Complete Hoopla Issue 1 by Whizz Pop Bang

Welcome to

I’m so excited to welcome you to your new Hoopla magazine! There is so much fun to be had inside this issue – make splatter art wrapping paper, learn some amazing magic tricks, cook up delicious party treats and experiment with jelly.

You can enjoy puzzles, riddles, jokes and colouring, and don’t forget to fill in part one of a monthly journal that’s all about you! Have fun!

Tara

Meet the Hoopla gang!

Jem

HOOPLA is only available by subscription. If you haven’t subscribed yet, simply go to hooplamag.com and sign up to get HOOPLA magazine delivered straight to your door.

Editor-in-Chief: Jenny Inglis

Editor: Tara Pardo

Illustrator: Clive Goodyer

Designer: Rachael Fisher

Creative consultant: Tammy Osborne

Expert advisor: Dr Naira Wilson, clinical child psychologist

Whirl

Tanj

GOOD NEWS

A poo museum, a nine-year-old chess champ and great eco news.

ART PROJECT

Drip, flick and splat paint to create some fun wrapping paper.

OUTDOORS

Swimming in the open air is a fun way to cool off in summer.

FOOD

Prepare for sticky fingers as you make these sweet party treats!

PUZZLES & RIDDLES

Put on your thinking caps for some party-themed puzzles.

THINK ABOUT...

Having fun is great, but would you want to have fun ALL the time?

AWESOME ANIMALS

Sniff out some amazing facts about fun-loving dogs.

SNAP HAPPY

A super-close-up look at a plant with a smiley face inside.

DISCOVERY…

Experiment with jelly and learn some amazing party magic tricks!

YOUR JOURNAL

Write about yourself in the first part of this monthly journal.

STORY & COLOURING

A rhyming tale about lost socks, plus a sunny colouring page!

LETTERS & COMPETITION

Share what you’ve been up to and find out how to win a prize.

QUIZ

Test your nature knowledge with our fun photo quiz!

ANSWERS

Find all the answers to our quizzes, puzzles and riddles.

Good NEWS

BIG BREAK

A new sport has been added to the 2024 Olympic Games taking place in Paris.

Breaking, or breakdancing, competitions feature one-on-one contests that narrow down the field until the final battle for the gold medal.

The competitors, who are judged on creativity and technique, don’t know the music ahead of time and have to improvise their moves to the beat!

Nine-year-old chess champ Poozeum opens!

This is the biggest fossilised poo discovered!ever

The 67.5 cm fossil comes from a T.rex and is one of 8,000 fossilised poos, called coprolites, collected by George Frandsen. He has been fascinated by coprolites since he was a teenager and has now opened a museum in Arizona, USA, called Poozeum, to display his collection.

George calls coprolites “prehistoric time capsules” because they help us to understand the diets and environments of ancient creatures.

George with a coprolite

A nine-year-old girl has been picked to compete at an international chess competition.

Bodhana Sivanandan joins the England women’s team for the Chess Olympiad in Hungary in September.

Bodhana, who says she wants to become a chess grandmaster and win a world title, said: “I’m so pleased to be picked for England. It’s a great honour.”

At the World Youth Championship in 2023, she took the under-eight titles in classical, rapid, and blitz chess – winning all 33 games she played.

Good luck, Bodhana!

ELEPHANT TALK

Elephants give each other names!

Researchers studying the calls of African elephants in Kenya found they use specific sounds for each individual.

They also discovered that the elephants recognise and react to a call addressed to them, while ignoring those addressed to others.

Now the scientists want to work out whether elephants have names for other things too, like food, water and places.

Hey Bertie, wait for me!

Maybe one day we’ll be able to use recordings to talk to elephants. What would you ask an elephant?!

Good NEWS For

the Pl net

From S mBentley @s mbentley

Habitat boost Teen inventors

An important wetland habitat for lizards, butterflies and unique plants is being restored!

The Scottish government has set a new record in restoring peatland, which is home to lots of animals and plants that can’t live anywhere else. In the last 12 months, over 100 km2 was restored.

Peatland isn’t very common around the world. In the past, peatlands have been damaged because peat makes a great fertiliser and can even be burned as fuel. Luckily, many countries are putting a stop to this, and Scotland is doing a brilliant job of reversing the harm that peat extraction has caused!

Two 17-year-olds from Texas, USA, have come up with an invention to remove microplastics from water.

