As the old saying goes, March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. And that means spring is right around the corner, and sports, travel, and after-school activities are about to take over. Keep your students' momentum going through these busy days with IXL, a super popular online platform to sharpen skills in language arts, science, and math for kids from kindergarten through high school. The format is focused and flexible, and will give your kids a confidence boost as they wrap up the year. Give it a try at IXL.com slash KidNews and get 20% off monthly and annual plans. That's IXL.com slash KidNews. Good morning and welcome to KidNews. I'm Kim. Today is Thursday, April 2nd, 2026. And we begin with the crew of Artemis II orbiting Earth on the first day of their history-making moon mission. The three Americans and one Canadian launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 6.35 p.m. Eastern time yesterday after a brief delay to resolve some technical issues. Spectators cheered as the towering orange and white rocket blasted off Launch Pad 39 B. As we've reported, the astronauts will not land on the moon but will travel around it, in NASA's first return to the lunar orbit in more than 50 years. According to the New York Times, a special stowaway is on board. It's a toy named RISE, or so-called Moon Mascot and Zero Gravity Indicator, custom-designed by eight-year-old Lucas Yee of Mountain View, California, as part of a NASA-sponsored contest. President Trump spoke to the American people from the White House last night, asserting the war with Iran was nearing completion and that the U.S. is winning militarily. In the 19-minute primetime address, he did not give any clues, however, as to how or when the war would end and said the U.S. will continue to fight hard over the next few weeks. Mr. Trump said the economic pain from high oil and gas prices people are feeling is short-term, but did not say whether the Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world's oil is transported, would reopen. According to Reuters, roughly two-thirds of Americans would like to see the war end quickly. Last week, we told you about oral exams being used by teachers to combat the influence of AI. Now, a Cornell University professor is similarly going old school to deal with the problem. German instructor Grit Matthias Phelps has brought back a relic of the past, typewriters, no screens, online dictionaries, or spellcheck allowed. Phelps was frustrated with students using artificial intelligence and translation apps to churn out grammatically perfect assignments regardless of their actual fluency. According to the Associated Press, she found a dozen old manual typewriters in thrift shops and taught her students how to feed the paper into the machine, strike the keys just hard enough so the letters won't smudge, and manually return the carriage to start the next line. Freshman Catherine Mung said without a delete key, she had to pause and be more intentional about her writing. This thing I handed in definitely did not look clean or finished, she said, but it's part of the process of learning that you're going to make mistakes. It took less than three minutes for masked men broken to an Italian museum near the city of Parma last week, making off with famous and very valuable paintings by artists Renoir, Cézanne, and Matthias. The museum said the heist was pulled off by a structured and organized gang who entered through the front door, nabbed the art, and escaped across the museum's gardens. According to NBC News, the paintings were worth more than $10 million, but the museum remained open, keeping the news from the public for a week. Officials say the thieves likely would have taken even more had an alarm not sounded. As of this recording, they have not been caught. The theft comes after a series of high-profile heists at major European museums, including one at the Louvre in Paris last October. First, she was born there. Years later, she became a janitor, and now she's a doctor in the very same Yale hospital. Cé Taylor Allen says she still can't believe she landed a residency at the New Haven spot she knows so well. For a decade, she walked the halls, mopping patient rooms, cleaning surfaces, and emptying the trash. According to the Washington Post, no one in her family had gone to college, so she opted to get a job at the hospital after high school. The connections she made with patients inspired her to change course, attending first college and then medical school, despite being rejected from more than 20 before landing a spot. After learning of her dream placement as an anesthesiology resident at Yale, Cé said, If you work hard, you can get to where you want to be. I think I'm proof of that. Still ahead, a baker's buttercream bonanza heads down under. But first, a thank you to some of our awesome donors. Susan Williams from Danville, California, Heather Miller of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Janita Wiley from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Thank you for partnering with us to bring great news to great kids. Now, today's kid news quiz. What is the name of the moon mascot traveling on board Artemis II? Rise. What is a Cornell University professor teaching her students to deter them from using AI? How to use typewriters. How long did it take thieves to steal three valuable paintings from an Italian museum last week? Less than three minutes. A former Yale hospital janitor just realized what dream. She was placed as a medical resident at the very same hospital she was born in and worked at, cleaning rooms. In today's kid news kicker, the saying, let them eat cake, took on a whole new meaning at Australia's first ever cake picnic. More than 1,600 of the iced confections were artfully presented and then devoured at the event, which took place on King's Domain in Melbourne last week. Amateur baker, Alyssa Sanga, hosted the first cake picnic in San Francisco in 2024, as a way to taste more cakes than she could possibly make. Her massive cake swap has now spread to 10 cities. Best in show at the Melbourne event was a cake decorated like a tin of anchovies. But according to The Guardian, cake picnics are not really about the competition. There's one important rule. No cake, no entry. But beyond that, bakers sample until their sugary hearts are content. Alice Bennett, a self-proclaimed queen of cakes, told a reporter she brought her game face and party dress and had high hopes. I'm aiming for a thousand, but I'll be sad if I don't get to taste at least 50. Now shout outs for our kid news classrooms. Mrs. Rounds Cougars at Congan in Westbrook, Maine. Ms. Jenny's Room 111 smiling students at Elizabeth Lee Black School in Erie, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Spurs Chargers at Chapman in Rockwood, Michigan. Ms. Adriana's wonderful students at PS158 in New York City, New York. And Ms. Reed's Wildcats at Whittier in Bozeman, Montana. Thanks for listening. Remember to rate, review, subscribe, and share Kid News with all your friends and family. We'll see you back here for more Kid News tomorrow morning.
