hope you enjoy nightly news with lester holt kids edition. did you know you can sell an unwanted vehicle and get paid quickly? even if the vehicle is wrecked or doesn't run? quick auction and its affiliates sell more of these types of vehicles than any company in the world. go to quick auction.com and answer a few short questions about the vehicle you want to sell and replace that unwanted vehicle with money in your bank account at quick auction, we have buyers ready to give you a guaranteed bid on your car now, and they'll pick it up where it sets. go to quick auction.com and sell your unwanted vehicle today with shay mitchell. coming up, dazzling display, a spectacular show lighting up the night sky. captivating america will explain this natural phenomenon. then what makes koala so special? we have everything you want to know. plus, golf legend tiger woods sits down with our pal jackson daily golf could be an

intimidating sport to get started and, do you have advice for kids trying to get started in golf? yeah, just go to any kind of indoor or outdoor hitting bay range. just go hit balls. and imagine if your imaginary friends came to life. so are there more of you? say no. yes. oh yeah. lots more. i mean, almost every kid has one. our kids edition correspondent, joaquin, takes us behind the scenes of the new movie. if i'm an iff, what does iff stand for? oh oh iff stands for imaginary friend. get it? but also like what if like anything's possible . this is nbc nightly news kids edition. welcome back to nightly news kids edition. i'm lester holt. it's great to be with you on a saturday. we've got a terrific lineup ahead, from tiger woods to koalas. plus

we'll put you to the test in our pop quiz. and a bit later on, actor and director john krasinski will be here to talk about his new movie. if this was actually inspired by your daughters, tell me about that, it was inspired completely by my daughters because, as you would know, but us adults don't. they go into this magical world that is so special to them, and they are so authentic and they get to be themselves. and i just thought, i want to go there, but of course i'm not invited. so i thought, why don't we make a movie about it? we can't wait to bring you that story. but let's begin with a stunning event. you might have been lucky enough to witness an incredible show in the sky recently, and a pretty rare sight. the northern lights, visible to tens of millions here in the united states. it's all because of a series of solar storms. we asked our good friend dylan dreyer to explain this natural phenomenon. one of the most spectacular shows on earth takes place in the sky in the northern hemisphere. glowing

lights known as the aurora borealis or the northern lights dance in the night. millions of americans were treated to this rare and dazzling show in recent days. vibrant colors popping across the planet caused by a massive geomagnetic storm on the sun, all the beautiful lights that we see in the sky recently, with auroras happening through arizona to places like florida that don't experience auroras normally were. because of this intense activity on the sun that we're experiencing, this is a natural 11 year cycle that the sun goes through. and now in 2024 and 2025, we're at the peak . and so we're expecting a lot more light shows in the coming months and year. so what exactly are the northern lights? so you can think of the northern lights as basically sun particles. so particles that are thrown off

the surface of the sun that mix with earth's atmosphere, making it glow, acting like a neon sign. those lights are called an aurora. and the gases in our atmosphere determine their colors. when it comes to the colors of the northern lights, it really depends on what atoms are being hit by, by the solar particles, and how high in the atmosphere that action is happening. so at the highest levels, maybe about 150 miles above, that's where the pink colors are really popping. we can see with our eyes. and that has to do with the oxygen atoms being hit a bit lower. oxygen also produces the green color, the most common and usually the first color seen in pictures or when you're watching the aurora and those exciting blue and purple colors. those come from nitrogen and happen at about 60 miles above our heads. the northern lights are mostly seen far in the north, in the region near the north pole, but they

can also be seen in other places . sometimes they can be seen in a much more southerly latitude, like what we saw recently with that amazing sky. show what you need a nice clear, dark sky like the one this fourth grade class from iowa had. they sent us this photo they captured from the riceville elementary school playground just days ago, where the northern lights were on full display. i think what really makes it so impressive these aurora shows is how it can encompass the sky, and it magically is so dynamic it can change within seconds and minutes. it's something that you just don't experience every day, and it's a connection to the natural world unlike anything else out there. nature sure knows how to put on a show. all right, dylan, thanks very much for that terrific explanation. meantime, today is armed forces day here in america. it's a day we mark every third saturday in

