1. Strike Up the Band

March is Music in Our Schools Month. In celebration of music, go through the newspaper and find three concerts that you could attend in your community this month. Or find examples online. Write a short paragraph for each, explaining what kind of music will be featured and to whom it would appeal the most. Finish by writing a short paragraph on which concert you would most like to attend, and why.

Learning Standard: Acquiring information from multiple sources; writing fluently for multiple purposes; investigating practical situations, such as scheduling, routing, sequencing, networking, organizing and classifying.

2. Hefty Politicians

A study out of the University of Missouri found that overweight male politicians are considered more reliable and honest than thin ones, and that the opposite is true for female politicians. In the study, 120 participants were asked to look at pictures of fake political candidates and rate them on a variety of criteria. Examine the effect of photos on viewers by finding three photos of people in this week's newspapers. Look at each photo and write down a short description of the personality of the person in it. Try to record your first reaction. As a class, compare photos and talk about why you came up with the descriptions you wrote.

Learning Standard: Expressing responses and making connections between visual, written, oral and electronic texts and students' own lives.

3. PlayStation

A new study suggests that playing video games could negatively affect learning for boys. The study looked at 64 boys ages 6 to 9 who did not own a video game system. Half of them were given a PlayStation. Researchers then tracked the academic development of all 64 over four months. The head researcher said that the learning problems that developed were probably not from the video games themselves, but were a result of the boys skipping educational activities in favor of playing video games. In groups, use the newspaper to come up with a list of 10 activities you could do instead of playing video games or watching TV. Divide the activities into categories, such as entertainment, education, arts and culture, and physical fitness. Share your ideas with the class.

Learning Standard: Integrating listening, viewing, speaking, reading, and writing skills for multiple purposes and in varied contexts.

4. March Madness

The NCAA college basketball championships are in full swing. Men's and women's teams are working together to reach the Elite Eight, Final Four and, of course, the National Championship game. Look through the newspaper and find an example of a group of people working together as a team to achieve a common goal. Write a short summary of the article, including what the team did that was successful and ways that their methods could be improved. Then think about a time you worked as a team in class, playing a sport or anything else. Write a paragraph analyzing that situation: Did everyone work together well? What could people have done differently?

Learning Standards: Responding personally, analytically and critically to a variety of written, visual, oral and electronic texts; providing examples of how texts influence students' lives and their role in society; applying knowledge, ideas and issues drawn from texts to students' lives and the lives of others.

5. Tom and Jerry

Cartoonist Joseph Barbera was born March 24, 1911. Together with his animation partner Bill Hanna, Barbera created the cartoon characters the Flintstones, the Jetsons, Tom and Jerry and Scooby-Doo, among others. Be like Barbera and create your own cartoon character. Base it on something in the news. Give your character a name and create a comic strip showing the character in action.

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