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National parks need more help to survive

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National parks need more help to survive

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(:Manny:)

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Newsela | Although Americans love national parks, their future is uncertain

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Parks can improve your mental health (PODCAST)

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Parks can improve your mental health (PODCAST)

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Students: Use codes to join classes, and then complete assignments.

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Bosnian swim club acknowledges needs of kids who are disabled

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Bosnian swim club acknowledges needs of kids who are disabled

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Newsela | Swimming club gives hope to Bosnian children who are disabled

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Check up time: Philadelphia doctors prescribe dose of park visits to kids

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Check up time: Philadelphia doctors prescribe dose of park visits to kids

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Newsela | Philadelphia doctors prescribe kids get a daily dose of the great outdoors

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Philadelphia initiative NaturePHL seeks to get kids more physically active with outdoor play

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Health
Survey shows that more children than ever in U.S. are practicing yoga

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Health
Survey shows that more children than ever in U.S. are practicing yoga

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by eric =_=

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Newsela | Yoga is becoming more popular, and it's kids who are getting "om"-board

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Newsela | Research says exercise works out the brain as well as the body

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Too much trash is thrown on the ground at parks

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Too much trash is thrown on the ground at parks

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Parks needs to be more cleaner because it's bad for the environment

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Newsela | National Park Service begins task of cleaning up shutdown messes

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Now that the government shutdown is over, the cleanup can begin.

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ADRIAN.VIVAS

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Newsela | Math whiz kids with autism show different brain patterns, study shows

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A group of researchers compared autistic children of average intelligence to similar children who are not autistic. The autistic kids were found to have superior math skills.

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Newsela | Get moving! Exercise really does pay off, says long-term study

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Just don't stand there, people. Here's why.

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Importance Of Parks And Recreation | Recreation And Park Administration | Eastern Kentucky University

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EKU Eastern Kentucky University Recreation and Park Administration

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Club helps young Native Americans in New Mexico connect with running

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Club helps young Native Americans in New Mexico connect with running

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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People worry the Bear Ears National Monument will be made smaller

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People worry the Bear Ears National Monument will be made smaller

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Newsela | Conservation groups fear Utah's Bears Ears could lose much of its land

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Congress could use its power to cut the size of Bears Ears National Monument considerably.

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Sports
Soccer helps young refugees get a shot at a better life

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Sports
Soccer helps young refugees get a shot at a better life

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Basketball program helps boys believe in themselves, and behave better

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Basketball program helps boys believe in themselves, and behave better

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Newsela | Helping boys become respectful men through their love of basketball

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Newsela | Congress debates funding for national parks

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Newsela | Trump not sweet on Park Service tweets

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Girl Scouts seek statue of women in Central Park

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Girl Scouts seek statue of women in Central Park

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Newsela - Girl Scouts seek statue of women in Central Park

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Girl Scouts join activists to raise money for a monument to women in NYC’s Central Park

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Newsela | States take aim at heat stroke, other serious high school sports injuries

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In many states, high school coaches must give football players more breaks on hot days. Head injuries and muscle and joint problems are other concerns. Schools also need more trainers.

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https://listenwise.com/students/events/223-preparing-for-a-future-of-flooding-build-parks

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Students: Use codes to join classes, and then complete assignments.

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If your doing investing more money in parks 

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If your doing investing more money in parks 

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Newsela | Losing a chunk of Bears Ears to mining and drilling leads to protests

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Native Americans and an eclectic group of runners run to protest the Trump administration's unprecedented seizure of land at Bear Ears national monument.

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(Oscar) =_=

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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PODCAST

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It's after 9 p.m. and Alix Le Bourdon is enjoying a picnic dinner with her family and friends at the Buttes Chaumont park in Paris 19 th arrondissement. Usually at this time they'd be rushing to pack everything up before the park guards, blowing their whistle, come through to shoo everyone away and lock the gates.

Every Parisian knows the sound of those whistles that draw the curtain on many a summer night in the park. But not anymore, says Le Bourdon.

"When you want to have a picnic at night it's really nice to be able to stay a long time and not even look at your watch," she says. "Just stay and enjoy the freshness of the evening."

