100 WAYS TO USE THE NEWSPAPER

Social Studies

Through the use of the newspaper, students explore their place in the world, from their community to their city to their country, and beyond.

Take a sheet of paper. Label one side of the paper city and the other side country. Look through the newspaper and find things that happen in the city and things that happen in the country. Place them under the correct headings on your paper.
Place news items or pictures about each state on a large outline map of the United States. See how many states you can find in the news in two weeks.
Chart community crimes for one week using reports and articles in the newspaper. Chart the type of crime, age of the criminal, location, etc.
Travel by means of the newspaper. Clip pictures of a country. Find articles about the country. Then write a story about the things you might do and see if you visited the country.
Write an editorial on a topic of controversy for the period of history you are studying. Study some of the editorials in today's paper before doing this activity.
Clip and trace a political cartoon from the newspaper. Write a new caption for the cartoon.
Research good and bad relationships between the United States and other countries. Try to categorize the reason these relationships may exist.
Using the newspaper, give some names and titles of international and political leaders. Describe their roles, as you understand them from articles you have read.
Find and read newspaper articles concerning pollution, overpopulation or major social problems. Make a list of the various items or the social problem you have selected. List some reasons that these articles are carried in the newspaper. Prepare a poster or write an essay telling how you would deal with solving this social problem.
From the library files compare newspapers from World War I and World War II. How do these differ from newspapers today? Evaluate the content with regard to the first amendment to the Constitution.