Social Studies

Hall of Famers
Scan the newspaper for stories about honesty, courage, patriotism or other admirable qualities. Share some of those stories with your class. Ask students which people they would nominate for a Hall of Fame.

Violence in our Society
Adults blame movies, television, videos and local news reports as some of the causes of violence in society. Have your students skim the newspaper to find an example of violence in each one of those categories. Then they can write a sentence explaining how their choices could contribute to violence in society.

Super Heroes
Super heroes are capable of solving many problems. Is there a problem in today's newspaper your students would like to see solved? Have students find a problem in the newspaper and create a super hero capable of solving it. They can then write a news story detailing how that hero solved the problem.

Environmental Solutions
Find a short article or photo caption that covers an environmental problem. Ask students to read the article and explain the problem. Can they think of a solution? Ask students to write to the person or group that has the problem mentioned in the paper. Can they give suggestions on how to solve the problem? They can draw a picture to illustrate the problem and solution.

Bad "Guys"
It may be interesting to have students scan the newspaper for crime stories. Have them categorize the crimes they read about as minor or major crimes. What laws were violated? Then have them suggest a fair punishment for each crime. Is prison the answer or can they devise more creative punishments?

America’s Melting Pot
The United States is a country of great diversity with many different cultures, ethnic groups and religions represented among the people. How much of this diversity is reflected in your newspaper? Have students skim your paper and keep track of different types of people mentioned or pictured. After they have taken the count, have them draw conclusions about the diversity of the newspaper. Does it accurately represent their community, their state, and their nation? Have them do the research and write a paragraph drawing their conclusions and discussing whether they find this issue important.

We Have Issues
Have the students use the newspaper to identify current social, political and economic issues in the world. They can make a list of the issues and rate them on a 1 to 10 scale with one being least important and 10 being most important. Students can make bar graphs to show the results.

Goods and Services
Using advertisements and inserts from the newspaper, have students identify whether the advertisements are for goods or services. Have students find examples of both and circle the goods and underline the services. Ask students to identify which goods and services have the highest demand.