Las Vegas Newspapers in Education

Mini Page Archive - June 2007: Issue 23 - 26

Sensational Team Swimmers -- Issue 25 -- June 16-22

This week's standard:

Students understand that physical activity provides opportunities for enjoyment, challenge, self-expression and social interaction. (Physical Education)

Activities:

1. Select a comic strip character you think would make a good coach. Paste the character's picture on a piece of paper and write a sentence telling why you chose that character.

2. Interview family members and friends about what qualities they think a good athlete needs.

Collect the answers. Then divide the qualities into physical (such as strength or speed) and mental (such as determination). Which qualities were more important in your survey < physical or mental? Put a star by the three qualities you think are most important.

3. Draw a line down the center of a piece of paper to make two columns.

Label one column "individual" and the other "team." Look at the stories in the sports pages.

List the sports that are reported in your paper by putting the name of the sport under the correct column. For example, swimming is an individual sport, while baseball is a team sport.

Which sports are most popular at this time of year according to your lists?

4. Why are each of these important if you want to become a major athlete:

(a) a coach, (b) officials at meets or events, and (c) supportive family members?

5. Use resource books and the Internet to identify another Olympic athlete.

Use these questions to guide your research: What is his/her sport? When did this athlete first become interested in the sport? How does he/she train? What special foods are needed during training? How does this athlete prepare physically and mentally for a big event? Write a paragraph discussing your research.

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

Hurray for Rivers -- Issue 26 -- June 23-29

This week's standards:

Students understand properties of Earth materials. (Earth and Space Science)

Students understand changes in the environment. (Earth and Space Science)

Activities:

1. Collect pictures and words from your newspaper that show equipment you could use to have fun on a boat trip down a river. Create a river collage.

2. Conduct a survey among your family and friends to find out what they know about rivers.

Ask each person to (a) name rivers in the state or the country, (b) give three ways rivers make our lives better, and (c) name three things that threaten rivers. Which answers matched what you learned from today's Mini Page?

3. Collect news stories about waterways in your area. Divide the stories into three categories:

stories about recreational uses of the waterways, problems related to the waterways and commercial uses of the waterways. Share your stories with a classmate. What have you learned about local waterways?

4. What role do rivers play in (a) providing fresh drinking water, (b) providing energy, (c) providing transportation, and (d) changing the physical environment?

5. Use resource books and the Internet to learn more about rivers in your state. What major

river(s) are there? Select one river to investigate. Use these questions to guide your research:

What is the name of the river? Where did it get its name? Where are its headwaters? Where does the river end? What is its width in different parts of your state? Its length? How is the river used? Write a paragraph discussing your river.

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