may to celebrate the us military and all they do. armed forces day was first celebrated in 1950 and was meant to honor all branches of the us military the army, navy, air force, marine corps, space force, coast guard and national guard, and reserve forces. a big thank you to all who serve. okay time for our pop quiz. the subject geography. the question this week. name the only great lake that lies completely in the united states. is it a lake michigan b lake erie or c lake superior? i'll give you a few seconds to think about it. okay. time's up. the answer is a lake michigan. lake michigan is the only one of the great lakes that is located entirely within the boundaries of the united states. did you know there are five great lakes and they make up the largest freshwater system in the world? meantime, the brookfield zoo

chicago is welcoming two new additions, a pair of koalas. for the first time in its history, brumby and william will make their public debut later this month. and it got us thinking just what makes koalas so special? our friend erin mclaughlin explains. the koala, one of the world's most famous species, can be found in the wild of australia. koalas are related to kangaroos. they're not bears, they're marsupials. koalas are often referred to as koala bears because they look cute, like a teddy bear. however, they are actually marsupials, which means that the females raise their offspring in a pouch. did you know a newborn koala is called a joey and the baby stays in its mother's pouch for several months after birth? the san diego zoo in california has the largest collection of koalas outside of australia. here in san diego, we have a climate similar to their native

australia. koalas live high up in the trees. what do they like to eat? eucalyptus leaves. we can grow all of the eucalyptus that these koalas need to survive, but the eucalyptus trees take a lot of energy for them to digest, so they sleep a lot. koala sleep 18 to 20 hours a day when they're not sleeping, they're usually climbing trees. fun facts about koalas. they have two thumbs on each hand, so two thumbs and three fingers that help them climb the trees better, which is great since they're an arboreal species. also on their hands, they have fingerprints, just like people do, and they're all different. every koala has different fingerprints. sadly, these adorable marsupials are considered a vulnerable species, meaning they are at risk of extinction. the wildfires that happened a few years ago definitely helped push them towards being more endangered, with habitat loss and also the loss of that food source, has actually made them more vulnerable. now, conservation efforts to help save koalas have

been underway in australia. and you can do your part. two koalas rely on trees. trees are cut to make paper, to make toilet paper, to make a lot of things that we use in our everyday life. so if you consider reducing your use of those things, you're helping koalas. and by protecting koalas, you're protecting habitat that is protecting other animals as well. and that's better for all of us. despite being endangered. one thing is for sure, the koala remains a favorite among people of all ages. all right, aaron, thanks very much. just ahead, we'll go from koalas to tigers. how about tiger woods, the golf champion? he'll be here with some important tips for kids and much more. i'm the same age as your son. charlie and i golf with my dad a lot. i'm sure you golf with charlie a lot. are there any, specific memories that stand out as him, as a golfer or on the golf course? no, i won't say anything specific. i think that it's just we have just a great time doing

it. i do it for a living. the fact that he likes doing it. and that's what what it takes. and he's asking all the right questions. it's just that sometimes he doesn't want to hear all the answers. okay. plus if stands for imaginary friend, we get it. imaginary friends come to life in a new movie that's giving us all a reason to believe and all that jazz. how the king of jazz, duke ellington, is inspiring a new generation of young musicians. we really don't want people to think of feeding food like ours as spoiling their dogs. good. real food is simple. it looks like food. it smells like food. it's what dogs are supposed to be eating. no living being should ever eat processed food for every single meal of their life. it's amazing to me how many people write in about their dogs changing for the better. the farmer's dog is just our way to help people take care of them. no application fee. if you

