Newspaper Activities Day 5: Education Ideas

Welcome to Day 5 of our 10-day Newspaper Activities series.  Today we are going to take a look at 25 ways to use plain ol’ newspaper to enhance your child’s educational experience. Too often parents think they need a textbook or some other workbook-type activity to provide those educational opportunities.  However, a newspaper is a great resource for providing just as many teachable moments but with a cheap price tag. After you take a look at a few of these ideas I’m sure you’ll see what I mean.  Who knew you could learn so much about science, social studies, math, and music from one day’s newspaper?!  Have fun learning!

1. Have the child circle all the letter’s of the week (i.e. “Find all the “L’s”)
2. Choose an article with a picture.  Before reading the article have the child look at the picture and create their own news article for the picture.  Encourage them to answer the questions who, what, when, where, and why.  When finished read the original article and compare the article with the one created by the child.
3. Have the child read an article and then provide a verbal and/or written summary.
4. Conduct scavenger hunts appropriate for the age level.  For example, “find the word ‘education’ five times” or “find an article about our current governor.”
5. Look at the pictures of the newspaper and without reading the articles have the child create their own captions.
6. Cut the words out from the article titles and then have the child rearrange the words to make new sentences.
7. Have the child find and cut out all the words that start with a particular letter. Then, have them paste those words on a separate piece of paper to create a letter collage.  (i.e. “Find and cut out all the words that begin with ‘A'”).
8. Cut out a comic strip, cutting off the last scene.  Read the beginning of the comic strip together then have the child draw how they think the comic strip will end.  When finished, read them the last scene as was printed in the newspaper to compare it with their ending.
9. Cut all the pictures out of a newspaper and have the child try to create one story from the hodge-podge.
10. Remove the headlines from an article.  Have the child read the article and create their own headline.  When complete compare the new headline with the original headline.  Discuss which headline is more effective at getting the point of the article across to its readers.
11. Use the newspaper to learn about locations.  Read the article to find out where the story takes place and then find that place on a map.  This may also lead to other discussions such as what country or continent the city is located on, what language is spoken there, or what physical characteristics of the country might have impacted the outcome of the story.
12. Cut out all the advertisements found in a newspaper and have them place the ads in price order from smallest to largest.
13. Cut out a comic strip and cut the strip into separate scenes.  Mix the scenes up and have the child put the comic strip back into its proper order.
14. Count the total number of classified ads for a section. Create a graph displaying the number of ads by category.
15. Cut out several classified ads and their categories.  Have the child sort the ads by category.
16. Separate the articles from the headlines. Put the headlines in one pile and the articles in another. Ask the children to match the headlines to the articles.
17. Give the child a headline and have the child create an article to go with it.
18. Have the child read a news article and draw their own picture to go with it.
19. Have the child search for new or unfamiliar vocabulary words and then look up their definition in the dictionary.
20. Make a list of descriptive words used in the advertisements.  Then, have them use as many of those same words that they can to describe another object.
21. From the advertisements cut out several different objects you’d consider buying.  Next, have the child add up the cost of all the items.
22. Pretend you have $50 to spend and have the child use the newspaper to come up with how they will spend their $50.  A concert?  Some groceries?  A movie?  
23. In the classified section, find an acreage or home for sale.  Have the child divide the amount of acres or square footage by the total price to get the cost per acre or square foot.
24. From the advertisements cut out pictures of food and have the child categorize the food by food group.
25. Have the child choose a newspaper ad and create a TV commercial or jingle for the product.

 

Be sure to come back Monday for a fun home decor idea perfect for the classic or contemporary home.  Also, if you like this post be sure to check out all the other newspaper activities  in the 10 day Hopscotch series.  Thanks for stopping by!

For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.  Ecclesiastes 7:12