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Grades 2-5
Adopt a Shelter Dog
October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month. Look in the classified section of The Denver Post eEdition for ads about animals that need homes. From the descriptions, draw a picture of what one of these animals might look like and make the picture part of a poster telling people to adopt a shelter animal.
Hunger Awareness Month
October is Hunger Awareness
Month. Do research about places that feed hungry people in your
community. Call one of these places and find out what they need
most. Have your class bring these items to class in on a special
day. Deliver them to the agency that you chose.
Honoring older people
October 1 is the UN International Day of Older Persons. Look for a story about a person 65 years or older who is making news. Pretend you are reporter who is going to interview that person. Write down five questions you would want to ask that person.
Outline yourself
Draw an outline of yourself on a piece of paper. Find words throughout The Denver Post that describe you. Write each word on the outline. Have your friends do the same. Then mix them up and see if people can guess who the pictures are describing.
Baseball picks
The baseball season is coming to a head. Look in The Denver Post sports section to find out which teams are heading for the playoffs. Write down your predictions for which teams will end up in the World Series. Then predict who will win the World Series. Have your friends do the same and see who turns out to be right.
Become an explorer
October 9 is Columbus Day. Pretend you are an explorer. Look at the Travel section in several issues of The Sunday Denver Post to locate interesting places around the world. Based on your reading, what three places in the world would you most like to explore?
Grouches in the comics
October 15th is National
Grouch Day. It is the day to honor a grouch. Look in the comics
section of your newspaper. How many grouches can you find in
the comics? Choose your favorite grouch from the comics and
write a paragraph explaining what makes him or her funny.
Webster's dictionary
Noah Webster was born on October 16, 1758. He wrote one of the first American dictionaries. Look at the front page of The Denver Post. Find five words you don't know and write them on a sheet of paper. Then look up each word and write its definition. Try using each of your new words during the week as you talk with family and friends
Hunt for the states
The United States bought Alaska from Russia on October 18, 1867. Look for stories in The Denver Post about Alaska or other states. How many of the 50 states are in the news today? Make a list of all you find. Then search other issues of the eEdition. Make a list of all the 50 state and check off each one as you find a story about it.
Light it up
On October 21, 1879, Thomas Edison invented the modern light bulb. Check your newspaper for examples of things we could not do without having electric light at night. How many examples did you find?
World Series
Who is playing in the World Series this year? Look for news stories and news photos about these baseball teams and the World Series. Which team do you want to win? Make a poster for this team using headlines and pictures you print from the eEdition.
Halloween
Many people will be celebrating Halloween at the end of October. Look in your newspaper to find out about Halloween or Harvest or Fall Festival events in your community. Pick one of these events and make a poster advertising it.
Grades 6-8
Vegetarian Awareness Month
October is Vegetarian Awareness Month. Each year in the U.S. about one million more people become vegetarians. Collect a week's worth of recipes from The Denver Post including vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. Convert all the recipes that have meat in them to being meatless by replacing the meat with vegetable ingredients. Create a vegetarian cookbook with your recipes.
Healthy teeth
October is National Dental Hygiene Month. Look through The Denver Post for ads for products that have to do with taking good care of your teeth. Create a poster that gives people advice on how to keep their teeth and gums healthy. Make your own drawings based on the pictures in the ads to help decorate your poster.
Preventing crime
October is National Crime Prevention Month. Look through the Denver & The West section of The Denver Post for articles about crimes that were committed in Colorado. What kinds of crimes are most common? Create a crime prevention poster that brings attention to one factor that may contribute to crime, like drugs or poverty.
Meeting Columbus
October 9 is Columbus Day. Imagine you have just traveled back in time to the year1492, and you have just been introduced to Columbus. You show him a copy of today's newspaper to convince him that you are a time traveler. What stories in the newspaper do you think he would have the most trouble believing? As a class group, discuss your ideas.
And the prize goes to
Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan woman known for her environmental work that resulted in the planting of 10 million trees in Africa, won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. She was the first environmentalist to win this prize. Look through your newspaper and make a list of ten candidates you think could be considered for the Nobel Prize. Be sure to include people who are fighting to save the environment. The prize is usually announced the second Friday in October. Do a search in The Denver Post eEdition for the name and backgroundof the person who won this year.
Statistics in the news
The newspaper contains many important statistics. See how many of these statistics you can find in today's newspaper:
1) Yesterday's high temperature in your area
2) Yesterday's high temperature in the country
3) The Dow Jones average
4) The time of tomorrow's sunrise
5) The win/loss record of the top team in each division of the National and American Leagues.
First Lady with a mission
Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin Roosevelt, was born on October 11, 1884. She was beloved both at home and throughout the world for taking an active role in making the world a better place. Look for news stories about women in your area who are active in politics or in your community or about the Michelle Obama, wife of President Obama. As a class, discuss what these women are doing to make our state or country a better place to live.
Nobel material
On October 14, 1964, 35-year old Martin Luther King became the youngest person ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Search the eEdition for stories about other people under the age of 40 who are doing great things to further the causes of peace and human rights. Do any of these people deserve to win a Nobel Peace Prize? Why or why not?
