ELEMENTARY (Grades 2-5)

Earth Day
April 22nd is Earth Day. Read the newspaper for stories about how Earth Day is being celebrated. Choose one story about an Earth Day activity and create a poster that tells people about it.

Math Education Month
Your newspaper is filled with numbers. Have a number scavenger hunt. See how quickly you can find the following in your newspaper: 1) somebody's age; 2) the high temperature for the day; 3) the low temperature for the day; 4) your newspaper's phone number; 5) an amount of money; 6) the final score of a baseball game; 7) the number of people attending an event; 8) the highest price for a used car in the classifieds.

Arbor Day
April 25th is Arbor Day -- a day to celebrate trees. Look for ads in your newspaper for garden centers that sell trees. Make a list of all the different kinds of trees that are advertised. Which ones would you most like to have near your home?

Making new sentences
Cut out the headlines from the first three pages of the newspaper. Cut the words of the headlines apart. How many new sentences can you make with the words? Now try to make a whole paragraph that makes sense.

INTERMEDIATE (Grades 6-8)

10 things to protect the Earth
April 22nd is Earth Day. Look for stories in your newspaper about the environment and things people are doing to protect it. From your newspaper reading, make a list of ten things people can do to protect the Earth. Create an attractive poster featuring this list.

Spring fruit salad
At this time of the year, there are more different kinds of fruits in the stores. Look through your newspaper's grocery ads for different fruits. How many different ones did you find? Which ones have you never tried? Create a fruit salad recipe using at least eight different fruits, including three that you've never tried before.

Movie ratings
On April 23, 1896 the first movie was shown to an audience in a theater in the U.S. Look in your newspaper's movie guide. How many different movies are advertised? Sort them by their rating. How many are R-rated, PG-rated, G-rated, and so on? Which category has the most movies? Why do you think this is so?

Olympic protest?
There is a lot of discussion about whether or not President Bush should attend the opening ceremony at the Olympics. Some say he should boycott the opening ceremony to protest China's human rights violations and to show support for Tibet. Others, including the president, say this is not the way to encourage China to make changes. As a class, collect news stories on this issue. Then hold a class discussion presenting arguments on both sides.

ADVANCED (Grades 9-12)

Election puzzle
The first crossword puzzle book was published in America this month in 1924. Circle all the words and names in your newspaper that have something to do with this year's presidential election. Use these to put together a crossword puzzle with an election theme. See how hard it is for your friends and family to complete.

Seriously, comics
Not all the comics in the newspaper are funny. Find one comic strip that has a dramatic story line. Clip out two weeks' of this strip. Using these, rewrite what happened in that two-week period as a short story with dialogue.

Earth Day
April 22nd is Earth Day. Look for stories in the newspaper about the issues that the candidates are talking about. Do environmental issues come up very often? If not, why do you think this is so? Which candidate do you think has the strongest position on the environment? As an Earth Day project, write a letter to the editor discussing your feelings about an environmental issue and why you think it should get more attention on the campaign trail.

Movies
The first movie theater opened in the U.S. on April 23, 1896. Today, going to the movies is one of our favorite recreational activities. Look through the movie guide in today's newspaper. Sort them according to genre: drama, adventure, comedy, romance, children's, science fiction, horror, or other. What type of movie seems to be most popular? Who is the primary target audience? Why do you think this is so?