Are you struggling to come up with an idea for the Kids News Short Story competition? Don’t worry, these tips from Matt Stanton will get your imagination flowing. But hurry, time is running out to enter.

A tourist’s accidental photo of a strange aquatic creature about 2.5m long has sparked new excitement about Scotland’s Loch Ness monster, the mysterious creature people love wondering about

Keeping up with world news gave author Amaeh Reed an idea for her winning 2019 Kids News short story competition entry. Amaeh explains how she got from the idea to the finished story

Lego master builder Kieran Jiwa — whose job it is to play and create with Lego for most of every day — has known he wanted this career since he was six years old

Rose Pullinger’s Emily to the Rescue was a winning entry in the Kids News 2019 Short Story Competition. She’s keen to enter the 2020 competition and shares some tips about story writing

Three young Brisbane siblings are turning a passion for baking into a sellout success, barely keeping up with demand for their scrumptious creations.

In this weekly series for Kids News, Mark Knight explains the news and the creative process behind one of his latest cartoons. Mark imagines Pies fans would have been outraged!

Optical illusions show us that a picture or an object in front of our eyes is only part of what we “see”. Our brain makes up the rest. Test yourself on these cool illusions to find out for yourself

Kids are returning to school as COVID-19 restrictions ease. After working from home with his kids, Mark Knight wonders who in each household is most looking forward to getting back to normal

They’re cute and very cheeky. And now you can create your own, with this step-by-step guide to drawing and animating a minion – just like in the movies

Lego Masters is over for 2020, but one of the competitors still gets to play with lots of toys. We take a look at Trent Cucchiarelli’s incredible collection of action figures, vehicles and play sets

Basketball star Michael Jordan’s 35-year-old second-hand shoes that aren’t even a matching pair just sold for $873,000 at auction, but that doesn’t quite make them the most expensive shoes ever

A photo of a mountain hare in a snowstorm that took the photographer several freezing weeks to capture has won this year’s BigPicture international nature photography competition

A famous UK sports commentator in lockdown at home has narrated Phillip ­Island’s penguin parade 17,000km away to make up for the lack of live sports events

Start thinking and then roll up your sleeves to start working on your winning entry for the 2020 Kids News Short Story competition. First prize winners will have their story turned into a published book

Kids News has produced a ‘time capsule’ activity book so children can document their time in isolation and how it’s made them feel so they can always remember this unique period in their life

Silly walking is encouraged along the Tasmanian town of Latrobe’s main street after the mayor declared it a jurisdiction of the Ministry of Silly Walks during the COVID-19 disruption

A man known as Thor and The Mountain has broken the world deadlift record after successfully lifting an incredible 501kg, making the polar-bear-sized lift look easy

People everywhere are covering footpaths with beautiful chalk art to spread joy during COVID-19, providing meaning to their lives, connecting communities and keeping children entertained

Three videos of UFOs have been officially released by the US navy, sparking new interest in the hobby of researching sightings of flying objects that can’t be explained by science

Children in China are finally returning to classrooms after months of online learning, using creative thinking to find fun ways to keep their distance to help slow the spread of the coronavirus

Zoos and wildlife parks across the country have risen to the COVID-19 challenge with livestreams from inside animal enclosures and broadcasting feedings, tours, talks and shows

For many, Easter means chocolate eggs, bunnies, hot cross buns and church services. Kids News researched why we celebrate Easter, when it will be and how common traditions began

JK Rowling and Harry Potter are casting a spell to banish coronavirus boredom for children around the world after launching a free website for fans of the boy wizard

Visit the Great Wall of China, see the Mona Lisa or watch zoo animals without leaving home. Here are 10 top virtual experiences plus one very special out-of-this-world tour

Disney is giving fans take a sneak peek behind its famous walls and letting children discover how rollercoasters and rides are made and how its special “lands” are created

Watch out … today is April Fools’ Day and it’s the day for playing pranks on unsuspecting people. We look at why we celebrate on April 1 and some of today's best jokes