That's exactly what Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is hoping people will do when Paris' nine largest parks stay open all night in July and August this year.

The mayor's office has been experimenting over the last couple years by keeping certain small parks and squares open 24 hours a day. And its been successful. More than a quarter of Paris' nearly 500 parks have adopted this nocturnal schedule.

The capital's biggest parks were excluded. But now Parisians and tourists alike will have more than 500 acres for nocturnal strolls and midnight picnics in a city that's considered safe after dark. The experiment is already underway on weekends in May and June.

And as the days grow longer, it stays light past 10 p.m. When the summer solstice comes next month, it will be light until nearly 11 p.m.

On this mild May evening, there are blankets spread across the park's grassy hills. The last rays from a setting sun illuminating happy faces. Longtime Paris resident Lori Thicke, a Canadian, is enjoying a glass of wine.

"It's so much more fun to be able to stay," she says. "But it's the first time. So I'll have to see what happens. But I noticed the music's getting louder and people seem to be relaxing a little more.

As darkness falls, a more festive ambiance takes over. Under a canopy of trees a group of young people have strung illuminated, flashing balloons to celebrate a birthday.
The Legacy Of Napoleon III
The 61-acre Buttes Chaumont park opened in 1867. Built on a former rock quarry, it has hills and lakes, statues and band kiosks. This park was one of many built by Napoleon III. Paris historian and author David Downie says the emperor hoped to improve workers' crowded living conditions at the time of the industrial revolution.

"In Paris, the population topped out in the late 19 th century at over 3 million," he says. "So what did you do with all these factory workers? And Napoleon III wanted to avoid another revolution, so one of the ideas was well, 'We'll create these wonderful green spaces where people can cool out.'"

Many of Paris' parks were created under Napoleon III's great architect Baron Von Haussmann, who also widened the cramped, narrow streets to create wide boulevards and let the city breathe.

Some of the nocturnal picnickers say they love staying later, but wonder about the wisdom of keeping a park open all night. They say there could be crime.

Penelope Komites, deputy Paris mayor in charge of parks, says authorities have taken important steps in ensuring the parks will be secure. There will be a heightened police presence making rounds. Including special K9 units.

"We are also counting on the civility of Parisians for the project to work," she says.

The four-month experiment will cost about a half-million dollars in extra security, lighting and trash pick-up.

It's nearing midnight and Akim Boulai and his friends are kicked back on some rocks drinking beers and talking. He says they used to scale the tall iron gates to get in here, but it's much nicer being here legally.

"We don't feel like we're doing something wrong and that we have to hide from the police," he says. "So it's a lot more relaxing."

Yusef Benharam says he feels safe with all the park guards.

"But more than anything I feel Parisian," he says. "We live in the most beautiful city in the world. And this gives us the time to appreciate it."

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Paris Extends Summer Nights By Keeping Parks Open After Sunset

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It's after 9 p.m. and Alix Le Bourdon is enjoying a picnic dinner with her family and friends at the Buttes Chaumont park in Paris 19 th arrondissement. Usually at this time they'd be rushing to pack everything up before the park guards, blowing their whistle, come through to shoo everyone away and lock the gates.

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Newsela | Under shutdown, "closed" national parks are basically wide open

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The government shutdown has left America's parks largely unsupervised, but the crowds continue and the conditions are deteriorating.

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During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which we're in the middle of right now, it's traditional to break the fast in mosques and homes. In fact, you're supposed to be in congregation with others.

"It's almost like the Christmas for Muslims," jokes Omar Salha. "When you have on Christmas day everyone gathered with family members-it just doesn't seem right that during Ramadan you're breaking fast alone."

When Salha was a graduate student in his native London, he felt especially bad for his classmates who were far from home, and left on their own during Ramadan. So with a handful of donated cookies and chips (or "biscuits" and "crisps" if you're feeling British), Salha started what he called Open Iftar. Students from many different countries sat down in a park, and broke bread together.

While the event was initially started for students, many far from their homes in Muslim-majority countries, it quickly expanded - incorporating people of different faiths, or no faith at all, or those who just happened to be passing by. Since that first event in 2011, Salha has worked with groups launching Open Iftars around the world, hosting tens of thousands of people-from Turkey to Canada, the U.K. to Zambia. He has also extended it to a larger organization, the Ramadan Tent Project, which does charitable events throughout the year.

