1. Lyrical

Songwriter Ira Gershwin was born on December 6, 1896. Together with his brother George, Gershwin wrote some of the most popular musicals in American history, for both stage plays and movies.

In groups, find a news story that interests you. Then put it into song. You can use an original tune, or music from a song you like. Share your song with the class (you can read it, if you don't want to sing it).

Learning Standard: Communicating information accurately and effectively and demonstrating expressive abilities by creating oral, written and visual texts that enlighten and engage an audience.

2. Michael Was Number 1

The Internet has changed the way people get information. Search engines like Google and Yahoo! make it possible for anyone to learn about things with a few clicks or keystrokes from home or school computers. So what topic was the target of the most searches this year? On the Yahoo! search engine, music star Michael Jackson was Number 1 this year, after dying unexpectedly while rehearsing for a comeback this summer. Number 2 on the Yahoo! list released last week were the "Twilight" vampire movies, while Number 3 was World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Until Michael Jackson took the top spot, singer Britney Spears had been the top Yahoo! search subject for four straight years. In the newspaper find a celebrity you would like to know more about. Then write out three things you would like to know and why.

Learning Standards: Acquiring information from books, maps, newspapers, data sets and other sources; organizing and presenting the information; interpreting the meaning and significance of the information; posing social science questions.

3. Geography Awareness

The newspaper is a great way to learn about the United States. Divide into groups and test your knowledge about U.S. geography, customs and culture. First, without using any resources, draw a map of the United States. Fill in as many states as you can. Then compare your map to a U.S. map in an atlas, the newspaper or an online source. Which group came closest to the real thing? Next, look through the newspaper and make a list of all the different states you find mentioned today or this week. See which group can find the most states. Report to the class which states were in the news most -- and why.

Learning Standards: Demonstrating the ability to draw a sketch map of the world or nation from memory; describing and comparing characteristics of ecosystems, states, regions, countries, major world regions.

4. Festival of Lights

This year the Jewish holiday Hanukkah starts at sundown on December 11. To celebrate, many Jews light candles in commemoration of lights that were lit to mark a military victory thousands of years ago. Find articles about Hanukkah and other holidays celebrated in different parts of the world. Pick one holiday and write a summary of what it is, who celebrates it and why. Create a piece of art, such as a collage or drawing, to go with your summary.

Learning Standard: Describing, comparing and explaining the locations and characteristics of races, cultures and settlements; identifying and using aspects of the craft of the speaker, writer and illustrator to formulate and express ideas artistically.

5. Dewey

Melvil Dewey was born on December 10, 1851. He was a librarian, and he created Dewey Decimal Classification, a system of organizing library books that categorizes all books into 10 groups. Within each group, decimals are used to create smaller subcategories. In groups, come up with a classification system for the articles, photos and cartoons in the newspaper. For example, you might categorize them by subject, by location or anything else. For each category, write a few sentences explaining why the things in it go together.

Learning Standard: Investigating practical situations such as scheduling, routing, sequencing, networking, organizing and classifying, and analyzing ideas like recurrence relations, induction, iteration, and algorithm design.