Best-selling children’s author and illustrator Matt Stanton has declared the first day of every working week Monster Monday. Here he explains why drawing monsters is a cure for boredom

Australian children are joining a global bear hunt inspired by the popular storybook, making walks around the neighbourhood lots of fun during the COVID-19 disruption

Three-and-a-half-month-old twin polar bear cubs have made their public debut at a zoo in the Netherlands, but without the public because of coronavirus restrictions

An American daredevil has successfully walked a tightrope thousands of metres in the air above the crater of an active volcano

The factory that makes Violet Crumble is working 24 hours a day to keep up with incredible demand for the historic, purple-wrapped chocolate honeycomb bar

Five Australian photographers have blitzed the international Underwater Photographer of the Year competition with their incredible pictures of life under the sea

Scientists in Belgium are experimenting with larva fat to replace butter in waffles, cakes and cookies, saying using grease from insects is more sustainable than dairy produce

A large male and two smaller female baboons broke free from a truck at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, sparking a baboon hunt through the inner western suburbs

A 62-year-old man has set an astonishing Guinness World Record, planking for 8 hours, 15 minutes and 15 seconds, suggesting that “Anybody can do what I do”

Australians are becoming world leaders at cooking and eating pancakes on Pancake Tuesday, a fun food day that has its origins as a religious festival

Crocodile tears are real – though humans are the only animals that cry emotional tears – and babies don’t cry tears at all. Kids News explains tears and crying

Though the crowd cheered for a golden retriever, a fluffy, puffed-up poodle has been named top dog for 2020 at the world-famous Westminster Dog Show

There are several stories about who Valentine was, but the most popular one is that he was a doctor and priest from Rome in the third century who lived and died in the pursuit of love

Travel back in time thousands of years through this NASA animation to look at Earth without oceans, when vast lands allowed ancient people to roam the world

When the calendar clicked over to 02/02/2020 on Sunday, few people realised it was a universal palindrome, a momentous date that hasn’t happened since 11/11/1111

One of these incredible photos will be the winning entry in the 2019 Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award. Which would you vote for?

A fascinating new map has plotted out the most common surnames in every country in the world. Can you guess the most common last name in Australia?

Earth is so big and so filled with things to see it’s hard to know where to start looking. To help you out, we’ve compiled this collection of incredible sculptures to look at and learn about

If you are worried that Frozen II won’t live up to the hype of the original movie five years ago, you’ll be pleased to learn it is a confident and funny movie that will melt most children’s hearts

Vegemite’s recipe and flavour has not changed, according to the makers of the famous Aussie spread, keen to reassure worried local customers ahead of its historic global launch

Researchers have invented a way to create characters that could talk to and interact with us, using speakers that whiz a tiny bead around faster than our brains can track

By the 1950s, no one wanted to buy a special sort of dough to clean wallpaper. But some creative thinking saved the failing dough company and we all got to play with Play-Doh

Scientists have discovered a new kind of invisible ink that we all use every day that’s virtually free. Unfortunately, to get it to work, you also need a super-hi-tech piece of coated paper

There’s a story that McDonald’s burgers last forever, so one fan kept a burger and fries from 2009 to see if it was true. Today, they still look fine to eat, with no sign of mould or decay

Phil Leitch lives in a castle, wears a suit of armour and is the current World Jousting Champion. He’s also a real, professional, full-time knight known as Sir Reynard. True story!

Check your change and empty your money box! You may be the owner of coins that contain minting mistakes or imperfections that makes them worth thousands of dollars

Australia had its own Willy Wonka long before Roald Dahl wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the real one every bit as eccentric and a genius as the fictional version

The biggest release of $1 coins will feature 26 Australian animals, food and cultural items including meat pies, didgeridoos, Weet-Bix and thongs. Can you find them all in the Great Aussie Coin Hunt?

