1. A 'Green' Post Office

The U.S. Postal Service delivers mail in every community in the nation. So when the cost of gas goes up, it hits the service hard. When gas increases just one cent a gallon, postal leaders say, it adds $8 MILLION a year in costs. To cut the use of gasoline, the Postal Service now is working with the General Motors company to test a new kind of vehicle that runs on electricity to "reduce or eliminate" the need for gasoline. With family or friends, talk about ways families and businesses are cutting back on driving or the use of gas vehicles. Draw a comic strip for the newspaper showing what one family might do.

Learning Standards: Responding to a variety of written, visual and electronic texts by making connections to students' personal lives and the lives of others; using the craft of the illustrator to convey ideas artistically.

2. Who Will Be Vice President?

Excitement is growing for this year's presidential race, in which Republican John McCain will face off against Democrat Barack Obama in November. Among the most interesting questions not yet answered are who the Republican and Democratic candidates will choose as their candidates for vice president. With family or friends, talk about the qualities a vice president should have in the United States. Then use images and words you find in the newspaper to design a poster highlighting the qualities you think are most important for a vice president to have.

Learning Standards: Using written, oral and visual texts to identify and research issues of importance that confront students, their community, their nation and the world; representing creatively.

3. Be Kind to Pets - and People

How many fourth graders can say they wrote a book? Nine-year-old Lexy Webb of Kingsville, Texas can, and she hopes it will help readers be kinder to pets and people. With her mother, Lexy has written "Zoe the Earless Kitten: The Adoption," a story that tells how her family rescued a cat that had been abused. She hopes the book will encourage children her age to be accepting of pets -- or other children -- who have suffered misfortunes. "I could have picked a kitten that was healthy and had ears," she says, "but kittens and puppies that are hurt need a home, too. No one should be mean to animals or kids that are disabled." With family or friends, find a story in the newspaper about someone helping an animal or person that has been harmed or mistreated. Write a short paragraph describing what was done and why it was important.

Learning Standards: Writing fluently for multiple purposes; generating questions about issues that affect students or topics about which they are curious.

4. Hello, Pandas

When China's most famous panda preserve was damaged in an earthquake this year, the Asian nation worried about its efforts to protect these rare and beautiful bears. Now China has gotten some good news from a panda center in southwestern China, the area where most of the nation's 1,600 remaining wild pandas live. Four giant panda cubs were born at the center within 14 hours of each other July 26-27, raising the center's panda population to 71. Look through the stories, ads and photos in the newspaper for an animal you would like to protect. Write a paragraph explaining why you would want to protect this animal and draw a picture of it.

Learning Standards: Reading and writing fluently, speaking confidently, listening and interacting appropriately, viewing critically and representing creatively.

5. Dino Tracking

Scientists and wildlife experts have often used helicopters or airplanes to observe and track the movements of animals living in the wild. But now scientists are using helicopters to track animals that lived millions of years ago! In the Coral Pink Sand Dunes in the state of Utah, researchers are using specially equipped helicopters to follow tracks left 180 MILLION years ago by at least six species of dinosaurs. The scientists hope the effort will help them better understand the movement and behavior of dinosaurs that lived in the area. Inventors and scientists are always finding new ways to study things or do different jobs. Find an example in the newspaper and write a complete sentence describing how the new invention is an improvement over the way things were done in the past.

Learning Standards: Understanding the nature of scientific inquiry; explaining how science and technology affect society.