Although the Open Iftar format varies - every night versus a few days, a set location or a roaming one - the participating cities all follow the same basic template. The event is held outdoors (weather permitting), and is open to all. Often there are guest speakers and evening prayers, and then everyone -Muslim and non-Muslim alike -breaks bread together.

The first Open Iftar in the United States was held last year in Portland, Oregon. And this year, the event was especially charged, coming less than 24 hours after two people were killed standing up to anti-Muslim violence. Over 600 people turned out for the Open Iftar at a local community center, sitting on folding chairs and on the ground, indoors and out. Many had never really sat down with their Muslim neighbors before, but felt compelled to show up and show support.

"I didn't know should I dress differently, should I take my shoes off when I walk in the door-you know, all those things that go through your mind when you've never been to a mosque before," admitted Laurie King, who drove a half hour to attend the event. "I just found that you come as you are, and you're welcome."

And the welcome was a warm one. Although the Open Iftar volunteers had been fasting for nearly 18 hours, they were all concerned with making sure their guests had enough to eat, dishing out donated trays of curried chicken and cinnamon-spiked rice (and a stack of pizzas for the kids), and donated squares of home-made baklava. Over the meal, Muslims and non-Muslims moved beyond political rhetoric and religious divides, and got to know each other. Which Open Iftar founder Omar Salha says is the true point of Ramadan.

"These are interesting habits which are conducted over the course of the month which allow us to come closer to our community," said Salha. "And becoming closer to our community means we are becoming closer to God as well."

The month of Ramadan lasts another two weeks. But Salha hopes this closeness and sense of community - not just among Muslims, but among all neighbors - will last much longer.

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This Dinner Party Invites People Of All Faiths To Break Bread Together

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During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which we're in the middle of right now, it's traditional to break the fast in mosques and homes. In fact, you're supposed to be in congregation with others. "It's almost like the Christmas for Muslims," jokes Omar Salha.

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In Texas, middle school exercise program focuses on fitness

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In Texas, middle school exercise program focuses on fitness

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by STEVEN GUZMAN

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Newsela | In Texas, middle school exercise program focuses on fitness

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Functional Fitness program is reinvigorating physical education in Texas middle schools

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Why Are Parks Important?

TOURISM

Public parks are often the "engine" that drives tourism in many communities. In a simplified tourism model, visitors use some mode of transportation to leave their homes and travel to attractions, which are supported by various kinds of services, such as hotels/motels, restaurants, and retailing. The attractions and support services provide information and promote their offerings to target groups they have identified as potential visitors.

Supporting Materials

Click the links below to download

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Learn why parks are important! | BREC - Parks & Recreation in East Baton Rouge Parish

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TOURISM Public parks are often the "engine" that drives tourism in many communities. In a simplified tourism model, visitors use some mode of transportation to leave their homes and travel to attractions, which are supported by various kinds of services, such as hotels/motels, restaurants, and retailing.

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Newsela | California teen's long road from foster care to Olympic pentathlon dreams

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Newsela | Kids to Parks Day: Find your local park on May 19

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This National Park Trust program is good for both kids and parks.

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Newsela | Pianos in the Parks lets everybody tickle the ivories

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Pianos in the Park program aims to provide music appreciation to Chicago residents.

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New Parks Chief Brings a City Planner’s Vision

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New Parks Chief Brings a City Planner’s Vision

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Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver looks out over Central Park from the Arsenal, the headquarters of New York's parks department. Credit Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

Seated at the head of a long conference table in what was once the office of the parks chief Robert Moses, Mitchell J. Silver, New York City's new parks commissioner, declared himself a World's Fair enthusiast.

"It's because of seeing the model at the World's Fair that I developed a passion for cities and wanted to be a planner," he told the members of his senior staff, referring to the Panorama of the City of New York, first exhibited at the 1964 fair.

It was Monday, his first day on the job, at the Arsenal in Central Park, the department's headquarters.

