Picture Problems

Skill:3.16 Underlying processes and mathematical tools
The students can find interesting photos from the newspaper to create story problems. For instance, if there are three people in the picture and one walks away, how many people are left?

Counting Noses

Skill: 3.15 Underlying processes and mathematical tools
The students can practice counting. How many pictures are on the front page of the newspaper? Count every nose in the pictures. How many columns are on the front page? Using the daily comics, they can practice counting the number of frames or characters.

Pages Countdown

Skill:3.4 Number, operation and quantitative reasoning
The students can count by twos, threes, fours and fives by using the page numbers of the newspaper. Have the students circle the page numbers in red as they count by twos, circle in blue as they count by threes, fours in green and fives in orange.

Geometry Search

Skill: 3.8 Geometry and spatial reasoning
Have the students search through the newspaper for triangles, squares, rectangles, and circles and trace the shapes with markers and crayons. They can cut out the shapes and create a working wall of information to include the shapes, the number of sides and the angles of each shape. Discuss which shape is found most often and which is the hardest to find.

Clock Faces

Skill: 3.12 Measurement
Have students cut boldface numbers from headlines and ads to create an analog clock face. They can use moveable hands to represent the times their favorite television shows begin and end by using the television schedule in the newspaper.

Averages

Skill: 3.5 Number, operation and quantitative reasoning
Have the students estimate how many paragraphs they think are in each story on the front page of today's newspaper. They can count how many are in each story and then find the average number of paragraphs found in a story on the front page. Then have them find the average number of paragraphs in a story on page two. What is the difference between the averages on the two pages?

Graphing Ads

Skill: 3.14 Probability and statistics
Have the students graph the number of full-page ads, half-page ads, quarter-page ads, eighth-page ads, and smaller in one section of the newspaper. Have them write three questions that can be answered from their graphs.

Automobile Numbers

Skill: 3.1 Number, operation and quantitative reasoning
The students can practice finding numbers in the ones, tens and hundreds columns. Have them turn to a page that has pictures of cars for sale. They can pick five cars with prices and circle all the numbers in the ones column in red. They can circle the tens-column numbers in blue and the hundreds-column numbers in green. Does one number show up in the ones column more than any other?

Comparison Shopping

Skill: 4.14 Underlying processes and mathematical tools
The students can compare the prices of two different items in the food section. They can estimate the sum of the items and create word problems using "greater than", "less than" or "equal," about the items. They can cut out the items and the prices and paste them on strips of paper to make number sentences.

Getting to School

Skill: 4.13 Probability and statistics
How do your students commute to school each day? Take a poll of the forms of transportation they use. They can make a bar graph to show the results. Then have them find examples of each of those transportation modes in the newspaper. Which is the most popular? Are there forms of transportation in the newspaper that are not represented in your class? Why?

Round Off

Skill: 4.5 Number, operation and quantitative reasoning
The students can look through the newspaper advertisements for three-digit numbers. They can round each number off to the nearest hundred and then to the nearest ten. Then the students can write the rules for the process of rounding off.

Comic Fractions

Skill:4.2 Number, operation and quantitative reasoning
The students can turn to the comics and count the number of panels in a comic strip. Are the panels of equal size? Have them color the number of panels that represent fractional parts (color halves in red, quarters in blue, etc.). Then they can label the panels with the fraction. They can also write word problems such as, "How many panels are in 1/2 of Blondie or 1/4 of Beetle Bailey?"

Measure Up

Skill: 4.12 Measurement
Have the students choose a few pictures from today's newspaper. They should estimate the length and width of each one in inches and write their estimate. Then they can measure each picture, compare their accurate measurement to their guess and compute the difference. They can also try this activity using a centimeter ruler.

Quick Shop

Skill: 4.1 Number, operation and quantitative reasoning
Have students scan the ads for five items that cost less than $20 each. Instruct them to make a chart listing the items and the cost. Have them find the total cost of all the items. How much change would they receive if they had $100 to spend?

Lines and Angles

Skill: 4.8 Geometry and spatial reasoning
Have the students use letters in the headlines for this activity. Have them find letters that have parallel and/or perpendicular lines, They should find letters with acute, obtuse or right angles. Make a chart to show the results.

Average Age

Skill:4.4 Number, operation and quantitative reasoning
Students can find the names and ages of five people who are in today's newspaper. Have them determine the average age for the five people.

Cars and Place Value

Skill:5.1 Number, operation and quantitative reasoning
Have students turn to the car advertisements and find the prices. They can indicate which numbers are in the ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, and ten thousands column. Have them determine the difference between the most and least expensive cars.

Shop 'Til You Drop

Skill:5.6 Patterns, relationships and algebraic thinking
Send the students on a shopping trip in the newspaper. They can find items that cost less than ten dollars. Which items cost more than one hundred dollars? Which cost more than one thousand dollars? They can compare the price of two similar televisions, automobiles or computers in ratios and discuss why they have different prices. Have them create three word problems using the information they found in the newspaper.

Sports Graphs

Skill:5.13 Probability and statistics
The students can use the sports section to collect data for graphing. They can make a line graph to show the number of victories for each team or the number of points scored in the reported games. Have the students write three conclusions from the information collected. Then they can look for interesting symbols and illustrations to decorate their graph.

Salaries

Skill:5.3 Number, operation and quantitative reasoning
Students can look in the classified ads and find three jobs, with salaries listed, that they might like when they grow up. They should figure out how much they would make in a year, a month, a week, a day and an hour.

Fractions to Decimals

Skill:5.2 Number, operation and quantitative reasoning
Students can skim the advertisements for banks or mortgage companies looking for interest rates that include fractional parts. These can also be found in the ads for cars. Students can convert the fractions to decimals.

Sports Report

Skill:5.11 Measurement
Ask the students to measure in column inches the total amount of space devoted to sports for each page in the sports section. What fraction is given to reporting of men's sports versus women's sports? Have students analyze their findings and graph the results for each page of the Sports section. Discuss what might account for the differences. Then have the students measure again using metric rulers.

Giving Directions

Skill:5.15 Underlying processes and mathematical tools
Students can find each of the cities or countries mentioned on the front page on map of the world. Have them use the scale to determine the distance from one place to another. Then they can give directions from different locations.