The newspaper everyday in your class!

October in your class with the Post-Bulletin

Summer fun with the Post-Bulletin!

Make a collage from newspaper pictures and words to show what different things happened in a book you read.

After reading a news article, draw a picture of what happened.

Make a poem, using only words you have found and cut out of the newspaper headlines. Glue them onto a piece of paper and illustrate your poem.

Find three examples of facts and three examples of opinions in your newspaper. Discuss how they are different and where you would generally find opinions.

Have a timed race through the newspaper to clip and paste as many pairs of homonyms as you can find.

Imagine that you are the main character in a news story. After reading the published account, tell your side of the story.

Keep a notebook of new and unfamiliar words that you find in your newspaper reading. Clip them out, paste them in your notebook, and write the definition next to each word.

Discuss the beginnings of news and feature stories. Look for each of the five Ws and the H, noting that they are usually found at the beginning of a news story and that the reader need read only a few sentences to know what the story is about and what its most important details are.

Make a list of at least 15 descriptive words you find in the advertisements. After compiling your list, write one or two paragraphs describing something. Use as many of the words as you can.

The Mini Page Sings the ABC’s of the United States

The Mini Page has introduced the “Book of States,” a collection of published issues describing, from A to Z, important aspects of each state in America. Since its 1969 beginnings, The Mini Page has given both facts and fun to children, parents and teachers, now appearing in about 500 newspapers weekly.

This 156-page softcover book explains each state’s history, heritage and culture by providing the reader with brief but informative facts. The A-to-Z facts of every state, as well as the District of Columbia, are supplemented by such sections as famous residents, puzzles and word searches.

“'The Mini Page Book of States' will make a wonderful teaching tool with its colorful pages and engaging topics,” says Lisa Tarry, managing editor of The Mini Page. “It will be an invaluable addition to any collection for teachers, librarians, students or state museums and is very affordable, with significant discounts offered for bulk orders.”

"The Mini Page Book of States” highlights, for example, Indiana’s state bird (the cardinal), the Raggedy Ann Doll (which was created in Indianapolis in 1914), and famous former Indiana residents such as poet James Whitcomb Riley and songwriter Cole Porter.

Betty Debnam is the founding editor and editor at large of The Mini Page. She has created an enduring legacy as a teacher and journalist, reaching well beyond the classroom into homes by seeking to engage young readers with news and games and to instill in them a love of newspapers. The Mini Page presents interesting, timely and sometimes complex topics in ways that are easy and enjoyable for kids to learn about. A favorite of parents, teachers, children and Newspaper In Education programs (NIE), The Mini Page is owned and distributed by Universal Press Syndicate. It has won numerous Awards for Educational Excellence from EdPress Association, and appears in newspapers, including the New York Daily News, Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, Tulsa World and Reading (PA) Eagle.

Call me at 285-7639 or email nie@postbulletin.com to order your own copy!

Reading with the Comics

Teachers! If you're having trouble keeping your students focused in these last few weeks of school, try a few of these fun reading ideas to keep them interested and reading.

1. Make a new comic strip by cutting out several of the characters from different strips and combining them into one comic strip. Have them tell a story and have the characters carry on a conversation with each other.

2. At the top of a page label five columns: Sight, Sound, Taste, Smell and Touch. Cut out words or pictures from the comics that relate to these five sense and paste them under the proper headings.

3. Using your favorite cartoon characters, create your own comic strips about one of your very worst days or very best days.

4. What does the word “trust” mean? Find an example of one comic character who trusts another. Find an example of a comic strip character who does not trust another character.

5. Cut out the head of a comic strip character leaving a one-inch strip of paper on either side of the neck. Wrap the strips around your finger and tape the ends. Use these puppets to create a family. Make up stories using your puppets.

6. Circle all of the contractions in the comics. Beside each contraction, write the two words from which it came.

7. Find examples of interrogative, declaratory, exclamatory, and imperative sentences in the comic strips.

8. Cut out all of the “noisy” words in the comics such as zap, boom, and howl. (These are examples of onomatopoeia). Use these words in a descriptive paragraph.

9. Using the grocery ads, estimate the cost of feeding Snoopy or another animal in the comics for a week. Or, from the food ads, cut pictures of food a comic strip family would like to eat.

10. Write a letter to the cartoonist who creates your favorite comic strip or cartoon. Ask your librarian to help you find an address, or check with your local newspaper.

11. Create comic characters and give the characters names. Draw them on paper and put the characters into a comic strip to tell a simple story.
12. Find a cartoon or comic strip that has no words. Try to decide why it is funny. What clues helped you understand the humor?

Now it’s your turn. What other fun activities can you do with the comics?

