.
On his way to achieving this feat, Burns also scored his first Test hundred. It was, however, not enough to stop England from losing the match.
Before we take a look at Burns’ performance during the Test, here is the list of 10 people who have managed this unique record…
The ten players who have batted on all five days of a Test match are:
ML Jaisimha ~ India v Australia in 1960
Geoffrey Boycott ~ England v Australia in 1977
Kim Hughes ~ Australia v England in 1980
Allan Lamb ~ England v West Indies in 1984
Ravi Shastri ~ India v England in 1984
Adrian Griffith ~ West Indies v New Zealand in 1999
Andrew Flintoff ~ England v India in 2006
Alviro Petersen ~ South Africa v New Zealand in 2012
Chesteshwar Pujara ~ India v Sri Lanka in 2017
Rory Burns ~ England v Australia in 2019
(Players belong to the team written first)
Photos: REUTERS, AP
Here’s a fun way to test out both your listening and your spelling skills. Just listen to the word, and type out what you think is the correct spelling. Try it out now…
Spelling is very important when it comes to language. In the case of English, you have to be extra careful because some words may sound one way, but are spelt differently. Try out this quick quiz to see how you fare.
Click on the audio button, listen to the word and type it out in the space below.
The outer space is filled with mysterious things, While some get intrigued by black holes, some love the science behind a shooting star. Fill this crossword to know more about space.
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind that clear blue sky? Or what do astronauts see when they leave Earth?
Space is full of mysterious things. But all thanks to our astronauts and scientists, we know about some of them. Try filling out this crossword to find out names of some the things in outer space.
This Teacher’s Day, give your favourite teacher an award – handmade by you! Click here to find out how to make it…
Show love for your teachers this Teacher’s Day with this super simple handmade trophy, straight from the heart.
(Pssst!: This versatile trophy can also be made for a friend, parent or sibling.)