Victoria Ou and Justin Huang have now been given a grant of $50,000 to help them make it even better!

The device creates a special kind of sound wave, which is too high for humans to hear. As water flows through the device, these ultrasonic sound waves push back the plastic particles while letting the water through, separating up to 94% of microplastics from the water.

Small plastic particles are becoming very common in our water, but hopefully this grant will help Victoria and Justin build an even bigger and better microplastic cleaning device very soon!

Wrapping

Get cre tive! Paper

Create your own Jackson Pollock style wrapping paper.

This project is super fun and a good way of making your own wrapping paper rather than using shop-bought rolls. The paper can be reused and adds a nice personal touch to any gift.

Youwill need

• Large white paper/ wallpaper lining paper

• Paints/inks

• Plastic yoghurt pots/ glass jars

• Paintbrushes

• Sticks

• Clean used spray bottles

• Masking tape

• Floor protection, such as newspaper or a large plastic sheet (or you could work outside!)

Squirt paints into plastic tubs or jars. Add a little water and stir until it’s the runny consistency of single cream. For DIY spray paints, add paint and water to recycled spray bottles and shake to mix. Coloured inks also work well.

For your first layer, try the ‘paint splatter’ technique. Simply dip a brush into a colour and throw or splatter onto the paper. The closer you splatter to the paper, the bigger the paint marks will be.

Next, dip a stick or twig directly into the paint and dollop or flick onto the page.

Jackson Pollock was one of America’s best-known modern painters. He poured, splattered, splashed and dripped paint onto canvas, rather than applying it slowly. He found this technique worked best when the canvas was laid flat on the floor.

Why not try a DIY spray paint bottle next? Shake it up, then spray onto your paper. Move around, standing or crouching, to get good coverage. Ask

hello@hooplamag.com

Continue with any of these techniques or invent your own, until you are happy with the finished gift wrap. Let the paper dry somewhere safe. If working outside, weigh it down so it doesn’t blow away or tear. Have fun wrapping!

I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own.

Jackson Pollock

Great outdoors

how to swim, you’ll never forget. Whether you’re swimming on holiday or at your local pool, having a splash around is fantastic fun!

It’s easier to float in the sea than in a pool. That’s because the salt in seawater makes it more dense, so you float a bit higher up in it.

Body boost!

Swimming builds strong muscles! It also gets your heart pumping, which makes you fitter.

Make a splash!

LET’S PLAY!

1 Pinch of salt!

One great game to play in the water with friends is Marco Polo. Here’s how to play...

How do divers talk to each other?

With speech bubbles!

You will need three or more players. One player will be ‘Marco’. They will cover their eyes and count to ten. The other players move as quietly as they can to different areas of the pool.

Once Marco has counted to ten, they must keep their eyes closed while trying to find the others. The players can move away from Marco but need to move as quietly as possible.

Find a way from the start to the centre of the Sun! Check your answer on page 34.

START

The world record for the longest time juggling three objects underwater is 1 hour and 40 minutes! Sun

Wee-ly weird ...

Some dolphins can recognise their friends by tasting their wee!

As Marco searches, they call out “MARCO!”, and all the other players must reply “POLO!” This helps Marco find a player to tag, who then becomes Marco and the game starts again.

OTHER GAMES: Take a ball and play water volleyball, or use dive sticks or coins for a dive challenge or treasure hunt.

GO WILD...

Swimming outdoors in nature, also called wild swimming, is lots of fun – and good for you. Swimming in cold water releases chemicals in your brain which make you feel happy!

...IN THE SEA! ...IN A LAKE! ...IN A LIDO!

Remember, never go swimming without an adult.

Cold water and currents can be dangerous. If you find yourself struggling while swimming, remember the ‘Float to Live’ advice. Lean back, tilt your head back, try to relax and breathe normally. Once you feel calmer, call for help.

BRIGADEIROS

Brigadeiros are a traditional and popular Brazilian sweet treat made for festive events. They are fun to make and even better to eat!

You will need

• 1 can of condensed milk

• 3 heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder

Makes 8 big ones or 10 small

ones

• Greaseproof paper (optional)

• 1 tablespoon of icing sugar

• Butter (to grease up those fingers to shape and roll)

milk into a saucepan and sieve in three heaped table-

At this stage, the mixture is very hot. Leave it to cool for at least !