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babble.com you can learn unbelievable things on the internet. unbelievably cool and unbelievably false. to remind your kids just because it's online doesn't mean it's true. keep an eye out for misinformation. the more you know. whenever you have a problem, kris is the guy to talk to. our energy bills are up. we want to help you bring them back down. so we made a how to video for that. i'll show you how some savvy shoppers are cutting their food bills in half. if transportation to class is a problem, here's a possible solution resort bees. let's look at five ways you can beat them. you have so many tips and tricks. how to videos i love it. nbc bay area response solutions that move the bay area forward. did you know nbc bay area is helping you stay up to date on news that moves the bay area forward? smart move. catch up on your favorites. you're safe all on peacock. watch hit movies. there's a whole world we've been

missing out on and the trendiest shows i love that just whether you're on the go or unwinding at home. top trending story as voted by you on my instagram poll. going to do that right? sign up now to stream on peacock live from new york. it's saturday saturday finale with your host jake gyllenhaal hooking up with beautiful, gorgeous sabrina carpenter. oh, i'm sorry, me is what a dream. this changed my life. wow. you're such a star. that was your best performance yet. america should vote for you. the winner of the voice is the voice live monday and tuesday on nbc and peacock. for local news. 24/7 stream nbc, bay area now news kids edition i hope you're having a great weekend. so far. he's a legend on the golf course with 15 major championships and continues to turn heads. we're

talking about tiger woods, our pal jackson daly recently got to sit down with tiger woods to talk about golf, his advice for kids and how it feels now to be golfing alongside his teenage son. he's a history making athlete with a legendary swing. tiger woods started golfing when he was very young. by five, tiger was already turning heads. a student of the game, putting, hitting, chipping. would you like to be a pro golfer? yes and it didn't take him long. at 16, tiger played his first professional golf tournament. from there, the rest is history. a legend on the green was born. today tiger woods is regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time. golf could be an intimidating sport to get started in. do you have advice for kids trying to get started in golf? yeah, just go to any kind of indoor or outdoor

hitting bay range. just go hit balls. it doesn't matter about playing golf courses, not when you're just starting. just go to ranges, hit balls, just slap it around and enjoy making contact. it's all about just getting out there and just getting the reps in and getting started. now tiger's teenage son charlie is playing alongside him. i'm the same age as your son charlie and i golf with my dad a lot. i'm sure you golf with charlie a lot. is there any, specific memories that stand out as him, as a golfer or on the golf course? nah, i wouldn't say nothing specific. i think that it's just we have just a great time doing it. i do it for a living. the fact that he likes doing it now, he's able to speak golf, you know, and talk about clubs and shafts and lie angles and shot selections and course strategy. and he's starting to get the iq part of playing. and that's what what it takes. if you're going to go any further in this game, you're going to have to have an iq of how to

play. and he's asking all the right questions. it's just that sometimes he doesn't want to hear all the answers. yeah. same thing, my dad tries to teach me and i'll take it from i'll take pointers from everybody. anybody else except him. is it the same with charlie? do you feel that? yeah. you're the goat, but he still can't take it from you. yeah, he's getting better at it, i get any kid, you get to just make sure and suggest it, that it's their idea. and then then then they'll they'll own it. yeah, otherwise, it's just, you know, it's just it's just white noise. i know there's obviously a lot of talk about, charlie with golf, but your daughter, sam, she have any interest in golf? two zero. really? zero? no, she has absolutely zero interest in golf. same thing with my sisters. my dad's tried many times now. my, sam's issue was that she. she hated golf for the longest time. and you saw her at the father son with the first, first time. she actually wanted to participate. yeah, just because she hated that that golf took daddy away from her.

