The newspaper is a great source for fill-in activities. There will be times you are in a classroom when the teacher was unable to leave a lesson plan. By having a few newspapers with you, you will be able to fill the time no matter what grade you are teaching.
For Example:
In a kindergarten class, students can circle letters of the alphabet to learn upper and lower case concepts.
In first grade, students could circle words they recognize or discuss the emotions depicted in pictures.
Students at various grade levels can:
- Create a shopping list from ads and use math skills to create a total cost.
- Forecast weather and discuss climate.
- Work out statistics for sporting events.
- Write a classified ad or cartoon to expand writing skills to different audiences.
- Create a budget using data from job opportunities, apartment rental, and food advertisement sections.
- Review newspaper articles to see how many spelling and grammar errors students can find.
- Write a letter to the editor on a subject of their choice.
What are some other simple activity ideas do you know of? Leave your ideas as a comment below.