What if cleaning up a park could teach you maths? What if invisible organisms could help protect the planet? And what if the next video game you play could one day be made by you?

The September 2026 MiniMag is packed with big ideas about how we understand, build and care for the world around us.

This month, you’ll discover how litter travels from land to sea, meet the microscopic organisms working quietly beneath your feet, explore inventions that transformed human history and step behind the screen to discover how programmers bring video games to life.

And there’s a woolly adventure waiting on the cover too.

Shaun the Sheep returns to Mossy Bottom

Shaun and the flock are back in Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom.

Halloween excitement at Mossy Bottom Farm quickly turns into chaos when the Farmer accidentally destroys the flock’s pumpkin patch. Shaun decides to solve the problem with a little science — but things soon spiral wildly out of control.

With strange experiments, a missing Farmer and a mysterious beast roaming the woods, Shaun’s latest adventure brings plenty of mischief to this month’s MiniMag.

You can also test your observation skills with Shaun the Sheep puzzles, mazes, activities and challenges inside the issue.

Keep it clean, keep it green

A piece of rubbish dropped on the ground might not stay there.

Rainwater can carry litter into drains, streams and rivers. Rivers can then transport it for hundreds or even thousands of kilometres before eventually reaching the ocean.

That means protecting the sea often begins much farther inland.

This month, MiniMag explores why clean parks, rivers, forests and beaches matter to both people and wildlife. You’ll discover how reducing waste, recycling and simply putting rubbish in the right place can help protect entire ecosystems.

You don’t need superpowers to help the planet. Small actions become powerful when lots of people take them together.

Maths can help clean up the planet

How do you know whether a community clean-up actually worked?

You use maths.

In EasyMaths, Gami discovers how numbers can turn a pile of rubbish into useful information.

Volunteers can count different types of litter, weigh everything they collect and calculate how much material is recycled. They can record results over weeks or months and turn those numbers into charts and graphs.

Those patterns can reveal whether an area is getting cleaner, which types of rubbish cause the biggest problems and where future clean-ups should concentrate their efforts.

Maths can even help organisers calculate how many volunteers, rubbish bags, gloves and recycling containers they will need.

Sometimes solving a huge environmental problem starts by simply counting what is in front of you.

Meet Earth’s invisible workers

There is an entire ecosystem around you that you cannot see.

Microbes live in soil, water, air and even inside your body. These tiny organisms include bacteria, fungi, algae and many other microscopic forms of life.

In our Microbial Ecology feature, you’ll discover why some of the smallest organisms on Earth perform some of its biggest jobs.

Helpful microbes break down dead material, recycle nutrients, support plant growth and help clean water. Some fungi even form underground partnerships with plant roots, helping plants collect water and minerals.

Scientists called microbial ecologists investigate these hidden communities to understand how they affect forests, farms, oceans, animals and people.

A handful of soil might look ordinary — but under a microscope, it can contain an astonishing hidden world.

Could you code a video game?

Every jump, enemy, menu, door and explosion in a video game has to work somehow.

Someone has to tell the game what to do.

This month we begin a brand-new Jobs in Games series exploring six different careers involved in making video games.

First up: Programming.

Programmers write the instructions — called code — that make games respond to the player. They might create character movement, battles, computer-controlled enemies, menus, save systems, weather or online features.

But programming is also about solving puzzles.

If a designer wants a bridge to collapse three seconds after you step on it, a programmer has to work out how the game knows you are there, when the timer starts, what animation plays, what happens if you jump away and dozens of other little details.

You don’t have to wait until you are grown up to start experimenting either. Tools such as Scratch can help you begin thinking like a programmer by creating simple rules, animations and games of your own.

The inventions that changed everything

Imagine crossing an ocean without GPS.

Imagine a world where every book had to be copied by hand.

Or imagine sending a message across a country and waiting days for it to arrive.

Our Great Inventions series continues this month with a journey through some of the discoveries and technologies that changed how humans explore, communicate, work and understand the universe.

You’ll investigate the magnetic compass and astrolabe, discover how the printing press helped ideas spread, and see how telescopes and microscopes opened two completely different hidden worlds.

Then travel into the Industrial Revolution, when steam engines powered new machinery, railways connected cities, factories transformed production and the telegraph allowed information to travel faster than people for the first time.

Many technologies we depend on today grew from ideas developed during these remarkable periods of invention.

Basketball belongs to everyone

Basketball began in 1891 with a soccer ball and two peach baskets.

Today, it is played around the world.

In Playmakers, we explore how basketball became a truly global sport — from enormous international arenas to school halls, community courts, parks and driveways.

You’ll discover why different players bring different strengths to a team, how quick decisions can change a game and why practice, mistakes and persistence are all part of becoming a stronger player.

This September also brings some of the best women’s basketball players in the world together in Berlin for the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup.

Every champion started somewhere — sometimes with nothing more than a ball, a hoop and the courage to try.

Sheep: nature’s treasure keepers

Humans and sheep have shared a remarkable partnership for thousands of years.

People began domesticating sheep around 10,000 years ago, and these hardy animals eventually travelled with farming communities across much of the world.

In this month’s animal feature, discover how sheep provide wool, milk and other useful materials, how shepherding developed and why more than 1,000 sheep breeds can now be found around the world.

You’ll even find out why sheep produce a natural wax called lanolin that helps protect their wool and skin from rain, wind and cold.

Read all about sheep in our expanded feature article on Amazing Sheep Facts: Wool, Brains and 10,000 Years of History

MiniMag now goes wherever you go

There’s another big development this September: MiniMag is now available on mobile.

You can enjoy the latest issue and explore MiniMag on your phone or tablet, making it easier to take your reading with you wherever curiosity leads.

If you already subscribe through MiniMag.online, your MiniMag account can be used across the web and supported mobile devices too.

Whether you’re at home, travelling or simply waiting for your next adventure, there’s now another way to explore MiniMag.

Discover the MiniMag mobile app

There’s plenty more inside

The September issue also includes:

• puzzles, Sudoku and visual challenges
• September’s activity calendar
• fascinating environmental and animal facts
• book recommendations
• clean-up and recycling activities
• the scientific method
• telescopes, microscopes and the discovery of cells
• World Clean-up Day
• World Rivers Day
• International Literacy Day
• and plenty more to explore.

Make September a month of discovery

A cleaner world doesn’t begin with one enormous action.

It begins with curiosity.

Ask why rubbish ends up in rivers. Find out what lives in a handful of soil. Work out how a game knows when you press a button. Discover why an invention changed history. Pick up something that shouldn’t be lying on the ground.

Every question gives you another way to understand your world — and every discovery gives you another way to help shape what happens next.

Explore the September 2026 issue of MiniMag and keep reading, learning and imagining.

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