you know, the traveling, right? so when i was playing full time, it was the packing. she's, you know, daddy, don't go. i said, well, it's part of my job, so i got to go. and she just had the stigma about about the sport, which i totally get when we do other things that are non golf. that's just between us that we have, we have as our own thing that we do and we enjoy. yeah i'm a freshman. i tried out for my varsity golf team. i didn't make it. but what would you to say kids who tried out for something? didn't make it? how would you deal with failure? keep coming back. work harder. it's always another day, another opportunity to get better and keep. keep grinding. i mean, mj didn't make the varsity team either. his freshman year, so it doesn't mean that you're bound for greatness in the in your whatever you're going to do. but you can get better at it. and there's no there's nothing's guaranteed. that's the thing. especially in what i do in sports. nothing's guaranteed. you got to go out there and earn it each and every day. and you

got to go get it. specifically, in a sport like mine where there's no coaches pushing you, you have to find that inner push that inner drive. and then when you're in a team sport, you the separator is you have coaches pushing you, but you also have the inner drive of the individual athlete. there's always asking the question, how can i get just a little bit better, a little bit more efficient at either changing my style or just creating something new that is, that is better. that is something that i think comes from within. and i think that that people can can control that. thank you so much. no problem. anytime for nightly news kids edition, i'm jackson daly. back to you, lester. well, jackson, thanks very much, my friend. what a terrific interview. well, turning now to entertain tonight. there's a new movie out this weekend that has imaginations running wild. the movie is called if our kids edition correspondent joaquin caught up with some of the cast. imagine if. what if i told you imaginary friends are real imaginary friends came to life?

are any of them scary? worse. desperate in the new movie, if that's exactly what happens, we just believe. what are you anyway? and if actor john krasinski wrote and directed, if he also plays the role of dad, something he knows a thing or two about from real life. congratulations on the movie. thank you so much. this was actually inspired by your daughters. tell me about that, it was inspired completely by my daughters because, as you would know. but us adults don't. they go into this magical world that is so special to them, and they are so authentic and they get to be themselves. and i just thought i want to go there, but of course i'm not invited. so i thought, why don't we make a movie about it? and it was actually during the pandemic that i realized, what if you could make a movie about that decision about when you grow up, do you have to give up your imaginary world? and the answer is no. you said you had a wild imagination as a kid. what do

you remember? and, did you have any imaginary friends as a kid? i did have an imaginary friend. his name was sam brace, and it's because i always wanted braces when i was a kid. i don't know if you've had braces, but it turns out they're not as fun as i thought they would be. yeah but, we used to. sam and i, we used to go to the video store and rent videos of movies and on the way we would pretend we were in movies. it's funny, when i've been doing press, i realized, what if sam brace directed this movie and it wasn't me at all? last week, i just started falling apart. oh, you're sucking the oxygen out of the room. honestly, doc, if this is how it's going to be, i'm just going to wheel myself back and plug in. luckily, it was john krasinski and you pulled together an amazing cast, including his pal ryan reynolds. fantasy is a bit of a pandora's box. maybe there person likes superheroes and also cailey fleming. so are there more of you? who's 15? when she landed the part of b? it's a big deal to act a role like this. was it true you were wearing pajama pants when you found out you got it? you're getting straight to the point. yes, i was, and i'm

very embarrassed. that's so embarrassing. he offered me the role, and then he told me he liked my pants, and i was so embarrassed. oh, my gosh, it still haunts me to this day. i can help you. how some a kid. you are the chosen one. no, no, let's not give her a complex. good luck. schwarzach. it's all up to you. no pressure cooker dagger. what i love the most about the movie was how the movie made me feel like inside. oh, really? yeah. what was your favorite part about the movie? i think i always knew that imagination was important, but i it just really stressed the importance to me. it's such a i don't know, i just feel like growing up, you have to hold on to it because people grow up and then they think, oh, i can't have fun anymore or i can't be creative. but that's not true. so even when i'm older, i hope to still have a big imagination. sorry, sorry. it's just so exciting. starring alongside kaley's character is blue voice by the one and only steve carell. what does iff stand for? oh oh iff stands for imaginary

