1. Cartoon News

You can learn from everything in the newspaper. And you can have fun doing it! With family or friends, read a short article in the newspaper. Then draw a picture that shows an event in the story. Include dialogue bubbles, like the ones in comics, so that someone looking at the picture may have a better understanding of the event. For more fun, repeat every day with the newspaper. Soon you'll have your own "comic book."

Learning Standard: Identifying and using the craft of the speaker, writer and illustrator to formulate and express ideas artistically.

2. I Have a Question

Here's another way to have fun while building skills and learning with the newspaper. Alone or with a friend, read an article in today's paper. Come up with five "quiz" questions about the article, as if you were planning a TV game show. Write the questions on one sheet of paper. Then write the answers on another sheet.

Learning Standards: Demonstrating the ability to write clear and grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs and compositions; acquiring information from multiple sources.

3. It's a 'Rap'

Hip-hop music is said to have been "born" on August 11, 1973 at a girl's birthday party in New York City's west Bronx neighborhood. The girl's brother, Clive Campbell (also known as DJ Kool Herc), liked to study the way people reacted to various parts of songs. "I was noticing people used to wait for particular parts of the record to dance, maybe [to] do their speciality move." He found that those moments happened a lot during drum breaks, when there were no vocals or other instruments playing. So he used two turntables (record players) to switch back and forth over and over on the same song, giving listeners long drum breaks. He called it the Merry Go-Round, but it is known today as the "break beat." It was a key moment in the start of hip-hop, which got that name six years later. Think like a hip-hop artist and write a rap song based on a comic strip from the newspaper. Rap about the characters, the story, the drawing style or what you think of the strip. Share with family or friends.

Learning Standards: Recognizing and using varied techniques to construct text, convey meaning and express feelings to influence an audience; writing fluently for multiple purposes to produce compositions, such as personal narratives, persuasive essays, lab reports and poetry.

4. Great Find

How much would you pay for a comic book? A man in Alaska recently put his rare copy of the Batman No. 1 comic book up for sale at an auction. Mike Wheat's 1940 comic book quickly pulled in online bids of $35,000, and is expected to bring more than $40,000 by the time the auction ends. Another man had found the 70-year-old comic book after buying an old bedroom dresser at a garage sale around 40 years ago. It and two other comic books were hidden beneath a drawer and a piece of plywood. The man sold the comics to Wheat for $300 in 1974. Look through the Classified Ads in the newspaper to find items for sale. Choose an item and use it to write a creative story. Stretch your imagination to create an unusual plot, such as the adventures a used car might have had or the history of a unique item found in an old couch.

Learning Standards: Responding to a variety of written, electronic, visual or oral texts; demonstrating the ability to write clear and grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs and compositions.

5. Cool Science

Recently, 100 elementary school teachers from across the United States went to Washington, D.C., to learn how to get kids interested in math and science. They visited the Sally Ride Science Academy, a school named after the first American woman to fly in space. The National Center for Education did a study in 2000 and found that fourth grade boys and girls were equally interested in math and science. But by eighth grade, two times the number of boys liked the subjects. Ride believes that girls and boys both need to see that math and science are cool, and that scientists do fascinating and important things. The National Science Foundation agrees, noting that math and science skills will be needed for 80 percent of the nation's jobs in the next 10 years. Search the newspaper to find an article about a scientist or other person who uses math or science in his or her job. Pretend you are interviewing this person and write down five questions that would help you learn about this job.

Learning Standards: Asking questions that help students learn about the world; acquiring information from multiple sources.