When I first started teaching I went to a seminar at a regional newspaper plant and from that first year I was offered free newspapers for my classroom everyday of the school year. Not only that but they offered ideas, activities, journalism seminars, and tours of the plant for the kids. Connecting with the local newspaper was an invaluable means to access information and resources for the classroom.
In this series I'll preview activities that one can use in the classroom with the daily newspapers. It's amazing how one single paper can provide lesson ideas for math, science, social studies, reading, and writing. One can
build an entire curriculum around the newspaper and one year I did when I taught math using the newspaper all year instead of the textbook. Of course, this was when I was more of a traditional teacher and I look back and I wouldn't use the newspapers in this way again, but the possibility is there.
So, let's look at the daily weather section today. In this particular newspaper I was able to get the temperatures for various cities around the United States and the World. I photocopied this section for the overhead and presented it to the class. We examined temperature differences throughout the state of New York, in this example, and made a bar graph of the temperatures in ten different cities in New York. We used this information as the springboard for discussing why the temperatures were different in various parts of New York. The graphs make for a nice display piece and there are numerous benefits from this singular activity. It facilitates a lesson on climate, and how climate varies from place to place. It also provides an opportunity to learn about various cities and their locations within a given state.
This lesson can be useful in Science when discussing weather patterns, in Social Studies when discussing climate or when learning about a specific area or in Math because it is dealing with graphing. On top of it, the information is relevant and meaningful. Therefore the activity will be motivational for the kids.