1. STICKER SHOCK

One man got a big surprise when he returned to the United States from a trip to Europe and saw his cell phone bill. He had gone to a local store for the phone company before the trip to tell them about his travel plans, but his phone still wasn’t set up right for international travel and he was charged $143,000 for the data his phone used overseas! He called his phone company who said the charges were not a mistake and he’d have to pay them, so he hired a lawyer and shared his story with local news networks. After the story reached the news, the phone company changed their mind and didn’t make him pay the very large bill. Write a summary of the events in this story in the order they happened.

2. T.V. CHARACTER IN REAL LIFE

Mariska Hargitay is the star of Law and Order: Special Victim’s Unit, where she plays a police captain for the New York Police Department who helps investigate crimes. However, when she was filming an episode in New York City recently, a young girl saw her badge and mistook her for a real police officer. She asked Mariska for help finding her mom, who she’d gotten separated from while playing in a nearby park. The TV star stopped the show’s filming to help reunite the girl with her mom. Would you know what to do if you were separated from a parent or guardian in a public place? Write down what you know to do and not to do in that situation and share what you wrote with your teacher or another trusted adult to see what you might do differently.

3. BREAKING INTO THE OLYMPICS

When the Olympics kick off in Paris this summer, a new sport will make its first appearing in the games: breaking, otherwise known as breakdancing. The style of dance started in the Bronx neighborhood of New York City in the 1970s with the rise of hip-hop music. It involves acrobatic moves like spinning on your head or freezing in crazy, upside-down positions. People who participate in breaking are called B-Boys and B-Girls—two of each will represent the United States in Paris this year. There will be two events, one for men and one for women, and they’ll be scored by judges similar to gymnastics and diving. One of the B-Girls representing the US, Sunny Choi, has shared that people have questioned whether breaking is really a sport, but she says it requires a lot of athletic and artistic skill like gymnastics and figure skating, two Olympic sports that people love to watch. What is your definition of a sport? What makes one activity a sport compared to another? Write down your own definition and share with your classmates to see how your answers might be the same or different.

4. PLASTIC CRABS

Plastic is everywhere on our planet, from the bottom of the ocean to the highest mountain peaks. Pollution from plastic is a big problem for the environment, but one animal has found a way to use plastic to its advantage. Hermit crabs have soft bodies, so they wear large seashells on their backs to help protect them from predators. However, a recent study showed hermit crabs all over the world wearing plastic trash instead of shells. That’s one way to recycle! Draw a comic strip about a hermit crab finding plastic trash to use as its protective armor.

5. HEAT CAN HURT

A new study shows that many more people got sick last year from being in hot temperatures than in the years before. Last year had the hottest summer since people started keeping records of the weather, and states in the South were affected the most. The area of the country that includes Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas had the most heat-related emergency room visits. Heat illnesses can include sunburns, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke, which is when the body can’t cool itself down and the body temperature rises like when you have a fever. Write down creative ways you can think of to stay safely cool in the summer months, like staying inside where there’s air conditioning or staying in the shade when you’re outside.