06/09/2017 Newsround

Good morning, I'm Hayley and this is Newsround.

Coming up in the next few minutes.

How solar storms could have confused these whales.

And should fashion stationery be banned from the classroom?

People in the Caribbean and Florida in America are getting ready

for the arrival of Hurricane Irma, which is one of the most powerful

Atlantic storms of all time.

The hurricane is moving across the ocean and has just hit land.

In Caribbean countries like Antigua and Saint Martin,

people are preparing for strong winds and heavy rain,

and overnight, some places have already started to flood.

Officials in Florida have told people to start preparing now.

The storm is massive and the storm surge is predicted to go

for miles and miles.

Right now, it is travelling at around 15 mph and

the track has it forecasted to move just south of the Florida Keys on a

westerly path with a slightly northerly turn.

Do not sit and wait to prepare, get prepared now.

Scientists think they've figured out why a big group of whales got

stranded on Britain's coast last year and it's

all to do with outer space.

Ricky's got this one.

They might look amazing, but these solar

storms caused a lot of trouble for a group of whales.

Last year, 29 young whales were stranded on the coasts

of northern Europe and nobody could work out why.

But now scientists think it could have been down to large solar

storms caused by the sun, which are known as

the Northern Lights.

These storms in space could have affected the way the sperm whales

navigate through the ocean.

That's why they got lost in shallow waters and beached themselves.

Beaching is when whales get stuck on sand and can be very dangerous.

It can happen for lots of different reasons.

For these sperm whales, it was down to the solar storms.

But some whales become stranded because they're sick or injured

and are pushed in shore by currents.

It's thought changes in the environment could cause them

to behave differently too.

If there's not enough food,

if temperatures are particularly high or low or if their environment

has become polluted.

And sometimes it's just down to mistakes.

They can sometimes lose their way into shallow waters

by accident whilst travelling to warmer waters to mate.

Whales are very sociable creatures and often travel

in large pods or groups.

Marine scientists think that if one is affected by any of these things

then others travelling with it will copy them,

which could be what happened to the sperm whales last year.

Well, many of you may have got new pens or a fancy new pencil case

to go back to school but one teacher thinks fashion stationery should be

banned because it's too distracting.

Here's Whitney.

First it was the bottle flip, then it was the giant mega-head bows,

even the fidget spinners.

But has it been taken a step too far?

One teacher wants to ban your stationery as well.

What do they want us to write with?

Spaghetti?

I think some of the stationery shouldn't be allowed

in the classroom because it's really only a distraction.

Nobody really needs a rubber shaped like a macaron,

nobody really needs a pencil sharpener that is shaped

like nail polish and nobody really needs a pencil case

with seven different compartments.

So what do these guys from Lancashire think?

My favourite piece of stationery is a rubber because you can get very

fancy ones like this emoji rubber.

My favourite stationery is this because I feel cool when I have it.

I like these highlighters because if one side runs out,

you can use the other side, it's double sided.

Normal stationery is boring.

When you have a special one, it makes you feel special.

I don't think the stationery should be banned because some people

would have to fiddle with stuff to concentrate.

If it gets banned, it's fine, because you've still got pencils

to write with and you've got rubbers to use.

You shouldn't have, like, pink things like that, or blue

because it does distract people.

People do play with stuff like that.

You need to save it for playtime because that's when you can play

but when you're in class, you have to learn.

If it was banned, how would you feel?

A bit sad because you'd just have boring plain pencils

and that's not as fun.

That's all from me, Newsround's back right

here in about half an hour.