ADULT HELP NEEDED

Mix thoroughly, then place the saucepan on a low heat and stir continuously. Keep stirring until the mixture becomes super thick. When the mixture leaves the bottom of the pan as you stir it, turn off the heat.

Why couldn’t the teddy bear finish his cake? Because he was stuffed!

Once the mixture has cooled, sieve in the icing sugar.

Using a teaspoon, take a blob of the mixture and gently roll it in your sprinkles. Mould it into a round ball with your fingers. Press lightly or you will end up with a big sticky delicious mess!

Box of treats!

Colour in the white brigadeiros so there is one of each colour in every row, column and block of four squares.

Check your answer on page 34.

Using a metal spoon, stir well until all the specks of white icing have disappeared into the mixture.

Place your choice of sprinkles on a plate ready for action. The mixture will be very sticky to handle – grease your hands with butter.

It’s messy but FUN!

What are the best pizza jokes? Cheesy ones!

Which one of the plates of food would look like this from above?

Write down the colour of the balloon attached to each string. Follow the strings!

1) I go up but never come down. What am I?

2) What is round and has no beginning, middle or end?

3) kindWhat of candlelonger?burns

AboutThink FUN

Fun is a short three-letter word and seems simple. Fun is also something that we all want to experience, isn’t it? Can you have fun all the time, or do you think you can have too much fun? Something that seemed straightforward is actually a big idea that makes us think!

What do YOU think…?

What are the top three things in your life that you find FUN? Write or draw your ideas...

Now look at what you wrote or drew and think about what makes something fun!

My ideas about what makes something fun...

Ask other people what their top three fun things are.

Here are some other people’s ideas about what they think is fun Tick the statements that you agree with:

ALL people want to have fun all the time!

I think something that challenges me is fun.

I have fun when I’m playing.

I think you can make something fun that might not seem fun to start with!

People don’t always feel like having fun.

I think cooking is a fun activity.

I have fun at school when I Iearn something new.

You can’t make someone have fun.

Everyone finds a birthday party fun!

Something fun makes you laugh.

I think different people find different things fun.

Something fun should be enjoyable.

Sometimes, something you found fun one day isn’t fun another day.

Fun can be found when you are playing, working, eating, on your own or with other people. Whatever you find fun, it needs to be enjoyable, entertaining or pleasurable

Fun biscuit!

Fun seems good but, if you could eat a special biscuit that meant you had fun all the time, would you eat it?!

YesNoMaybe

Being creative can be fun!

Can you give a strong reason for the choice you made about whether to eat the fun biscuit?

Remember, STRONG reasons are detailed...

Fun ALL the time?

Having fun all the time might sound like something you’d enjoy, but some people might find it exhausting!

Would fun stuff still be fun if we did it all the time? Or is it OK to not be having fun sometimes?

I think... because...

Watch and think

If you can, with permission from an adult, watch the fun theory film together.

bit.ly/4d2XKAZ

This film is suggesting that people can be encouraged to change their behaviour – in this case, choosing to use the stairs and get more exercise rather than use the escalator, by simply making the stairs more fun!

2

Fun piano staircase!

Chance to reflect

When you are watching the video, think about these three questions:

1

Would you find the piano stairs fun?

Can you choose to find something fun?

Think CLUB

3

Look back at ideas that you wrote at the start about what makes something fun! Do you still agree with yourself? You may have found, when talking to your friends and family, that different people find different things fun. Are there some things that all people find fun? Or does it depend on how you are feeling and whether you are ready to have fun? Perhaps you decide how much fun you really have! Does having fun make people happier?

Draw or write your final thoughts about fun

Should we try making more everyday things fun? Could you have fun tidying your bedroom?! Maybe you could try to do it in record time or sing or dance while you’re tidying! Boredom is the opposite of fun. Can you think of ways you could switch from feeling bored to having fun?

What would people do more of if it was made fun? Send your ideas for how to make something fun to hello@hooplamag.com and you might even see them in the next issue –wouldn’t that be fun?

ANIMALS Awesome

Smell ya later!

Sniffer dogs are the world’s best detection units, sniffing out explosives, hidden weapons and even missing people. They are taught that when they find something with a particular smell, they are rewarded with playtime with their favourite toy.

Playful pups

It’s not just people that like to have fun, animals do too! Dogs love to play with their toys – and their humans!

Sniffer dogs can even tell the difference between identical twins, by picking up tiny differences in their smells!

