Your GREEN PAGES 45 Skill-Building Activities You Can Use Right Now!

Teaching Pre K-8, May 2004 by Swartz, Elizabeth

Knowing Your Audience

41 LANGUAGE ARTS Have students take notes on five different advertisements that play during the TV shows they normally watch. The students' notes should include the name and type of product, the intended audience and the purpose of the advertisement. What aspects of the advertisements were included specifically to reach a particular audience? Compare and contrast the advertisements. If the students were going to rewrite the advertisement for an older audience, what would they change, and why? What would students change in order to direct the advertisement to a younger audience? Why would they change those things?

Holey Work

42 ART/MATH/VOCABULARY On a 9'' × 12'' piece of oaktag (or half of an old manila folder), staple a same-sized piece of fabric (or just paint the oaktag). Then take a 9'' × 12'' piece of construction paper and cut geometric shapes or bubble-lettered vocabulary words out of it. Keep the edges of the paper intact. Attach the holey sheet of construction paper on top of the decorative background sheet and post it on an educational bulletin board.

History Comes to Life

43 READING/HISTORY Share some of Ann Rinaldi's excellent historical novels in a literature circle. Her latest book, Sarah's Ground (Simon & Schuster, 2004), is about an independent young woman who was hired to refurbish Mount Vernon (the family home of George Washington) in 1861. Discuss the ways in which a family's expectations can influence a child's dream. Can change be good for families? Are there any students who have relatives who went beyond their family's expectations to try a new career? What are the dreams and goals of your students?

LUCKY SUBSCRIBER

Donna A. Palmberg

Fremont, CA

An Artist's Eye

44 MATH/GEOMETRY Send your students out into town with disposable cameras to do an architectural field trip, seeking as many different geometric shapes as possible. Put the resulting pictures on a bulletin board or in a computer slide presentation. Which shapes are represented most often? Are any particular shapes used in repetitive placement? Are the tops of buildings where you find circles? Why? What is the significance of using different shapes? Do we need buildings of different shapes? Why not just have the buildings all look the same?

Physically Fit

45 HEALTH Meet with your physical education teachers to help plan activities for National Running and Fitness Week, May 16-22. Go to www.american running.org for additional fitness ideas for your students. Encourage each student and faculty member to establish a program of personal physical fitness this spring, regardless of whether it includes running. Make schedules and charts and organize buddy systems so you can help one another get started on the road to better health.