Earth Day 2009: The Green Generation

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Earth Day 2009 is April 22. You can still sign up for our upcoming special pull-out section on windpower that day. Open the the pdf above and give me a call or email me at nie@postbulletin.com. Join the Green Generation and make sure your students have their own copy of everything we can tell you about windpower.

In 2009, women making history in key U.S. role

As the nation observes Women’s History Month, a glance at the national government
shows how true this is. In the cabinet of President Barack Obama, three jobs that are among the
most challenging—and most important to the President and the nation —are held by women leaders.
Hillary Clinton, the former U.S.senator from New York, is now in charge of U.S. dealings with Iraq,
Israel, Afghanistan and other nations as secretary of state.

Janet Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona, is in charge of keeping the nation safe from terrorists and other disasters as secretary of homeland security. Kathleen Sebelius, the governor of Kansas, will be in charge of efforts to change the nation’s health care system if she is confirmed as secretary of health and human services.

Women hold other influential positions as well, notably Lisa Jackson as head of the nation’s Environmental Protection Agency, Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations, Hilda Solis as secretary of labor and Christina Romer as head of the Council of Economic Advisers.

“Barack Obama has [appointed]competent women around him at all levels of the administration,” the Website of International Women’s Day 2009 observes. “Not just at the top level but also at the second and third layers.Most of these positions are in the national security and economic issues arenas so [they] are key positions.

“Obama is used to having strong women around him.”

Leaders everywhere
In government and beyond, women’s history is being re-written in America.
In the U.S. House of Representatives,Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the first woman in history to hold the top position.In the U.S. Senate, Maine Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe played key roles in getting the Senate to pass the recent economic recovery legislation. In entertainment, Oprah Winfrey is considered the most influential person on television.

And in education, Wendy Kopp is helping children in struggling schools with her Teach for America program—and teaching American businesses how to inspire young adults at the same time.

Education gains
Getting a college education has been key to job gains by women, and by some measures of educational
achievement women are now out -performing men.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that one out of every three women ages 25 to 29 had earned a college bachelor’s degree in 2007, while just one of every four men had.

On top of that, women were expected to earn 58 percent of bachelor’s degrees and 60 percent of  advanced master’s degrees in the 2008-2009 college year. Despite these gains, however, women have not reached equality with men when it comes to pay. A survey by the Census Bureau in 2007 found that even with more education, women on average earn just 77.5 cents for every $1 earned by men in U.S. jobs.

What do you know about the inauguration?

Teachers! Go here for a rich offering of inaugural info!

Back to school with NIE

It’s time once again to think about reading, writing and ‘rithmetic. The Post-Bulletin is a great resource for your classroom no matter the size or grade level. Help your students become aware of their community on a daily basis with the newspaper in your classroom at a price that fits your budget.

Upcoming projects for fall:

Serial story: "All In Good Time” – Follow 15-year-old Eddie Barnes back in time,  for this nine-week series in which history comes alive as Eddie finds himself arriving in the 1930’s during the FDR election and discovers history is all about people’s lives, not just dates and numbers.  Includes student blank book and teacher's guide,

Pigskin Geography program -Follow the NFL this fall with our Pigskin curriculum materials provided by NIE; geography, math and language arts activities and quizzes related to location of each week’s games give students a better awareness of where everything is in this big country of ours.

Minnesota at 150: Celebrating Statehood - a weekly trip through Minnesota's 150-year experience, with a particular focus on Rochester and southeastern Minnesota; Join us every Tuesday from September through December for a revealing look at Minnesota’s past.

Election 2008 : Your choice of 2 great curricula

   1. Election  Primary (grades 1-5)
   2. Election  Process ( grades 1-12)

Plus:

10 newspapers Monday – Friday for 6 weeks : $18.00
Free Mock Election materials for your class
It’s Your Government downloadable resource
League of Women voter guide with candidate info
more extras coming

Call us for more information about receiving the Post-Bulletin in your classroom this fall: 285-7639

Or email: nie@postbulletin.com

In support of summertime literacy

It's as simple as the newspaper that you find on your driveway in the morning.  That same newspaper in a classroom or home can support the child's language, literacy, critical thinking, and character development.  Further, it can stimulate an interest in current events, support the development of civic understanding, stimulate independent reading, and support the pursuit of interests and hobbies.  Newspapers can reinforce, enrich, and extend content taught in every subject. 

Finally, through the use of newspapers, students find relevance in the content that they are learning at school. The real-world connection supported by the use of newspapers helps students understand the importance of the information that they are learning. Newspapers provide wonderful resources to supplement textbooks, tradebooks and other instructional resources.

If you haven't read through the Post-Bulletin with your student or child today, why not get started now?