The novel concept was one of several ideas suggested by four-year-old Amber Winters, from Birmingham, the winner of the airline’s  #Nameourplane competition. Children between the ages of four and 11 were asked to suggest a name for Thomson’s new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, as well as ways the airline could improve its services for young passengers.

Her suggestions included a kids’ area with bean bags and a reading corner at the back of the aircraft.

The finalists from Thomson’s #Nameourplane competition who were also asked to suggest ways it could improve its services to better cater to children.

Amber, whose winning name for the aircraft was Pixie Dust, was joined by nine other finalists for an Ambassador Day event at Gatwick Airport, where they were given a chance to present all of their ideas to a panel of judges and a tour of the new Dreamliner by Thomson Airways pilot Stuart Gruber.

“All of our finalists had some fantastic ideas, so it was a really hard decision selecting our overall winner,” Mr Gruber said.

“We’re looking forward to trialling some of Amber’s suggestions on board the new aircraft,” he added.

Top 10 innovations kids want to see on a flight

More films and video game to choose from.

Unlimited chocolate and sweets.

Free toys.

Arts and crafts area.

A soft play area.

A slide inside the plane.

A football pitch.

Cabin crew in fancy dress.

A dress up/make-up room.

A skate park.

Source: Thomson Airways survey

Other ideas for ways to improve kids’ in-flight experience included more video game and film offerings as well as unlimited chocolate and sweets, suggested by more than 40 per cent of the children surveyed for the competition. The same amount wanted free toys on board, while around a quarter of them suggested both an arts and crafts area and a soft play area. One in 10 said they’d love to see the cabin crew in fancy dress during the flight.

Other ambitious suggestions included an on-board slide (suggested by 18 per cent), a football pitch (10 per cent) a dress-up/make-up play room (nine per cent) and a skate park (seven per cent).

The survey also revealed children’s biggest bugbears on a flight which included being stuck in their seat, being bored, and their ears hurting on the plane.

source: The Telegraph

Answer the questions.

1. What should be unlimited on-board?

2. What was the winning name for the aircraft?

3. What are children’s biggest bugbears on a flight?

4. How many finalists were there in the competition?

5. What should the cabin crew wear according to one in ten children?

Key

1. chocolate and sweets

2. Pixie Dust

3. being stuck in their seat, being bored, and their ears hurting on the plane

4. ten

5. fancy dress

You don’t even need to like pumpkins to get into the spirit of things (although it definitely helps) but there are plenty of options for do-it-yourself Halloween home decor if you think outside the box, even just a little.

So take a look at this list of easy do-it-yourself Halloween home decor ideas, and you just might be able to have some fun.

1. Glowing Eyes

Want to terrify people with some glowing eyes around your apartment? Just take some toilet rolls, cut eye shapes into them, insert a couple of glow sticks and cover the ends. Simple.

2. Fake Pumpkins

If pumpkins are too heavy or you simply don’t like them, then just make your own. Get some foil tubing from a hardware store and a piece of pipe for the stem. Arrange the tubing in a circle and spray orange.

3. Ghost Candles

It doesn’t get any easier than picking up some tall, white candles and drawing ghost faces on them with a sharpie.

4. “The Nightmare before Christmas” Light

Take a cheap touch light. Take your sharpie and draw the face of Jack Skellington from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare before Christmas.

5. Blood-Dripped Candles

Light a red candle and drip the wax around the edge of a white candle to give the appearance of blood.

6. Garage Door Victim

If you really want to freak people out,stuff some old clothes with straw or paper and leave the top half under your garage door, then splatter the front of the door with ketchup.

7. Cardboard Zombie Window

Cut some cardboard into long pieces and paint a wood grain pattern onto them and attach to doors or windows for that “boarded-up” look. For an added touch, attach plastic skeleton hands or even draw eyeballs on ping pong balls and have them peering through.

8. Eyeball Flowers

Buy some plastic eyeballs or use the ping pong ball trick (cut them in half to mimic eyeballs) and then glue them in place in the center of fake roses. Obviously, the darker the flowers, the better.

9. Watermelon Brain

Peela watermelon so the white part is still visible, put it in a bowl and cut a brain pattern into it. This is great for those who don’t like pumpkins.

10. A Head in a Jar

Take a panoramic photograph of somebody’s head and print it in color, then curl the paper up, put it in a jar and freak everybody out.

11. Another Head in a Jar

If the previous head-in-a-jar trick seemed like too much effort, just take some old doll heads, wrap them in lace or cheesecloth, and put them inside a bell jar.

12. Cheesecloth Ghosts

To make these ghosts just put some type of ball on top of a soda bottle and use some wire to arrange the position of the arms. Drape the cheesecloth over the top and spray with starch. Once they are dry, these will be able to stand up on their own.

13. PVC Mummy

If you have PVC piping, some old clothes and a mask, you too can throw together a pretty awesome mummy.

14. Styrofoam Tombstone

If you have access to an iron, you can make a pretty impressive-looking tombstone. Just draw your design onto a piece ofstyrofoam and then engrave it with the soldering iron in a well-ventilated area. After that, spray it gray and add some extra details, and voila, a realistic-looking tombstone.

Source: littlethings.com

What’s Halloween? Can you fill in the gaps in the text using the words given?

How did Halloween begin? The holiday traces back to the ancient …… (1) festival known as Samhain. The ancient Celts from Britain and Ireland observed the start of the …… (2) on November 1, …… (3). The day marked the end of summer and the …… (4). Folks came to believe that on October 31, the worlds of the living and …… (5) overlapped before the start of the new year. October 31 became All Hallows Eve, a time where the …… (6) of the dead could return to destroy the harvest that was stored for winter. People set …… (7) on hilltops to ward off the ……(8) spirits before the start of the winter season.

Key

1. Celtic

2. new year

3. All Souls’ Day

4. harvest

5. dead

6. ghosts

7. bonfires

8. evil