1. Christmas

Christmas is coming up this weekend, and it's time for a vacation from school. As a class, read a newspaper article about the plans of a family or another group for a holiday vacation. Then write a few sentences about your plans for the holiday break. Compare your plans with those of classmates. Then use stories, photos or travel ads in the newspaper to find a place you would like to visit. Write why you would like to go there.

Learning Standard: Demonstrating the ability to write clear and grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs and compositions.

2. Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa, which begins each year on December 26, is a holiday that was started in 1966 as a way for African Americans to celebrate their heritage with family and friends. It is full of ceremony and symbolism. Pretend that President Obama has put you in charge of creating a new holiday. He wants you to create a holiday that will bring Americans together. In teams or pairs, use the newspaper as a resource to answer the following questions. What will be the official name of your holiday? What will it celebrate? What ceremonies will happen on this day? What special foods will people eat on this day? What special ideas will it remind us of?

Learning Standard: Responding to the ideas and feelings generated by oral, visual, written and electronic texts, and sharing with peers.

3. Budgets and Gifts

Part of being a responsible person is handling money well. Imagine that you wanted to give holiday gifts to six people whom you like very much. Your total budget is $100 and you can't go over that amount for all your gifts. Use ads in the newspaper to find gifts that fit in your budget. List them in the chart below.

Learning Standard: Describing and demonstrating how the economic forces of scarcity and choice affect the management of personal financial resources and shape consumer decisions regarding the purchase, use and disposal of goods and services; using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to solve problems.

Gift: ______________Cost: ______________

Gift: ______________Cost: ______________

Gift: ______________Cost: ______________

Gift: ______________Cost: ______________

Gift: ______________Cost: ______________

Total Cost__________

4. Prize-Winning Women

Nobel Prizes are some of the highest honors people can get. Each year the prizes are given for outstanding achievement in literature, the financial field of economics, the scientific fields of medicine, physics and chemistry, and for work toward peace. This year five women were among the 13 people sharing the prizes. That was the most women ever honored by the Nobel Prize Committee in one year. As a class, talk about different fields in which women are leaders or stars. Then pair off and use the newspaper to find a woman who is achieving success. Draw a picture of this successful woman at work, and write a short paragraph explaining why she is successful.

Learning Standards: Developing and applying critical standards for individual use; identifying and explaining how people demonstrate good character and personal virtue; acquiring information from multiple sources; writing fluently for multiple purposes; using the craft of the illustrator to express ideas artistically.

5. T. rex

Dinosaur fossils are one of the great attractions at science museums, and this month a museum in the state of Oregon will putting a big one on display. A Tyrannosaurus rex fossil named Samson will go on display at the Oregon Museum of Science, giving the public a chance to see one of the three most complete skeletons of a T. rex in the world. The 66-million-year old fossil contains nearly 60 percent of its bones and has an extremely well preserved skull. It was found in the state of South Dakota in 1987 and is nearly 40 feet long. As a class, talk about what fossils can teach scientists and students about the past. Then draw a comic strip for the newspaper showing a dinosaur you would like to discover if you went searching for fossils.

Learning Standards: Engaging peers in constructive conversation about topics of interest or importance; explaining how fossils provide evidence about the nature of ancient life; showing how science concepts can be interpreted through creative expression such as language arts and fine arts.