Help Please! - English Newspaper activites

[lisadream]

I have stacks of English newspapers in the back of my classroom, every week my vice principle happily delivers that latest editions. So none of the papers are the same. I want to use them up/get rid of them in a class some how, but my mind is drawing a total blank on how I could use them in a lesson.

ANY ideas you have would be really helpful!

[merle]

One idea:  Newspaper Scavenger Hunt

I remember reading about this on another website, and used this for a camp.  Depending on what kind of newspaper they are, you can chose different things for students to find.    Some examples:


1.  Find an advertisement for a car. Cut it out and glue it on the poster paper. Then answer these questions.
a. What kind of car is it?
b. What year was the car made?
c. How much does it cost?

2. Find a crime that occurred that the newspaper reported. Cut out the headline of the story and glue it.
a. What was the crime?

3. Find an ad for a job that’s available that you might like to have someday:  Cut it out and glue it.
a. What is the job?
b. Why do you want this job?

4. Find the weather and temperature for a city. Cut out the forecast and glue it. Then answer the questions.
a. What is the name of the city?
b. What will the weather be like?
c. What will the high and low temperature be?

5. Find a cartoon you think is funny. Cut it out and glue it.
a. Why do you like it?

6. Find an interesting picture. Cut it out and glue it. Then answer the questions.
a. Who or what is in the picture?
b. What is happening in the picture?

7.  A story about another country:  Cut out the headline and glue it.
a. What country is it?
b. What happened/is happening in that country?

8. Find a number bigger than 2000 (not a year). Cut it out and glue it.

9. Find an advertisement for some kind of food. Cut it out and glue it.
a.  Would you like to eat this food?  Why?

10. Find a number that is written in letters. For example: four hundred instead of 400. Cut it out and glue it.

11. Find a puzzle from this newspaper.  Cut it out and glue it.

12. List five things that are for sale in the newspaper.
a.  How much do they cost?
b.  Would you like to buy them?  Why?

13. Write down the name of the newspaper.

14. How much does the newspaper cost?

15. Find your horoscope in the newspaper. Cut it out and glue it. Then answer the questions.
a. What is your horoscope sign?
b. What kind of day does your horoscope say you will have? (your own words)


This list would actually take a fairly long time to complete, as is.  Also, it's more suitable for middle or high school level students, but I'm sure elementary school students would enjoy a simpler form of newspaper scavenger hunt.

Also, second idea:  RAnsom    NoTes

With "ransom notes", students can write their name, or a poem or sentence, or whatever you'd like.  But they would be cutting the paper up into little bits, and afterwards you would then be free to get rid of those papers.

[Brian]

Yep, here's the newspaper scavenger hunt activity uploaded here (via Dave's) in 2007:
http://waygook.org/index.php?topic=338.0

Never tried it, but it sounds like fun . . . not sure how it'd work in a 40-minuteish class, though, but  maybe for one of your afterschool classes or a winter session.

[merle]

Yep, that's the post I remember getting it from.  Thanks again to oneofthesarahs

I actually have used the newspaper scavenger hunt lesson before, albeit in modified form (which for some reason I only have on paper, not electronic copy).  In any event, with the cutting and gluing it does take a long time, longer than 40-50 minutes, especially factoring in the clean-up.  I used it for a camp, and the students had a great time.

However, if you wanted it to be just done in class, you could reduce or change the things students need to find and have them do a bit more writing.
For example:

1.  Find a picture with a tree in it.  Where does that tree grow?
(and here you are looking for an answer with more pertinent information than "The tree is growing on the ground."  Something more like:  "The tree is growing in the Amazon rain forest in Brazil."  For this they'd need to read a bit of the article to figure out just where in the world that tree is.)

2.  Find a word that you don't know.  Look it up in the dictionary and write down the definition plus the original sentence.

3.  Find a short article that is more than 1 paragraph.  Cut it out and glue it.  Highlight all of the "to be" verbs.  How many are there?

+ a couple more items and something like this might be doable in class.  But again, it would depend on what level of students you have.  Are you in elementary, middle, or high school?

[nancy]

I also had alot of newspapers in my room. I used them with a culture lesson. I told the class about Canadian culture (a powerpoint from Waygook.org ) and then had them construct a poster of Korean culture for me from the newspaper. It is messy and loud but the kids really liked it and they were a more comfortable speaking with  me about a familiar subject in a small group. I learned quite a bit about Korean culture and issues they feel strongly about. I think that students also appreciate interest I showed learning about their culture. When the collages were complete I posted them in the classroom and now I have visitors all the time!

[lisadream]

Thanks so much for the ideas!

BTW, I teach in an all-girls High School (Sorry I left that out, kinda important!). 12 classes of 40 students each in 1st grade, same for 2nd grade.

I will definitely try to make this work, I may put the girls in pairs or groups of 4. But this gives me the logistical nightmare of getting 20 pairs of scissors and 20 gluesticks from the school....

[harveyca]

Do you still have those newspapers? I'm trying to get things planned for my camp and could really use some copies!

[Mellisa]

Hi there

I teach at a middle school and played some games with the students using newspapers. Some games were in groups and others individually.

Choose a newspaper article, copy it for the class and play bingo. You give the definition and they must find the word in the text. If it is a little difficult give them a clue like the word begins with or ends with or you can find it in left bottom side, etc. In this way the students scan the newspaper and it is much more interesting to learn about the news. After playing, students can usually tell me what the article is about.

Choose a newspaper article, copy it for the class and arrange words in alphabetical order. With smaller groups I let the students choose any 15-20 words without telling them prior that they will have to put it in alphabetical order. Now ask groups to arrange words in alphabetical order and the first group to finish wins. You can also let them look for the words underline it and then put it in alphabetical order.

You can also play hangman.

Lastly, I also let students choose an article and they have to answer the 5WH of that article and present it to the class.

I hope this is helpful .