1. Vocabulary Hunt

Building vocabulary can sometimes be a challenge. But if you make it into a game, you can learn while having fun. Follow the steps below to go on a "Vocabulary Hunt" in the newspaper. This activity also will help you practice following directions!

A. Write your name.
B. Write down the second letter in your first name.
C. Count letters in the alphabet until you come to that letter.
D. Write down that number.
E. Count the letters in your last name.
F. Write down that number.
G. Add the numbers in Steps D and F.
H. Write down that number.
I. Count the number in the answer in Step H in the pages of today's newspaper.
J. If you land on a page with few words, go to the next page that contains lots of words.
K. Find a lower-case word that you're not quite sure how to pronounce.
L. Look it up in the dictionary.
M. Learn how to pronounce it.
N. Find out what it means.
O. Use it in a complete sentence.

2. Great Women

Learning Standard: Identifying and categorizing key ideas, concepts and perspectives found in texts.

August 26 is Women's Equality Day. Less than a hundred years ago, women in the United States could not vote. After a long struggle, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave women that right on August 26, 1920. The efforts of the women who earned this right have inspired many others to fight against all kinds of unfairness. In the newspaper or online, read a story about a woman or a group of women working for a cause that is important to them. Then answer these questions:

A. The woman or women in the story were named

B. They think

C. One woman in my life who is important to me is

D. She likes to

E.

3. The Nose Knows

Israeli scientists have created an "electronic nose" that uses a simple breath test to detect certain cancers, including lung, breast, bowel and prostate. Scientists at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology studied the breath of 177 people -- some who were healthy and others with various types of cancer. They used the sensor to detect chemical variations and found they could also identify the four common types of cancer. The discovery, which is published in the British Journal of Cancer, is still new, but could become an inexpensive and easy way to diagnose cancer earlier. Find an article or ad in the newspaper that tells about a scientific claim. Based on the article or the ad, do you trust this claim? Why or why not?

Learning Standards: Analyzing claims for their scientific merit and explaining how scientists decide what constitutes scientific knowledge; understanding how science is related to other ways of knowing and how science and technology affect our society.

4. Great Find

A U.S. federal district court judge recently ruled that the company that has the exclusive rights to salvaging the ocean liner Titanic has the right to full compensation for artifacts it recovered. The judge is now deciding whether to give RMS Titanic Inc. title to the 5,900 or so artifacts or sell them and give the company the $110 million they are believed to be worth. The Titanic sank on April 12, 1912, after it hit an iceberg on its first voyage. More than 1,500 of the 2,228 passengers and crew were killed. Oceanographer Robert Ballard, along with an international team, found the wreckage in 1985 on the North Atlantic floor about 400 miles off Newfoundland. Later, courts gave RMS Titanic the exclusive rights to salvage the Titanic, not ownership of what they found. The company is beginning a new expedition this week to determine how fast the Titanic is deteriorating. The scientific study will last about a month. Look through the classified ads in the newspaper to find an interesting item for sale. Write a creative story that descriptively tells your version of the history of the item. Could it have been recovered from the Titanic? Found in a haunted house? Something else?

Learning Standards: Reading and writing fluently, speaking confidently, listening and interacting appropriately, viewing critically and representing creatively; responding to a variety of visual and electronic texts.

5. Stirring Things Up

Starbucks, which has more than 16,000 coffee shops in more than 50 countries, recently announced its plans for an in-store digital network. The free service will include six online channels: News, Entertainment, Wellness, Business & Careers, My Neighborhood and Starbucks. Content providers will include commercial-free Nick Jr. Boost, Rodale, DonorsChoose.org, iTunes, The New York Times, Patch, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! and Zagat. Starbucks customers will have access to recipes, magazine articles and even a Run, Ride and Walk application that will provide access to geo-targeted maps of more than 30,000 routes. The Starbucks Digital Network is being developed in partnership with Yahoo! and will be available for laptops, tablets and smart phones that have Wi-Fi later this fall. Find an example in the newspaper of a business adding a service for the community or doing something else to gain community support and confidence. Write a summary of how this action might help the business.

Learning Standards: Acquiring information from multiple sources and then organizing and evaluating it; writing fluently for multiple purposes.