Las Vegas Newspapers in Education

Mini Page Archive - January 2008: Issue 1 - 5

A 2008 Calendar for Kids -- Issue 1 -- Jan. 5-11

This week's standards:

Students understand people and events honored in commemorative holidays.

(History)

Activities:

1. Create a poster that announces your birthday as a holiday. Cut out newspaper words and pictures that show important things about you and paste them on your poster.

2. Pick your three favorite calendar events. Now find words or pictures from newspaper ads for items you would use to celebrate those events. For example, you might buy camping equipment for National Recreation and Parks Month.

3. Select three comic strip characters who would be good representatives for special calendar events. Explain why each one would be a good spokesperson to commemorate that day, week or month.

4. Find at least two special days that each of these people would consider important: (a) historians, (b) teachers, (c) athletes and (d) scientists.

5. Create a newspaper prediction calendar. Write the names of the 12 months down the left side of a piece of paper. Now predict a headline that would be related to one of the calendar events in each month and write it next to the month. For example, you might find a story about roses and chocolates in a February story about Valentine's Day.

(standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)

Meet Astronaut Barbara Morgan -- Issue 2 -- Jan. 12-18

This week's standards:

Students understand the important accomplishments of individuals and groups. (Social Studies: The Individual)

Students understand the people, events, problems and ideas that were significant in creating the history of their country. (Social Studies: History)

Students understand the role of science and technology. (Science)

Activities:

1. Use newspaper words and pictures to create a poster that shows the different subjects Barbara Morgan taught before she became an astronaut.

2. Interview several friends or family members. Ask them to name the problems people might have working inside a space shuttle. Then see if you can answer those questions using information from today's Mini Page.

3. Write the letters M-O-R-G-A-N down the side of a piece of paper. Then cut out a newspaper word that describes astronaut Morgan and begins with the letters of her name. For example, you might find the words "mighty" or "marvelous" that you could paste next to the "M."

4. Who would you select to serve as your crew on the space shuttle? Identify five people from the newspaper you would take with you on a shuttle mission. You may select real people from news stories or characters from a comic strip. Write a sentence explaining each choice.

5. Use resource books and the Internet to learn more about astronaut training. Use these questions to guide your research: How are people selected to become astronauts? What physical abilities must astronauts have? What knowledge must they have? How often do they train? How do they train for their missions? Write a paragraph discussing your research.

(standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)

Meet Henry David Thoreau -- Issue 3 -- Jan. 19-25

This week's standards:

Students understand the important accomplishments of individuals and groups. (Social Studies: The Individual)

Students understand the people, events, problems and ideas that were significant in creating the history of their country. (Social Studies: History)

Activities:

1. Make a series of Thoreau trading cards. Draw a picture on one side of each card. On the other side, write a sentence about Thoreau. Share your cards with a friend.

2. Draw a large circle on a piece of paper. Put "Thoreau" at the top of the paper. Then divide the circle into three equal parts. In one part, paste newspaper words or pictures about enjoying nature. In another section, paste words or pictures about people helping other people. In the last part, paste words or pictures about teaching.

3. Write the words "Living at Walden Pond" at the top of a piece of paper. Then cut out newspaper words or pictures of items that would have made Thoreau's life easier on Walden Pond and paste them on the paper. Write a sentence explaining each of your choices.

4. Make a list of items you would like to have. Then use the newspaper to locate an expensive version and an inexpensive version of the item. Write the options next to the item on the list. What choices would Thoreau recommend? Why?

5. Select one of Thoreau's quotations from today's Mini Page. Now find a newspaper story that reminds you of that quotation. Write a paragraph discussing how the story relates to the quotation.

(standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)

On the Campaign Trail -- Issue 4 -- Jan. 26-Feb. 1

This week's standards:

Students understand the basic values and principles of American democracy.

(Civics)

Students understand the roles of the citizen in American democracy.

(Civics)

Activities:

1. Pretend you are running for president. Make a poster encouraging people to vote for you.

2. Use newspaper words and pictures to create an 'On the Road' collage showing the ways candidates may travel from place to place. Use many different ways to travel. For example, a candidate may even ride a bicycle or motorcycle to an event.

3. Read news stories to find out where different presidential candidates are traveling. Then write their names on the weather map in your newspaper (or another U.S. map) to show where they are campaigning. Why do you think they are in these cities or states?

4. Find items in the newspaper that candidates could use on the road (a) to have fun in between campaign events, (b) to communicate with family members when they are at different events,

(c) to eat a healthy diet and (d) to stay fit.

5. Use news stories and opinion columns to compare the positions of a Republican candidate and a Democratic candidate. Use these questions to guide your reading: What are the positions of each candidate on important issues such as Iraq, health care, immigration and/or education? Write a paragraph comparing the two candidates' positions.

(standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)