World Hunger Day
The U.N. has set aside
October 16th as World Food Day, a day to bring awareness to
the problem of hunger in the world. Look for news stories about
hunger in other nations or about U.S. aid to help other nations
where hunger is a problem. Based on those articles, conduct
a group discussion or debate on the topic: Is the U.S. doing
enough to help hungry people abroad? What might be the best
way for the U.S. to aid famine-stricken nations?
Man of words
October 16 is the 251th anniversary of the birth of Noah Webster. Noah Webster was the author of one of the first American dictionaries. Look through The Denver Post and try to find ten words that would not have existed in Webster's day. Look up the meanings of any words that are unfamiliar to you.
Economical words
October 16th is Dictionary Day. Look for words in your newspaper that relate to the economy. Be sure to include such terms as production, profit, dividend, and so on. Use your dictionary to define these words and start your own glossary of economic words and terms.
Globally speaking
On October 21, 1915, AT&T made the first trans-Atlantic transmission of speech, from Arlington, Virginia to Paris, France. Look at the articles and advertisements in The Denver Post and list all the different ways to communicate across long distances that you can find.
Grades 9-12
A new fiscal year for the
U.S.
October 1 begins a
new fiscal year for the federal government. Read news stories
on the start of the new fiscal year and the nation's budget
problems. Look for stories about federally funded programs in
your area. Which ones do you think are most important? Which
are least important? If government funding were cut, which programs
would you choose to cut first?
First Monday in October
The first Monday in October is when the Supreme Court begins its fall session each year. Look through your newspaper for stories that involve interesting legal and constitutional issues. Choose one that you think would be a good case for the Supreme Court to hear. What arguments would you use to convince the Supreme Court to put this case on its docket?
Hybrid economy
We know hybrid cars are good for the environment. Are they good for your wallet too? Look up the current prices in your newspaper's car ads of hybrid sedans vs. a non-hybrid from the same maker. How much more would you have to pay for a hybrid? Now compare the gas mileage of each. Based on the current price of gas and assuming you would drive 15,000 miles in a year, how much money would you save each year on gas if you owned a hybrid car? How long would it take you to make up the extra money you paid for the hybrid?
Let's Fly
Oct. 10 marks the 50th anniversary of Pan American World Airlines announcing the first global airline service. Many airlines are in financial trouble today. Find several stories in the eEdition about one or more of the airlines. What do you think will happen to airlines in the future?
Columbus has landed in the wrong place
On October 12, 1492, Columbus thought he had found a trade route to East Asia, but he was a long way off. He had actually landed in the Bahamas, in the West Indies. Imagine you are a news reporter on the scene. Write an article about Columbus's landing using the 5 W's of newspaper reporting.
Create a caricature
October 13th is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great editorial cartoonist, Herblock. Herblock worked for "The Washington Post" for more than 60 years. His drawings of Richard Nixon are his most memorable. Look at photos of major political figures in today's newspaper. Create a caricature of one of them by exaggerating their most prominent features.
Remembering Dr. King
On October 14, 1964, 35-year-old Martin Luther King became the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Look for stories in The Denver Post about people you think exemplify the beliefs and values of Dr. King. Would you nominate any of these people for a Nobel Peace Prize? Why or why not?
Real life drama
Drama is a part of
daily living. The newspaper is full of stories that express
humor, sadness, excitement, and other examples in which drama
can be recognized. Find a newspaper story that you think has
a particularly dramatic story behind it. Write a one-act play
based on the news story.
Stocks plummet
On October 19, 1987,
the Dow-Jones Industrial Average dropped 508 points, or 22.6
percent, the largest single drop in history. Graph the Dow-Jones
Average for a two-week period. Note the highest spikes and the
deepest drops. What happened in the news that day to affect
the stock market one way or another?
Fight poverty
The U.N. International Day for the Eradication of Poverty will be celebrated on Monday, October 19, 2009. Many people are struggling due to the economy and many have lost their jobs. Look for news reports about these issues. Create a proposal that outlines some possible actions and plans that people in your area could take to eliminate poverty.
Mass transit
On October 27, 1904, the first section of New York City's subway opened up. Today it is the biggest subway system in the world. Search in the eEdition for stories and editorials about the RTD bus and light rail system in the metro area. Based on what you read, write a letter to the editor suggesting ways in which mass transportation in the metro area could be improved.
Black Tuesday
Following weeks of falling stock prices, the stock market entered a free fall on October 29, 1929, leading to the Great Depression. The day came to be called "Black Tuesday" because so many investors lost money. Choose three companies from the Business section of The Denver Post. Are their stock prices rising or falling. What is the general economic outlook right now? Is the Dow Jones Index rising or falling?
Adding to Mt. Rushmore?
The Mt. Rushmore sculptures were completed on October 31, 1941. Imagine you are asked by a special committee to pick one figure from today's news to add to the current lineup (not necessarily the president). Who do you think most deserves such an honor? Write up your decision in a letter that states the reason for your choice to this imaginary committee.
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