Short activities to do using a newspaper

I love the idea of using Current Events in the classroom. I really love the "What in the World" series that some schools subscribe to. But, when you don't have access to that, this is a great way to use newspapers for numerous activities.... This website had some great ideas...

Icebreaker:
Before class begins, select an interesting or timely newspaper story or editorial.

•	Make copies of the article and place one on each student's desk.
•	As students arrive, have them read the article.
•	After a few minutes, open a class discussion about the article. Encourage lively conversation, allowing students to interject their own ideas and opinions.
•	After a brief debate, ask students if they read the newspaper each day.
•	Remind students that the newspaper can be an exciting and thought-provoking source of information. Tell them that they can also use the newspaper to practice and review grammar skills, as they will be doing today.

Stress Reliever:
If the class energy level rises too high, give your students an opportunity to relax and read a newspaper for pleasure.

•	Encourage them to select articles or features they find interesting.
•	They can look at advertisements, read advice columns, study editorials, solve puzzles, or skim the day's news.
•	After reading, students can share with the class what they have read.
•	Encourage them to tell why they selected the sections they did and what they learned.

Transition:
If you have a few free minutes, you can challenge students to newspaper grammar searches, such as the following:

•	Copy a sentence and highlight its subject and predicate.
•	Find a sentence in the past perfect tense.
•	Find a sentence that has a subordinate clause. Find the subordinate conjunction.
•	Find a fact and an opinion in one article.

Grammar Hunt:
Materials: newspapers, What's In the News? Activities
Give pairs of students a newspaper or a section of a newspaper.

•	Tell students they will be using the newspaper for a grammar scavenger hunt.
•	Pass out the What's In the News? Activities and read the rules.
•	Review the grammatical elements in the chart and provide examples. You may wish to have students use their grammar textbooks as references.
•	Have pairs search for about 20 minutes. Be sure to assist students when necessary.
•	At the end of the hunt, have pairs total their points. If possible, provide a small reward for the winners.
•	Encourage students to share the examples of each grammatical element they found.
•	You may wish to provide additional rewards for teams that found especially difficult or unique examples.

The Proofers:
Materials: newspapers, highlighting pens
Tell students that the newspaper is carefully proofread before it is printed. Explain, however, that even the best proofreaders occasionally make mistakes.

•	Give each student one or more articles, preferably ones that have grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors.
•	Instruct students to proofread their articles, asking questions such as: – Do all sentences have a subject and a verb? – Do all subjects and verbs agree? – Are possessives used correctly? – Is there an antecedent for every pronoun? – Are there any unnecessary or confusing shifts in tense? – Are all words spelled correctly? – Are all sentences punctuated properly?
•	Have students gather in groups to decide how to correct the mistakes.

Diagramming:
Materials: newspapers
If your students need practice diagramming sentences, direct their attention to the front page of a newspaper.

•	Select the lead sentence in one of the stories.
•	Write the sentence on the board, and model diagramming as appropriate.
•	Have students gather in pairs and select their own sentences from the newspaper to diagram.
•	If necessary, use appropriate pages in a grammar textbook to review diagramming.
•	Walk around the class, guiding and prompting students as needed.

Mixed-Up Articles:
Materials: newspapers
Invite students to play Mixed-Up Articles, a variation of the popular fill-in-the-part-of-speech game.

•	Ask each student to copy the first two paragraphs of a newspaper article on a sheet of lined paper. Be sure they are using pencils.
•	Have students erase a word from each sentence and draw a write-on line in its place. Then have them write the part of speech of the erased word below the write-on line. Encourage students to erase words that represent a variety of parts of speech.
•	Ask students to work in pairs. The first student should read the missing parts of speech and ask the other student to provide words.
•	Once the words are inserted, the first student should read it aloud. Students can then switch places.
•	Encourage students to share their funniest mixed-up articles with the class.

There are many more great ideas, Read more on TeacherVision: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/current-events/curriculum-planning/6215.html#ixzz1wKG3V7LQ