1. Here Comes the Sun

Sometimes we take the sun for granted, and the sun doesn't make the news very often. However, every picture taken outside during the daytime shows the sun's effect on the world. Where the sun can't reach, there are shadows. In teams or pairs, cut or print out five daytime outside pictures from today's newspaper. Paste them on larger pieces of paper. Using a flashlight to represent the sun, experiment and figure out where the sun must be in each of the pictures. Draw the sun where you decide it is on each of the larger sheets.

Common Core/National Standards: Using drawings or visual displays when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or points; explaining how shadows are made.

2. Heroes and Grinders

On November 3, 1718, the fourth Earl of Sandwich was born. The Earl is famous for inventing a food people eat for lunch every day — the sandwich! In honor of his birthday, create a new sandwich of your own. Cut out interesting "ingredients" from today's newspaper. They can be pictures of lettuce and tomatoes or other “sandwichy” foods — or you can get more creative. Paste your ingredients on a piece of paper and draw two slices of bread to hold your sandwich. Give your new sandwich a creative name, and share names as a class. Who had the funniest one?

Common Core/National Standards: Using drawings or visual displays when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or points; reading and writing with developing fluency, speaking confidently, listening and interacting appropriately, viewing strategically and representing creatively.

3. To Chew or Not to Chew

Recent research indicates that sugar-free gum can actually prevent cavities in your teeth. The key is “sugar-free.” Sugar in gum is not good for your teeth, but if the sugar is replaced by one naturally occurring sweetener found in fruits and vegetables, it can actually reverse some cavities. Or, at the very least, it can limit the growth of the bacteria that cause cavities. The sweetener is called xylitol (ZIE-lit-ol), and gum that contains it seems to work best when chewed routinely between ages 5 and 18. “Certainly,” University of Pennsylvania medical expert Ezekiel J. Emanuel wrote in the Sunday New York Times, “after a century of blown bubbles and gum stuck to the bottoms of desks, it must be difficult for [schools] to see chewing gum as a virtue instead of a vice.” In the newspaper or online, find and read a story about something that can improve your health. Discuss it as a class. Then draw a comic strip for the newspaper showing how people could be helped. (One last thing: If your teacher tells you to get rid of your gum, don’t argue — spit it out!)

Common Core/National Standards: Engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions; using drawings or visual displays when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or points.

4. Sitting Can Be Bad for You

When Mom tells you to get up from in front of the TV set, she isn’t just being bossy. Recent research confirms that the more time people spend sitting, especially in front of the TV, the shorter and less healthy their life will be. An Australian study concluded that every hour of TV viewing after age 25 reduces life expectancy by 21.8 minutes and that an adult spending an average of six hours a day watching TV can expect to live almost five years less than someone who does not watch TV. It’s not TV that’s the culprit; it’s sitting. Scientists are not sure exactly why, although one cause they agree on is that your muscles need more activity if they are to play their role in helping preserve good health. In the newspaper or online, find articles on the benefits of exercise and the dangers of a lifestyle with a lot of sitting. As a class, discuss ways students your age could be more active.

Common Core/National Standard: Engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions.

5. Picking a Bone

A Florida man has been charged with smuggling goods and selling stolen goods. The “goods?” Dinosaur bones, including a 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton from the Asian region of Mongolia. According to authorities, Eric Prokopi has been importing fossilized remains for some time, and selling them to museums and galleries. A U.S. attorney for New York City called him “a one-man black market in prehistoric fossils.” Mongolian government leaders say the latest the fossil may belong to them. In the newspaper or online, find and discuss a story about dinosaurs or other fossils. Then write a paragraph telling what you think should be done with people who traffic in ancient fossils collected without permission. Finish by doing some research and drawing a map of Mongolia.

Common Core/National Standards: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience; using drawings or visual displays when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or points.