Mr. Silver, 53, only recently arrived from Raleigh, N.C., where he was the director of planning. But picking a planning guy to run the Department of Parks and Recreation, overseeing 29,000 acres of parkland, is not as contrarian as it might appear, he suggested. Having recently served as president of the American Planning Association, he has long studied the way parks fit into the larger urban fabric.

"I believe in the anatomy of a place, of a city," he said. "Parks are a system within a city. They are connected to culture. They are connected to traditions and memories, the economy, the natural systems. As a planner, I take a very different view of parks, as not just a green space but a public space."

Mr. Silver, a Brooklyn native, graduated from Midwood High School and earned degrees from Pratt Institute and Hunter College. He worked for the city's Planning Department before overseeing northern Manhattan for the borough president's office.

He learned to ride a bicycle in Prospect Park and, as a member of his high school's track team, ran through Van Cortlandt Park.

As a young planner in the 1980s, he would relax in one of Bryant Park's signature bistro chairs after its turnaround. He said he "loved to see the evolution" of that park, "from when it was really not a welcoming place to the whole redesign; it's just a wonderful public space."

While he was still learning the layout of his fortresslike headquarters, Mr. Silver ticked off his main areas of focus for a parks system that includes 13 golf courses, 695 tennis courts, 14 miles of beaches and 650,000 street trees. His priorities, he said, are park equity, resilience, community health, safety and innovation.

Perhaps it was no accident that "equity" topped Mr. Silver's shortlist. For the past year, equality has emerged as the key issue for Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration. The success of some conservancies, in particular those of Central Park, Prospect Park and the High Line in raising money and paying for upkeep, has served to highlight the disparities across the system's 1,900 parks and playgrounds.

"I boil down equity to one simple word: fairness," Mr. Silver said in an interview. "Are we being fair on how we distribute our resources? Are we being fair on how we manage our system? People know when they're not getting their fair share.

"So equity and fairness to me is absolutely paramount. How we figure that out, I don't know. There'll be a lot of meetings, both internally but also externally with our partners, to figure out how we can have a fair parks system."

As he made his way from floor to floor, meeting employees, Mr. Silver made the occasional quip. While shaking hands with the staff from a program named Operations Excellence, he said, "I love that phrase."

In a second-floor hallway, he saw seats from the original Yankee and Shea Stadiums. "They're facing each other," he said. "That's the way it should be."

He seemed especially taken with the Arsenal's two rooftop gardens, where the staff can go to relax or eat lunch. The gardens - planted with weeping white pine, cucumber magnolia and dwarf conifers - look out over the sea lion pool at the Central Park Zoo and beyond to the Central Park South skyline. "This is where I actually want to have meetings," he said. "This is amazing."

Kate Spellman, his chief of staff, volunteered: "We can relocate you up here for the season."

Moving back to New York, Mr. Silver was getting a second shot of spring - he had already seen the season bloom in Raleigh.

And he said that he was looking forward to reconnecting with the city's newly reclaimed waterfront, with its 520 miles of shoreline. "I grew up around water and with water, and it's nice to see water again," he said. "You don't get that in Raleigh - unless there's a flood."

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: New Parks Chief Brings a City Planner's Vision. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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New Parks Chief Brings a City Planner's Vision

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Seated at the head of a long conference table in what was once the office of the parks chief Robert Moses, Mitchell J. Silver, New York City's new parks commissioner, declared himself a World's Fair enthusiast.

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Newsela | Under shutdown, "closed" national parks are basically wide open

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The government shutdown has left America's parks largely unsupervised, but the crowds continue and the conditions are deteriorating.

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Newsela | State parks hope to tempt kids into nature, not Nintendo

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Opinion: U.S. schools don't give students enough gym time

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Opinion: U.S. schools don't give students enough gym time

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Newsela | Opinion: U.S. schools do not focus enough on gym

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American kids are not getting enough physical education in their schools.

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New guidelines stress importance of exercise for everyone, young and old

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New guidelines stress importance of exercise for everyone, young and old

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Creating beautiful places and spaces - inside and out - is a designer's job.

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Urban planner Lindsay Woodson helps design beautiful, useful places that help cities protect against natural disasters such as hurricanes.