Activity extra, School's out 2007

Aquí se habla Español

Give intermediate grade students an opportunity to remember their research skills with this relatively simple activity which allows several possibilities for correct answers and can be completed in one session.

Speed the process by pulling appropriate books to help students identify the Spanish-speaking countries they will investigate. If you want to expand the research into a mini-unit, have them each select one country and report on it.

Observe students as they work and note their strategies to determine their skill level -- a needs assessment without a test to score. After they complete the activity, have them evaluate their strategies. Use both your observation and their appraisal to guide the design of future lessons.

Worksheet

Identify the following:

1. Three Spanish-speaking countries beginning with the letter "C."
2. Three Spanish-speaking countries ending with the letter "A."
3. Three currencies (money) other than the peso used in Spanish-speaking countries. (Name the countries.)
4. Three Spanish-speaking countries with one or more stars on their flags.
5. Three Spanish-speaking countries with oceans or gulfs on two borders.
6. Three countries that have part of the Andes Mountain range within them.

Find three facts about these Central and South American animals

• Parrots
• lamas

Possible answers

1. Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba
2. Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela
3. Balboa (Panama), Colon (El Salvador), Cordoba (Nicaragua), Guarani (Paraguay), Lempira (Honduras), Quetzal (Guatemala), Sol (Peru), Sucre (Ecuador),
4. Chile, Cuba, Honduras, Panama, Venezuela
5. Chile, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama
6. Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Peru

Parrots: Half of the 350 species live in Central and South America; the Monk parrot lives in Argentina and builds community nests where many other monk parrots lay their eggs. Most parrots mate for life.

Llamas: Relative of the camel but doesn't have a hump; spits a bad-smelling saliva when angry or threatened; when it thinks it has worked hard enough it will sit down and refuse to move.

This activity appeared in the September 2000 issue.

Previous issues

Spring 2007: Fueling the world

Massive quantities of energy are required to meet the world's needs. For many years, exploration, conservation and alternate fuels have been important political and environmental issues. The first great oil strike in Texas took place 1n January 1901. Let intermediate and middle students research the topic while having fun with a word game.

Divide students into pairs to locate information on which to base their clues to the words below. When groups are done, bring them together and have them share what they have discovered and written. Let them decide which ones are best and why. For example, a clue for 1 across that says "Windmills are used to harness this form of energy" might work for intermediate students, but upper grades shouldn't use that word within the clue. They might refer to "an airborne current that can be used as an energy source."

Middle school students can take this activity one step further. They should be prepared to discuss the problems associated with fossil fuels and what energy source they think will be best for the planet.

1. Wind
2. Nuclear
3. Diesel
4. Fossil fuels
5. Petroleum
6. Gasoline
7. Solar
8. Water
9. Coal
10. Natural gas

This activity appeared in the January 2001 issue

Winter 2007: Where did it happen?

Celebrate Black History Month with "biographical geography" as intermediate and middle school students explore the lives of the men and women who fought first for freedom, then for equality. After they have located the places where significant events occurred, have these marked on a map. Have them use a different color for each person since some places are important in more than one life.

You can vary the activity by giving events and having students identify the sites where they occurred and describe what happened. Some possibilities are the "I Have a Dream" speech, Amistad, Scottsboro Boys, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Dred Scott, Freedom Riders, etc.

Directions:

• List locations in the lives of these famous African-Americans.
• Locate these places on a map of the United States.

1. Frederick Douglass
2. W.E.B. DuBois
3. Martin Luther King, Jr.
4. Harriet Tubman
5. Madame C.J. Walker
6. Booker T. Washington

Possible answers

Frederick Douglass: Tuckahoe, MD -- birthplace; Baltimore MD -- sent there; New Bedford, MA -- went with master; Rochester, NY -- led attack on segregated schools there.
W.E.B. DuBois: Great Barrington MA -- birthplace; Nashville, TN -- graduated from Fisk University; Cambridge MA -- PhD from Harvard; Niagara Falls, NY -- started the Niagara Movement.
Martin Luther King, Jr: Atlanta, GA -- birthplace; Chester, PA -- graduated from Crozier Theological Seminary; Boston, MA -- PhD from Boston University; Montgomery, AL -- bus boycott; Washington, DC -- March on Washington; Chicago, IL -- big Civil Rights campaign; Memphis, TN -- assassinated.
Harriet Tubman: Bucktown, MD -- birthplace; Philadelphia, PA -- reached there via the Underground Railroad; South Carolina --- served as nurse, spy, and scout in the Union Army; Auburn, NY -- established home for elderly and needy African-Americans.
Madame C.J. Walker: (near) Delta, LA -- birthplace; St. Louis MO -- developed products while working as a washerwoman there; Denver, CO -- moved there; Indianapolis IN -- set up factory to make her products.
Booker T. Washington: (near) Roanoke, VA -- birthplace; Malden, WV -- family moved there after being freed; Hampton, VA -- attended training school for African-Americans; Tuskegee, AL -- founded Tuskegee Institute; Atlanta, GA -- made Atlanta Compromise speech.


This activity first appeared in February 2001

New Year 2007: It's a start

Defining a list of unrelated words serves little purpose. This three-part activity of terms which all relate to a start helps students in grades four though six appreciate the subtleties of language and understand how words can be the same and different. Divide classes into groups to complete parts 2 and 3 which require far more critical thinking than the traditional dictionary skills. Note that it is not always easy to determine what follows these starts.

