Bring the World Alive - With a Newspaper
Here are some ideas for using newspapers with children in the classroom.

1. Name that Number!

Newspapers are not just full of words - there are loads of numbers, too!

One simple 'game' is to

· Find as many numbers as you can in the paper.

Here are some examples:
Page number, price of paper, date, reports in the news (e.g. Club turn-around after £3m loss), ages, prices, telephone, fax, email and web site numbers, addresses, the time of events (e.g. when a Church Service starts or market opens), TV and radio times, radio frequencies, weather temperature, the weight of things (e.g. London's giant Millennium Ferris Wheel weighs 1,500 tonnes), road numbers (in traffic reports), listings (such as the 'top 10' books or hits), crosswords, recipes.

Draw up a chart that you could stick on the wall showing different categories. Write in a number a day. Have fun.


2. Count those Words!

Children love counting things. A simple activity is to

· Count the words in headlines, stories, captions or adverts.

This could be quite casual, while sitting down reading the newspaper, for example. Or more structured so that, again, it can become more of a game.

Make a score sheet to note down the different numbers. You might find only five words in a main headline - but 150 in a news report!

A more difficult operation is to try to guess how many words there are in a report. Count the number of words that make 1 centimetre deep. Try to calculate how long the whole story is based on that figure. Count the number of words to check the answer (make sure the story isn't too long!).


3. Pick that Picture

This is good for general scanning through the paper, but can also be refined to become a more challenging task.

The simplest activity is to:

· Search through the pages to see how many pictures there are altogether. This can be varied and made progressively more difficult.

Here are some examples:

Find:
How many men?
How many women?
How many children?
How many sad faces?
How many happy faces?
How many groups of people?
How many individual people?

If you look through the paper before hand, you can decide on single pictures to find.

For example:
Find a picture of a person with a dog
Find a picture of two elephants
Find a picture of Cliff Richard (or whoever!)


4. Logging Logos

The paper is full of different companies, either in news reports or adverts.

· Find as many different logos as you can.

Cut them out and paste them on to a wall chart or into a book.

Make a booklet showing a page a day. Find, say, four logos each day over the course of a week.

Discuss the companies.


5. Popular programmes

Choose favourite TV programmes together. Look at the start and finish times.

· Work out how long does the programme lasts?

If you were going to watch several programmes, how much TV would you be watching during the day?


6. Name game

· Ask the children to cut letters from the newspaper to spell their name.

· Paste them on to card or paper to make a display.

This could be messy. (They still haven't worked out a way of preventing the ink rubbing off news pages!), but this simple activity involves letter recognition, spelling, motor and co-ordination skills. Also look for different letter sizes and fonts.


7. Great Grouping

Draw different shapes on a card or piece of paper (e.g. circle, square, triangle). Ask the children to:

· Find different numbers of similar objects and place them in the shapes.

There's lots of scope here. For example, you could find:

Different letters (e.g. put all Hs in one space, all Ws in another, all Rs in another and so on).
This could be based on the letters in the children's names. Bring in the idea of number (e.g. one letter in one space, two letters in another, three in the next etc).
Do the same with whole words and pictures. Cut out faces and place them in the shapes.


8. Wizardry Words

· Write down the letters of children's names and find things in the paper to match each letter.

For example, for the name Lisa, you could find:

L - Lucky strike at park (headline)
I - Illuminations (picture of lights at Blackpool)
S - Sofa (picture in an advertisement)
A - Advert.

Write the name of the object alongside the letter. Turn the activity around. Choose a headline word and use each letter to start new words.


9. Tasty treat

· Choose a recipe and prepare it. Ask the children to help you read the directions.

If you're feeling bold enough, let the children add the ingredients, too! (Watch out for recipes requiring chocolate, of course. There'll either be too much - or it won't reach the bowl at all!)


10. Weather Watch

· Read the weather forecast for tomorrow and decide what clothes would be appropriate.

Compare the local weather with that in different parts of the world. Find other places in an atlas. Keep a notebook to see how accurate the weather forecast is over a period of time (say a week). Make a wall chart for the days of the week. Paste in the forecast - then draw a picture or write a report of how the weather actually was on that day.