1. Healthier Fast Food

Restaurant chains across the nation are adding more nutritious choices and smaller portions to their menus. And restaurant owners are finding that it pays off in dollars and cents, as well as in customer satisfaction. Customers really want healthy options, especially on children’s menus, and have made their needs known. At the same time, restaurants have found smaller portions cost less to produce. In the newspaper, find examples of healthy foods in ads and stories. Draw a comic strip showing a family trying a new healthy food for the first time.

Common Core/National Standard: Using drawings or visual displays when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or points.

2. Eye-Witness Account

Listen as your teacher reads an article about an interesting event in today's newspaper. Then read the article on your own. Find an example of an eye-witness account in the article. An eye-witness account is an explanation of an event from someone who was at that event. Based on what the eye-witness said, write a short explanation of what the person might have been feeling as he or she watched the event.

Common Core/National Standards: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience; describing past events using the information of those who were there, as revealed through their records.

3. New Game Pieces

Monopoly is almost 80 years old, and the board game is still going strong. But it’s open to change. The Hasbro toy company, which makes Monopoly, recently conducted a poll to see what the most popular game pieces are, and whether they should be changed in any way. Fans from more than 120 countries voted on Facebook, and as a result, a cat will be included among the game pieces in new sets — and the iron, after all these years, will not. The other pieces (in case you’ve been on a desert island since 1935) are a race car, a Scottie dog, a shoe, a thimble, a top hat, a wheelbarrow and a battleship. Monopoly has sold more than 275 million units worldwide. It’s based on the streets of Atlantic City, New Jersey, but in other counties, the names are changed to more familiar locations. As a class, talk about board or video games you and your family like to play. With a partner, find a photo of an outdoor place in the newspaper. Brainstorm a game based on this place and share with the class. Give your game a name.

Common Core/National Standards: Engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions.

4. A Cat Bite? Get Help

If you are bitten by a cat, no matter how slight it may seem, don’t shrug it off. Up to half of cat bites in humans get infected, an expert warns, and many may require medical attention. A nip is not a problem, but “if you see a puncture wound and blood coming out of it,” get it looked at right away, advises Georgetown University specialist Princy N. Kumar. Cats have long teeth, which can inject bacteria from the animal’s mouth deep into tissue, causing an infection. As a class, talk about ways people can remain safe around pets and other animals. Then find a photo or story involving an animal in the newspaper. Write a paragraph listing ways to be safe around this animal.

Common Core/National Standards: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience; engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions.

5. Masterpiece in a Hotel

For years and years, nobody paid much attention to the painting on a wall of the Hotel Ritz Paris in the European country of France. It was not until the hotel closed temporarily for renovations and repairs that the painting was noticed by art experts. It turns out it is a work by Charles LeBrun, one of the masters of 17th century French painting, and it soon will be put up for sale by Christie’s auction house. The painting, titled “The Sacrifice of Polyxena,” is expected to sell for up to $700,000. It’s valuable because, it’s an early work by LeBrun, who was named “first painter to the king” by French King Louis XIV and whose paintings are in France’s Louvre Museum and the Great Hall of Mirrors in Versailles Palace. At the hotel the painting hung above a desk in a hotel suite where fashion designer Coco Chanel lived for more than 30 years. People pay great amounts of money for many things. Find one in the ads and stories in the newspaper. Then write a paragraph explaining why people would pay a lot for it. Write a second paragraph describing something you would pay a lot for, if you were wealthy.

Common Core/National Standards: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.