In the News!

Builds spelling, vocabulary,news reading skills Each day, hang a few of the day's most important news stories -- with their headlines removed -- on the chalkboard or bulletin board. At the end of the week, arrange students into two teams and play a Wheelof-Fortune type of game using the missing headlines as the phrases the students must guess. After each headline is identified, have the team that didnot guess the phrase find the corresponding news story. Choose a member of that team to explain the news event to the class.

A Collaborative Mystery Story Builds storytelling and writing skills Write the first sentence of an original mystery story on a blank journal page. The story starter should be both intriguing and vague: "The murder happened at midnight"; "The house throbbed with the ghostly presence"; "Let me tell you about that night!" Ask each student to add a sentence or a paragraph to the story -- depending on the age of the students. (Provide a checklist with the journal, so the last student to add to the story will realize that he or she must write the conclusion.) When the story is complete, turn off the lights and read it aloud.

Animal Mix-Up Builds creativity skills After a lesson on animals, have your students create a new animal by mixing and matching the features of several of the animals studied. For example, after studying African animals, students might combine an elephant's ears with a giraffe's neck, a zebra's body, and a tiger's tail -- a tigraffphant! Encourage students to name their animals.

Daily writing is one of the best ways to build students writing -and reading -- skills. Setting aside 5 minutes for a daily writing exercise is an excellent way to ensure that students will get writing practice each and every day. Each student might have a 5-Minute Writing" notebook that is used for just this purpose.For this daily 5-Minute Writing activity, set a timer. Set the timer for 5 minutes and let students use that time to respond to the question/writing prompt of the day.

Sound It Out! Builds listening and spelling skills Write the following headline expressions on a board or chart.One at a time, have students sound out and say slowly and carefully the words in each headline until it begins to sound like something that relates to the clue. For example, Tub Braid Heap Hunch, carefully sounded out with the "TV show" clue in mind will begin to sound like The Brady Bunch.

Fact, Fiction, or Opinion? Builds comprehension skills Write the following statements on a board or chart, or say them aloud. Have students identify each statement as fact, fiction, oropinion.Then give each student a sheet of scrap paper. Have them write and label three statements -- one that is factual, one that is fiction, and one that is opinion. Collect the students' work and use their statements as a class quiz.

Great Graphs Builds graph reading skills Collect from newspapers and magazines a variety of graphs. (The major news magazines are good sources; the USA Today newspaper is another excellent source.) You might laminate the graphs so you can use them over and over. Hand each student a graph and a sticky note. Have them write on the sticky note one fact they did not know that they learned from the graph. Have students share what they learned with their classmates.

PixPuzzles Picture puzzles such as the ones below are a terrific tool for stimulating students to think critically. Write or draw the following puzzles on a board or chart. Challenge students to study the puzzles to see if the words -- and the way they are written -- give them clues to the common expressions the puzzles illustrate.