100 WAYS TO USE THE NEWSPAPER

Language Arts

The language of the newspaper — the very words, ideas, even punctuation — is put under the microscope. Students examine the construction, themes and objectives of the newspaper.

"Write" a cut-and-paste story using words clipped from the headlines of the newspaper.
Select a weather headline that you especially like. Write a poem using the headline as the first line of the poem.
Select an ad from the personals column in the classified ads. Pretend that you know the person who might have placed the ad and write a character sketch of him or her.
List all the different punctuation marks used in a news article. Read the articles aloud and notice the influence of your voice in determining the place of punctuation.
Circle all the singular nouns and pronouns in a news article in red and all plural nouns and pronouns in blue.
Collect pictures from the newspaper that show different facial expressions. Label each picture with descriptive words.
Identify as many sets of antonyms, homonyms and synonyms as you can by scanning your newspaper headlines.
Use the front page of your newspaper and draw a circle around every blend. Make a list of all the blends you find.
Find newspaper examples of paragraphs written in present, past and future tenses. Be aware of paragraphs containing clumsy shifts in tense.
Discuss in a theme, with specific illustrations, the employment situation or the trends in housing as portrayed in the want ads.