1. Safe to Eat?

Learning Standard: Applying an understanding of cells to the functioning of multi-cellular organisms; explaining how cells grow, develop and reproduce.

Ever heard of the "five-second rule"? For a long time, some people have said if you drop a piece of food on the floor, it's OK to eat it if you pick it up within five seconds. Now University of Illinois science students have checked and found that even in five seconds, food that falls to the ground can pick up lots of germs that can make you sick. As a class, look through the newspaper for articles and tips on how to stay healthy. Talk about the importance of avoiding contact with people and things that carry germs. Write about a time lots of people at school all got the same cold or virus, and how that might have happened.

2. Police Stories

Learning Standard: Writing fluently for multiple purposes.

This week is National Police Week, a time when people take a look at the men and women who work in law enforcement. Find a story in today's newspaper that involves police work. Write a quick 5Ws summary of the story, explaining Who, What, When, Where and Why. Then write a paragraph describing how this police event reflects life in your city or community--or is unusual for your community. Or talk about this as a class.

3. Mummy Discovered

Learning Standard: Organizing social science information to make maps, graphs and tables.

A recently discovered 2,300-year-old mummy with a golden mask was shown for the first time not long ago in Egypt. Experts will use modern technology to try and identify the mummy, which was covered with brilliantly colored images of gods and goddesses. They would like to find out how the mummy lived and died. As a class, look through the newspaper for other articles about scientific discoveries. Talk about what is making news, and whom it will affect. Then check on a world map or globe and locate Egypt. Measure how far it is from your state. Then measure how far it is from England and from China.

4. A Game for All Ages

Learning Standard: Describing language patterns used in spoken, written and visual communication contexts, such as school, neighborhood, sports, children's periodicals and hobbies.

With all the electronic games, it's hard to believe that a board game is still really popular. But Monopoly, which just turned 70 years old, is still played by a lot of kids and grownups. The founder of the Association of Game and Puzzle Collectors says the fun of Monopoly is the chance to avoid all the dangers and get rich. See if you can find other newspaper articles about new and old things people are doing for fun. Draw a cartoon or comic strip showing you doing something that you enjoy a lot.

5. Playing in the Water

Learning Standard: Describing uses of water.

Speaking of fun things to do, in some places water parks are super-cool. Chicago, Illinois, alone has more than 30 water parks, many built by the city's Park District in the last five years. Experts say there are about 1,000 water parks nationwide. Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, the city that started the indoor water-park resort craze, has about 20 hotel water parks. Between 2000 and 2004, the number of hotels with indoor water parks went from 18 to more than 75, says a Hotel Waterpark Resort Research report. Now that it's getting warm, look through the newspaper for articles about water sports and activities. Write a complete sentence about one that you would like to do this summer. Then do these math problems:

If Chicago built 30 water parks in the last five years, what's the average number of water parks the city would have built each year?

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If there were exactly 1,000 water parks in the U.S., what is the average number there would be in each of the 50 states?

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If there are 75 hotels with water parks now, how many were built in the last four years?

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