friend. get it? but also like, what if like anything's possible? this is amazing. you're an actual imaginary friend. are there more of you? oh yeah, lots more. i mean, almost every kid has one. had one, had one. you mean they don't have them anymore? oh no they do. we never leave. we're always here for our kids, no matter what. but kids? well, kids grow up. and when they do, they stop seeing us. oh, no. that's so sad. oh yeah. for a while there, it was so sad. but then we figured it out. figured what? out how to get our kids to see us again. really and how do you do that? oh, spoiler alert? you'll have to see the movie clue. what? what do you hope people take away from this movie? what do you hope they leave the theater remembering

that you're never alone, that your if is always there for you, all you have to do is turn around and see. see what? that's. you're never too old to be a kid. as a kid myself, this definitely reminded me you can all use an if almost every kid has one. imaginary friends are really just versions of us, right? it's things that we need. it's things that we love. so whether it's you need a hug or you need somebody to talk to or you need someone to laugh with and get your jokes, whatever it is, those imaginary friends are your truest friends because they're they know exactly what you need and what you want and what you like. and so, i don't know, it's just when you wake up and maybe you're having a bad day, it's just nice to know that someone's got your back. this is just so exciting. all right, joaquin, thanks very much. that was fun. and this might be our

first official nightly news kids edition interview with an imaginary friend. way to go, joaquin. for breaking the ice for us. well, finally, in our inspiring kids series, students from across the country are hitting all the right notes. following the rhythm and sounds of the king of jazz. for these young musicians, it might feel like the super bowl of jazz. being an essentially ellington is just such an incredible experience. 15 high school jazz bands from around the country assembled together recently at new york city's jazz at lincoln center for the 29th annual essential ellington high school jazz band competition, and festival. essentially, ellington is this weekend the finals of a year long education program. we run here out of jazz at lincoln center. the program itself runs all year. it's free to schools all over the world. ultimately, we want to raise the standards

of playing jazz for school bands and students, not just in america, but all over the world. the finalists were selected for more than 100 high schools. and this year is super special. the students are commemorating the 125th birthday of jazz legend duke ellington, for whom the program is named for. i think that duke ellington is one of the most unique and amazing jazz composers, a pianist who was regarded as one of america's greatest composers of all time, duke ellington was one of the originators of big band jazz. he composed thousands of musical scores in his 50 plus year career. i think that just the way that duke wrote so much unique music, it just makes the style of his writing so timeless

. jazz is a kind of music characterized by swing rhythms rooted in the blues and often improvised. it also happens to be the music i played as a high school performer. you can't really describe it. it's just a feeling. to me, jazz is like the ultimate form of self-expression . it's the music of america, and i feel like it helps me connect with the people around me. 17 year old samuel chung became interested in jazz when he was ten. during one of the jam sessions, the teen performed his take on one of ellington's classics, it don't mean a thing. a song first recorded in 1932 but remains a well-known jazz standard. i think duke's legacy has really impacted me because it's really set a solid foundation for me as a musician

in duke's music has really taught me a lot on how to present myself well on the bandstand and it really exposed me to what good music sounds like. caroline castro credits her teacher for introducing her to jazz. the 18 year old featured her tenor saxophone skills, playing duke ellington's perdido. i think jazz is like a way to speak without words. these students hitting all the right notes, keeping. form of mc alive. and it's also really important to practice. my advice to kids who want to get into jazz is definitely don't be afraid. everybody who plays jazz loves it. it's so special, one of a kind, that it's just like, wow. you got to love jazz. well, that's going to do it for us

parents. just a reminder, if your child has a question about any topic in the news, email a video to us at nightly news kids at nbc, cuny.com. you can also follow us on instagram at nightly kids and just a program note you can catch a new episode of nightly news kids edition every thursday on nbc news.com and youtube. thanks for watching everyone. remember to take care of yourself and each other. have a great weekend! we are 100% committed, focused, and determined to get our clients the best result possible . justice takes more than a fighter. you need a champion walk, a personal injury law. call 866. walk up law. wow hey, grandma. let's go on a real

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