11/01/2017 Newsround

I'm Ricky with your Newsround update this Wednesday morning.

Yes, we can. Yes, we did. Yes, we can.

Obama's emotional last speech as President.

Find out why this woman is knitting noodles.

Now, last night, Barack Obama made an emotional final speech

Talking in Chicago, he thanked his wife Michelle,

as well as his family and staff, but asked the American people to put

aside their differences and work together in the future.

For the last time Barack Obama walks out on stage to speak

The crowd in Chicago gave him a loud and passionate welcome.

Obama addressed the audience, telling them he believed the country

was in a better place than when he was first elected.

Because of you, my almost every measure, America is the better,

stronger place than it was when we started.

It's been a tough period for the US with the recent election campaign

bringing up lots of problems between people in the country,

and Mr Obama said American's need to hold onto their values.

We must guard against a weakening of the values that make us who we are.

And Obama thanked his wife Michelle, as well as his family and staff,

saying how proud he is to have held the position.

It has been the honour of my life to serve you. Before making one final

request from the crowd. I am asking you to believe not in my ability to

bring about change, but in the yours.

America is heading into a new and different future under

new President Donald Trump, a change many people

in the country feel was needed, but for the fans in the crowd

Barack Obama will be missed and his speech hit

It gave us a message of hope and encouragement and it was just what

Should you have more, less or none at all?

It's something adults have been arguing about for years,

so we put two of them, with very different views

on the subject, to a panel of ten primary school students.

They will be listening to two different

arguments about homework and making a decision

about which side of the

The issue of homework has been debated for more

than 100 years, so let's hear what they've got to say.

Nancy is from one of the biggest teachers' unions

Traditional homework isn't necessarily helpful to you.

Sometimes, your parents can't get involved in it, because they're

Sometimes, they get too involved in it and so the teachers

don't know whether you did the homework or somebody

And sometimes, when they try and help you,

they can't and that help

On the other side of the argument is Chris,

from the campaign for real education.

If you like to learn things, it's a very good thing to do

homework, because what homework does is to support your learning.

So whether you get home work from the school or not, many,

many parents will sit with their children and do work

with them, because they know it makes sense.

Let's do some homework and let's do some play.

And then, they put our speakers to the test.

Do you think homework affected your learning?

I wish I had done better when I was at school.

I wish I had done more homework, really.

Homework at secondary school was a very good

At primary school, I don't think it made very much difference.

To Nancy and Chris, did you agree with anything the other one said?

Nancy wants you to have an enjoyable childhood and I would agree with

We disagree about how much time you should be working and how

We both talked about the importance of balance.

What I disagree with his, I think children your age have to do

I think the balance is completely wrong.

I really enjoy doing homework, especially on certain

subjects and I agreed with the things that Chris said.

Today sort of confirmed what my opinion about

homework was, because Nancy said that home work has to be balanced

properly, but I don't think for me it is quite balanced.

Today, I changed my mind and I think homework is important, because

it will help you in tests and in your later life.

Some really interesting points raised today, but

now it is time for this panel to make their decision.

Of course, this is just a sample of opinions, but

today in this classroom, with eight for homework and two against it,

Now if you've got oodles of noodles and you don't know what to do

That's what this lady in Singapore has done,

but she's not making a jumper, it's actually for an art exhibition.

It starts with buying the noodles, boiling them,

It takes her three hours each day to knit a 20 cm long piece.

Next up - what could you do in 11 hours?

How about pull off one of the greatest tricks of all time?

The clip starts with a golf club putting a ball,

and across ten pool tables by travelling over cues that have

A team from Bristol filmed this and put it online.

Newsround's back right here this afternoon at 16:20pm.

Don't forget to check out the website for all the rest

Well met. To celebrate the start of the new Worst Witch,

we want you to get creative and come up with the name of a spell.

All you have to do is head to the CBBC HQ page,

leave us a comment and you could be seeing your spell on the telly.