The following words all mean some sort of beginning. After matching them with their closest definition, explain what follows this start and then identify any words having other meanings in addition to "beginning."

1. Birth
2. Boot
3. Debut
4. Entry
5. Foundation
6. Frontispiece
7. Genesis
8. Head
9. Inaugural
10. Initial
11. Introduction
12. Origin
13. Pioneer
14. Prime
15. Root

Definitions

• a. picture facing the title page of a book
• b. bottom of a tree or flower
• c. first in rank or importance
• d. first public appearance
• e. top part of anything
• f. source or starting point
• g. opening of a speech or book or musical piece
• h. place to come in
• i. person doing something first
• j. a coming into being
• k. start a computer
• l. first letter of a name
• m. being born
• n. base
• o. speech by a person formally assuming office

Answers

1. m
2. k
3. d
4. j
5. n
6. a
7. j
8. e
9. o
10. l
11. g
12. f
13. i
14. c
15. b

2. What follows these STARTS (individual answers vary)

1. Birth -- life
2. Boot -- computer programs
3. Debut -- career in the public eye
4. Entry -- the rest of the room or whatever place is entered
5. Foundation -- house or whatever is built on the base
6. Frontispiece -- book
7. Genesis -- growth of what came into being
8. Head -- the body below it
9. Inaugural -- term of office
10. 10. Initial -- remaining letters
11. 11. Introduction -- remainder of the speech, book or musical piece (or conversation with a person who was introduced)
12. Origin -- what develops from the source such as a river
13. Pioneer -- those who follow in the footsteps
14. Prime -- others of lesser rank
15. Root -- growing tree or plant

Other meanings (further distinctions can be made if nouns are used as verbs)

• Boot -- foot covering
• Entry -- item written or printed in a book or list
• Head -- striking or cutting part of a tool
• Prime -- number with no factors

This activity first appeared in the January 1996 issue

Fall 2006:Words of mystery

While writing is often regarded as an individual activity, it can be more fun when done in small groups. With Halloween approaching and elementary students looking forward to the spooky season, you will find them very ready to create tales of mystery and suspense. But they will need tools to make them successful.

First students must be able to recognize what makes a good mystery. Read them a short one from one of a "series" on your shelves and discuss the plot elements, posting their answers on chart paper or newsprint.

Next, they need a vocabulary to create the mood they want. Suggest a few words such as "sleuth," "clandestine," "evidence," "deduce," "criminal," and "secluded," and encourage students to add words that they find in a dictionary or thesaurus. List those terms on another sheet of paper.

Although some may have plot ideas of their own, groups may need some suggestions. Use pictures or phrases to start them off. Some possibilities are: keys on the front steps, the ringing of a telephone, crushed flowers by an open window.

After groups have completed their stories, they may add illustrations, being careful not to tell too much in the pictures. Tales can be bound individually or in a class volume. Plan a day for reading and sharing. If appropriate, you can schedule the event on or near Halloween. Turn off the lights and place upturned flashlights near the readers to cast an eerie glow on the scene.


This article appeared in the October 1996 issue

School begins 2006: School days

As students return to school, they can explore the education of famous people, learning about changes in schooling while using their research skills. As they look through both general and biographical encyclopedias, they will need to quickly focus on the specific sections providing the answers as well as make inferences from the information presented to reply to questions in Section B.

A. Who are these people and what was unusual or special about their schooling?

• 1. Helen Keller
• 2. Alexander the Great
• 3. Phyllis Wheatley
• 4. Prince Charles of Great Britain
• 5. Andrew Johnson

B. Who are these people and what kind of students were they?

• 6. Winston Churchill
• 7. Robert E. Lee
• 8. Thomas Edison
• 9. George Armstrong Custer

C. What did these people do to help students?

• 10. William Holmes McGuffey
• 11. Frederich W. A. Froebel (or Frobel)
• 12. Noah Webster
• 13. Booker T. Washington

D. Find two other famous educators. Name them and tell what they did for students.

• 14.
• 15.

Answers

1. Blind and deaf as a result of a childhood illness, she became a writer and lecturer. When she was 8, Anne Sullivan became her teacher and she learned to communicate.
2. He conquered the world from Greece to India, spreading Greek culture. He was taught by Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher.
3. Although a slave, she became an important poet whose works were published in London in 1773. Her owners taught her to read and write.
4. Heir to the British throne, he is the first to be educated outside the palace.
5. The 17th U.S President, his wife taught him to write and do simple math.
6. Prime minister of Great Britain during WWII, he was lowest in his class at Harrow and twice failed the entrance exam for Sandhurst, the Royal Military College but graduated 8th in his class.
7. Outstanding Confederate Army general, he graduated West Point with honors.
8. He held patents for over 1,000 inventions but his teachers thought him stupid because he asked so many questions, and his mother taught him at home.
9. An Army officer fighting in the West, he along with all his troops was killed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. He was last in his class at West Point.
10. He wrote and published the Eclectic Reader series to teach students in grades 1-6 how to read. The books which also taught moral and civic values were extremely influential in the 19th century.
11. A famous German educator, he developed the idea for kindergarten.
12. The American educator who compiled Webster?s Dictionary, his elementary spelling books set the standard for spelling and pronunciation.
13. A black leader and educator, he founded the Tuskegee Institute which was a model for vocational education schools.

14 and 15 will vary widely. Show students cross reference articles to biographies at the end of encyclopedia entries (online or print) on education.


This activity appeared in the December 1996 issue.