It’s school holiday time which means Kids News is taking a short break. But you should grab some popcorn and see one of the great movies on the big screen. Here’s our guide to the best

A toy monkey from an Australian kindergarten has had an unexpected big adventure at Buckingham Palace, getting lost, then found, then going to work with palace staff

When Kids News recently visited Derinya Primary School in Victoria to talk about the media, fake news and how to become a reporter, it had an inspirational effect on the students

Jillibalu Riley does incredible acrobatics as a performer with Circus Oz, tricks he started practising as a little daredevil kid mucking around with his cousins

Robots served ice cream to excited kids on day one at Australia’s first robotic shop, in a move said to be about enhancing the customer experience rather than taking humans’ jobs

Scientists have made a major discovery in solving the mystery of the Loch Ness monster by testing DNA left behind by living things — ruling out the idea it was a dinosaur

A pizza with 154 varieties of cheese and a man pulling a massive army tank 10m are two of the incredible Australian achievements just announced by Guinness World Records

Designs have been revealed for the Von Braun Rotating Space Station, a low-orbit, wheel-shaped hotel for 100 space tourists a week that could be open for guests by 2025

Award-winning children’s author Jackie French gives her top tips on how to write a winning tale for the Kids News short story writing competition — and it involves eating chocolate

In breaking news ..... eight-year-old Dayleni Drike Sanchez has been named Australia’s best kids’ newsreader and is making her live TV debut. Watch her in action

In our weekly series, award-winning cartoonist Mark Knight explains why he used the faces of innocent animals to measure the destruction of the Amazon fires

Read all about it … Kids News is now a mini newspaper. Pick up your copy full of fun stories and facts this weekend at Coles to complete your Little Shop 2 collection

A young Melbourne champ has won the world’s richest eSports prize for the second year in a row, putting his earnings way ahead of those of many of Australia’s most famous sports stars

Here is the latest news ..... Kids News and Studio 10 are searching for Australia’s best kids’ newsreader. Could it be you? Put on your best TV voice and find out

A man has set a new world record by riding a bike at just over 280kmh, but he still couldn’t beat female cyclist Denise Mueller-Korenek, who is the fastest ever

It’s Book Week and what better way to get involved than with the Kids News short story writing competition. Winners will have their own story published into a real book and take home an iPad and book pack

In our weekly series, award-winning cartoonist Mark Knight celebrates the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ famous Abbey Road album cover, but his tribute has a twist with a new Fab Four

Microscopic tardigrades made the news for crash-landing on the Moon. Earth is teeming with other tiny creatures just as fascinating. Here are a few you won’t be able to stop looking at

A tiny, wide-eyed koala has been named Australia’s cutest koala joey. And now she’s out of her mother’s pouch, her important work as an ambassador for her species’ conservation really begins

Worms, bees, birds, flowers and veggies are the stars of Australia’s stamp collecting month, when sustainable gardening and stamp collecting get together to grow something great

In our weekly series, award-winning cartoonist Mark Knight looks at why Barnaby Joyce crying poor over having to support two families was a bit rich and a cartoonist’s dream

This mind-boggling, spinning optical illusion is actually completely still and completely flat but our brains don’t see it that way. Scientists are studying whether that’s a weakness or a strength

Incredible new images reveal what Sydney would look like today had some of the alternative harbour bridge designs been given the green light instead of the now-famous coathanger

A teenager has collected more than $4.3 million in prizemoney after becoming world champion of the computer game Fortnite, beating 40 million gamers who applied to compete

There are 7.7 billion humans on Earth but many, many more animals of other species, so it's no wonder animals sometimes interrupt humans’ sports matches. And that can make for a great photo

We look at some of the best contributions to an international photography competition about how we work now and wonder which of these jobs will still be done by humans in 2100

World Emoji Day on July 17 is a fun, annual celebration of one of the world’s newest ways of communicating. We look at what emojis are, who invented them and if they are a real language

Have you ever moaned that fruit and vegetables are boring? That you’d like something more fun to eat? You’ll never say fruit and vegetables are boring again after seeing these crazy characters

Australia’s champion speedcubers are warming up their fingers and concentrating their minds to take on the rest of the world for the World Rubik’s Cube Championships, July 11-14