CHIHUAHUA

What type of dog sneezes?

Achoo-wawa!

Pet dogs are descended from an ancient species of wolf. It is thought they first began to live with people at least 15,000 years ago, guarding them from wild animals and helping them hunt prey in exchange for food and warmth around the campfire.

GREAT DANE

Dogs often enjoy some of the same sorts of games we do, like playing with balls, tug of war and hide and seek. Sibling puppies also love to tumble around having play fights!

What do you get when you cross a sheepdog with jelly?

The Collie wobbles!

Dogs great and small!

Thousands of years of selective breeding, where humans choose which dogs to breed based on their characteristics, has created lots of different dog breeds, from the tiny Chihuahua to the massive Great Dane!

Puppy puzzle

Find these dog breed names in the grid! They might be written forwards, backwards, horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Check your answers on page 34. Labrador

Paws for thought

There are hundreds of dog breeds, but can you name these ten? Use the clues from the dogs to help you! Fill in the letters below, one is done for you, and check your answers on page 34.

Did somebody say sausages?

I’m not afraid of the big bad wolf

Boing, boing, I’m full of bounce

I only answer to ‘Your Highness’

Don’t let me loose in a china shop!

ABI’m a barrel of laughs if you’re lost in the snow

Bonjour! I’m told my fabulous ears are as beautiful as a butterfly

Throw this, throw this, I just love bringing it back!

Go on, put ’em up!

FI can follow any scent, it doesn’t have to be blood

Bloodhound

Boxer

Bulldog

Dachshund (sausage dog)

Golden retriever 6. Irish wolfhound 7. King Charles spaniel

8. Papillon (butterfly)

9. Springer spaniel

10. St Bernard J

SNAP HAPPY

Smiley grass!

This super-close-up photograph shows a cross-section of a blade of marram grass (the long tough grass that you see holding sand dunes together). It has been stained with fluorescent dyes to show the structures inside the leaf. What look like smiley faces with ‘eyes’ and a blue ‘mouth’ are the plant’s internal plumbing system – leaf veins which water moves through.

Let’ s

Discovery DEN PARTY

Did you know?

Have some fun with these super science investigations and ‘magic’ party tricks!

Most jelly is held together by gelatine, a tangle of long, stringy proteins. When hot water is poured over gelatine, the proteins absorb energy, unravel and move around in the water. As the jelly cools, the proteins lose their energy and tangle up again, trapping lots of water between them.

The wonderful wobble of a set jelly is it flowing slowly – when it’s pushed and prodded gently, it springs back to its original shape. Unlike baking a cake, setting a jelly is reversible. If you warm it up, it will become liquid again. Try these wibbly wobbly jelly experiments!

Get set…

Collect round food packaging, such as yoghurt pots or paper cups. Clean and dry them, then use them to make flat, round fruit jellies. Add pieces of a different fruit to each jelly. Try orange, apple, grapes, kiwi, pear, pineapple, papaya and banana.

Not all the jellies will set – some contain chemicals that chop the protein strings into pieces! If the proteins in jelly are too short, they can’t tangle up again and trap water, so the jelly doesn’t set. Can you work out which fruits contain the protein-chopping chemicals?

Tall treat

Jelly is great fun because it sets in the shape of its container. But did you know that it’s really hard to engineer a jelly more than 10 cm tall that can stand up on its own?

Try it yourself! You could try to strengthen your structure by adding other edible items to your jelly, like sponge fingers or breadsticks!

What’s the best thing to put in a jelly? Your teeth!

Will it wobble?

Does jelly wobble underwater? To find out, make a small jelly in a cupcake case and turn it out in a large bowl. Fill the bowl with water. Tap, prod and shake the jelly. What happens?

Add one teaspoon of icing sugar and a splash of warm water to each glass. Stir until the sugar has dissolved, then fill up the glasses with cold water.

Add about two drops of food colouring to one glass, and half a teaspoon of food colouring to another glass. Leave the final glass clear. Stir them well.

Ask a volunteer to sip each drink and tell you which one they think is

They will probably think that the strongest-coloured drink is the sweetest bright colours with sweet flavours, like fruit. Now ask them if they can guess the flavour of the strongestcoloured drink. They might suggest strawberry or another red fruit because of the colour, even though you know it has no flavour at all!

Did you manage to fool them?!

See a hole in your hand!

