TV Time
Skill:3.2 Scientific process
The students can examine the television grid and pick five of their favorite shows. They can make a chart of the starting times, ending times and total minutes for each program. Then they can create paper plate clocks to indicate the starting and ending times of the shows found in the television listings.
Making Sense of the Senses
Skill: 3.9 Science concepts
Using advertisements or photos in the paper, ask students to circle or color objects according to their sense of taste, touch, smell, sight, or hearing. Direct the students to circle the objects they can taste in yellow, those they can touch in red, objects they can smell in blue, those they can hear in green, and the objects they can see in orange. Have them make a picture graph to show the results of their search. They can write 3 observations about their graph.
Wild or Domestic
Skill::
3.10 Science concepts
The students can divide into small groups and create "Wild and Domesticated Animals" collages. The students can select representations from the newspaper of animals that are indigenous to the wild and those that are domesticated. The students can deliver an oral report to the class about the collage.
Sink or Float
Skill: 3.3 Scientific process
The students can use the newspaper to make a paper boat and watch it float. Then they can find pictures of things in the newspaper that will float. Which things will sink? The class can discuss how and why they made their choices.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Skill:3.11 Science concepts
Have the students look through the advertisements in the newspaper for 10 common household items. Have them write the names of these items and place them into the following categories -- plastics, paper, glass, aluminum or non-recyclable. Then the students can create a graph showing the number of items they found in each category.
Changes
Skill: 4.9 Science concepts
The students can choose a photograph of a person in the paper. Direct them to identify three characteristics of the person that will change (i.e. hair length). Then they can find three characteristics that will remain unchanged (i.e. eye color).
Natural Habitats
Skill: 4.11 Science concepts
Each plant and animal on the earth lives in a place that provides food, water, shelter, and living space. This place is called habitat. Some different kinds of habitats include woodlands, prairies, marshes, oceans, and deserts. The students can look in the newspaper for references to different habitats. Have them write down the type of habitat and the plants and animals that use that habitat. They can find other articles in the paper about threats to habitats. How are some habitats being destroyed or polluted? How is man sometimes an enemy to natural habitats?
Weather Wheels
Skill:
4.6 Science concepts
Instruct the students to examine the weather page in the newspaper. Have them draw weather symbols (rainy, snowy, sunny, windy, cloudy, etc.) or cut them out of the paper. They can place the symbols for types of weather on a round sheet of poster paper to make the weather wheel. The wheel should have arrows in the center that can move to point to the different symbols on the wheel. The students determine the weather for the day and indicate it on the wheel by moving the arrows to the correct symbol. They can do the same for several different cities or states.
Converting Metric
Skill: 4.2 Scientific processes
Have students convert food items or recipes in the newspaper from standard measurements to their metric equivalents. They can make estimates before performing the calculations. Have them make a chart to show all the results. Do your students think the U.S. should join other countries in using the metric system? Why or why not?
Questioning Science
Skill: 4.3 Scientific processes
Have the class read an article that is related to science. The students can develop a series of questions about the story. Then they can write a paragraph predicting what will happen next.
Signs of the Seasons
Skill: 5.9 Science concepts
The students can clip pictures of people from the newspaper. Have the students discuss and describe how the people are dressed. Have the students think about where the people are going, what they are doing, and what season of the year it is. What conclusions can the students draw from the pictures? Record their responses on chart paper.
Energy Awareness
Skill:5.8
Science concepts
Using the newspaper as a resource, the students can find five examples of how they use electricity in their daily lives. They can talk about other ways to do those jobs without using electricity. The students can look for five items that can be recycled. Have them make a classroom bulletin board of recyclable items.
Weather Hunt
Skill: 5.6 Science concepts
The students can turn to the weather forecast in today's newspaper to answer these questions: Which US city had the warmest temperature and which had the coldest? Which city had the most rainfall? Are there cities where it snowed? Which international city had the warmest temperature? What is the weather outlook for the area?
Water Murals
Skill: 5.5 Science concepts
Ask students to collect articles on water supply and conservation. In small groups, the students can discuss the articles. Using the information from the articles, the groups can create murals that relate to water and conservation. Each group can make an oral report about their project.
Body Types
Skill: 5.10 Science concepts
There are three types of bodies - endomorphs which are solid, round and powerful, mesomorphs which are muscular yet agile, and ectomorphs which are lean and long. Most people are a mixture of all three. Students can look at some of the people pictured in the newspaper and find examples of the different body types. Which is most like them?
Times are Changing
Skill:5.2 Scientific processes
Have the students look in the newspaper for pictures of items they might find in their homes. The class can discuss which of these items they would not have found in their homes 50 years ago. How was life different without each item?