Play this simple trick on a volunteer, or on yourself!

•

Roll the piece of paper into a tube and tell your volunteer to place it between their thumb and forefinger about halfway along its length, as shown.

Tell them to look at their hand through the tube, keeping both eyes open.

Your volunteer sees a hole in their hand!

This is because the tube stops their eyes from working together, so their brain receives a different image from each eye. The brain then combines the images and forms a strange picture. If they don’t see the effect at first, tell them to try moving their hand further towards their face.

BEING me

I’m years old

I live with...

Things I’ve enjoyed recently...

My mood journal

A picture of me!

Ilike to eat...

One fun thing that happened today was...

I had fun digging up the flower bed!

I like reading books about...

Things I like about me... My favourite animal is...

Here’s my drawing of one...

I’m good at sharing!

Who ate my socks?

This morning I had a bit of a shock –I couldn’t find my right school sock! I found the left one then looked around, But the matching sock could not be found...

Behind my desk and the chest of drawers, Under the couch and behind all the doors, I even checked the cupboard under the stair, And you’ll never guess what I found there!

There was a little fellow, about two feet tall, All covered in fuzz like a little dustball.

The monster looked like he was having fun, He’d made a nest of my socks – and was eating one!

He had a frightened look upon his face when I stuck my head into his hiding-place.

“What are you doing?” I exclaimed.

“When my socks go missing, I get blamed!”

The little chap looked at me in surprise

And stuttered, “I do apologise!

I’m a sock troll, and for me it’s a treat

To eat these things you put on your feet!

“I didn’t believe that anyone cares Because these tasty treats always come in pairs. I could eat both but that wouldn’t do, So I always leave one sock for you!

“Woollen socks are chewy and tasty, Little cotton socks are soft like pastry, Sweet and sour polyester is sure to please, And sweaty sports socks taste like cheese!”

I told him, “I think eating socks is fine, But I need these ones, and they’re mine!”

The sock troll cheered up when I said, “You can eat Dad’s socks instead!”

Pens, pencils or crayons at the ready for some colourful relaxation!

Colour

challenge

Can you say which colour ink each of the words is written in? It’s harder than you think! Your brain gets muddled as it tries to read the words instead of naming the colours.

What’s orange and sounds like a parrot? A carrot!

PURPLE

Put your nature knowledge to the test!

a) A lily

b) A sunflower

c) A sweet pea

Answer:

a) Peach

b) Plum

c) Pear

Answer:

What is this 3 6 5 Is this a bee or a wasp?

a) A bee b) A wasp

Answer:

What is this summer fruit? Pick the puffin!

Answer:

a) A frog b) A newt c) A toad

Answer:

Write your answers in the boxes an d check them on page 34.

Answers

Page 9 Sun fun!

Page 11 Box of treats!

Page 13 Follow the strings

Page 13 Party plates

C is the plate viewed from above.

Page 13 Riddles

1) Your age 2) A doughnut

3) None, they all burn shorter!

Page 12 Perfect pair

These are the matching hats.

Page 19 Puppy puzzle

Page 20 Paws for thought

1) J

2) G

3) B

4) C 5) I

6) E

7) A

8) F

9) H

10) D

Page 33 Quiz

1) c – although they’re both mostly black and white, magpies are much larger than pied wagtails.

2) a – these lilies are known for their lovely scent.

3) a – bees tend to be hairier and less bright yellow than wasps.

4) b – plums are a juicy late summer treat, but they are also eaten dried, as prunes!

Page 12 Word wheel

The words are penguin, octopus, pencil, mouse, umbrella, s trawberry, igloo and carrot, so the punchline to the joke ‘What kind of music is scary for balloons?’ is ‘Pop music!’

5) d – puffins are great swimmers and can dive as deep as 60 m.

6) c – toads have drier, bumpier skin than frogs and also have shorter legs, making them more likely to crawl than hop.

At parties, my favourite game is meow-sical chairs!

Purple Green Orange a b c

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Woo. Woo who?

Glad you’re excited, too!

Quirky Quot bles

How much does it cost to go withswimming sharks? An arm and a leg! Why are mountains so funny? They’re just hill areas! What’s Earth without art in it? Eh!

What do you call a painting by a cat? A paw-trait! Why don’t the circus lions eat the clowns? Because they taste funny! Why are elephants always ready for a swim? Because they already have their trunks on!