Your Green Pages October 2003

For a printable version of Your Green Pages click here. PDF 279KB

Primary Grades
1. Packing Categories Math Pack a suitcase, beach tote, purse, briefcase, lunch box, grocery bag, etc., with several items it would normally carry, and one item that does not belong, such as eggs in the suitcase. Invite students to unpack the container, naming each item and picking out which one does not belong.
2. Fading Brightness
   Science You'll need red, orange and black construction paper for this activity. Cut the piece of black paper in half and attach one half to the red and one to the orange piece of paper, so that the black paper covers half of each of the other pieces of paper. Place the papers in direct sunlight. After several hours, have the students check the papers. Where did the color go? Can you get the color back? What does this tell us about sunlight?
3. Follow My Pointer
   Reading Bring in some old curtain rods or broom handles. Invite students to decorate the rod with pompons, pipe cleaners and streamers. Use the special pointer to lead class reading.
4. Alligator Clip
   Art/Science Step 1: Paint a wooden spring-type clothespin green and let it dry.
   

   Step 2: Glue a wooden ice cream spoon to one side of the clothespin. Glue on two wiggle eyes near the handle. Glue on two green beads near the end for the nostrils.

   

   Step 3: Use a black marker to draw lines for the ridges on the face and body.

   

   Step 4: Make a habitat box for the clothespin alligator.


5. Farm Animals Worldwide
   Social Studies On October 2, we celebrate farm animals all around the world. Check with your librarian for books and videos about various farm animals, then go to www.farmusa.org Discuss the importance of farm animals in different parts of the world and what types of animals live in different areas. Collect pictures online and from magazines. Make a class booklet of worldwide farm animals.
6. Twist That Tongue
   Writing Give each student a picture of one animal. Have each of them write an alliterative tongue-twister about his or her animal, such as: lazy long-legged lions leap lightly. Have students write their tongue-twister at the top of a piece of construction paper, then ask them to illustrate their tongue-twister. Their illustrations can incorporate the original picture.
7. Living Clocks
   Math Read the following poem to the children, then have them stand straight and tall like clocks as you call out various times. Help the children to position their arms to depict the time you have called out.


I'm A Clock

by Martin Shaw

It's fun to play that I'm a clock,
And move my arms that way,
It's fun to play that I'm a clock,
To learn the times of day,

Straight up, straight down, arms side to side,
Then 'round and 'round they go,
And not before too very long,
It's telling time I'll know.

8. Read it, Then Do it
   Read Enjoy the following poem with your students, then give each of them some soft dough and have them manipulate it according to what the poem says as you reread it. Find other poems that describe doing things, or write some with your students. Then act out the activities described in the poems as you read them aloud.


Playing With Dough

by Heidi Roemer

I roll it.
I fold it.
I give it a pinch.

I mash it.
I catch it.
I stretch it an inch.

That's how my play-dough
often gets treated.
But mostly my play-dough
likes to be kneaded.


9. Floating Paper Clips
   Science Get two paper clips. Bend one so that half of it is at a right angle to the other half. Now hold the vertical part and place the second paper clip on the horizontal part of the first paper clip. Then gently lower the paper clips into a glass of water. They will float for a long time. Experiment with removing first one paper clip and then the other. What is the relationship between the two paper clips? Which one floats longer? Why? Record your observations.
10. Sinking a Paper Clip
    Science Here's an extension of the previous experiment. What chemical will break the surface tension of the water? List the children's suggestions, then conduct experiments. Liquid detergent will break the surface tension. Re-float the paper clips in fresh water and try other substances such as alcohol, vinegar, cooking oil, etc. Do these work?
11. How Much Longer?
    Math/Time At various points throughout the day, call out, "time," and have the students write down what time it is. Later in the day, figure out the amount of time that elapsed between each "time call." Some days, you can develop a pattern, on other days you can keep it random. In addition to building your students' math skills, you'll also be helping them to develop an awareness of the passage of time.

12. Fall Fabric Scrap Trees
    Art Use stiff 9"x12" paper for a background. Cut the tree trunk and some branches from brown construction paper. Lightly shade the sky with blue chalk or Cray-Pas®. Add dark lines onto the trunk to look like bark. Provide a basket of small fabric scraps for students to glue on as pieces of the fall tree's crown of leaves.
13. Getting the News
    Social Studies Prepare for National Newspaper Week, October 5-11, by contacting your local newspaper. Some papers will provide free multiple copies of a daily paper for classroom use, or send in advertising professionals to talk to students about how, when and why ads are put together. After studying your local paper, write and produce a class newspaper.
14. Personal Pumpkins
    Art/Reading Share the following poem with your class. Then have a pumpkin-decorating party. Each child can bring in his or her own pumpkin, or you can look into getting pumpkins donated from a local farm market.
    

    The Pumpkin Nobody Wanted – But Me

    by Heidi Roemer

    My pumpkin isn't pretty.
    His orange skin is bumpy.
    His left side's flat and yellow,
    the other, bruised and lumpy.

    He's splashed with muddy smudges.
    No, my pumpkin isn't prim.
    But he'll greet our trick-or-treaters
    with a frightful, ghoulish grin!

    Depending on the amount of time you have, and your students' ages, carve, paint or decorate the pumpkins with markers after asking the children to use very specific words to describe their pumpkins.

15. All Lined Up
    Reading Share the book Five Little Pumpkins, by Iris Van Rynbach (Boyds Mills Press, 2003), and do the familiar finger rhyme together. Decorate your room with five little pumpkins and have the children come up with more rhymes, then add more pumpkins and change the rhyme accordingly.
16. Fairy Land Mix-Up
    Writing Read a fairy tale to your class, then choose a character from the story that the class would like to change into a character from a different fairy tale. For instance, in Rapunzel, the witch (who locks Rapunzel in the tower) could be changed to the Beast from Beauty and the Beast. Students would then rewrite Rapunzel according to how the new character of Beast acts when he is placed in the story of Rapunzel. This is a great way to show students how characters affect the development and outcome of a story.
17. Parents Activity
    Reading Take your child into the kitchen and practice the ABC's by going through the cabinets or pantry to find each letter in order on one piece of packaging such as a soup can, cereal box, etc. On which package did you find the most letters? Did any packages contain the complete alphabet?
18. Fantasy Popcorn
    Reading/Art During Popcorn Poppin' Month, enjoy the book The Popcorn Dragon by Jane Thayer (Morrow, 1989) and have your students draw illustrations of what else a fire-breathing dragon could do that no one else can. How might the other animals try to impress their friends?
19. Popcorn Explosion!
    Science Fill a small container with unpopped popcorn. Have students predict what will happen after the corn is popped. Measure before and after, record results. Continue with popcorn research during Popcorn Poppin' Month by checking the nutritional value of popcorn, as well as the price and how it compares to other snack foods.

20. Mixed Media Spooks House
    Art Step 1: Each student makes a black construction paper house in which the door and two windows have been cut out. Students glue rectangles of yellow paper behind the door and windows to simulate light. Step 2: Each student glues his or her house to a 12" by 18" piece of dark blue or grey construction paper. Step 3: Each child cuts a chimney out of red paper; cotton can be used for smoke and/or clouds. Use a paper fasterner for a door knob. Pictures of animals or people cut from greeting cards or magazines can be glued into windows or doors. Cloth ghosts can hang out of windows. Glitter or a moon cut from silver paper add nice touches.
21. Hands All Around
    Reading/Writing Read together the book, Hands by Virginia L. Kroll (Boyds Mills Press, 1997), then invite students write their own descriptions of hands and things they can do. Notice that the book's illustrations are made of cut paper and tempera paint. Use similar techniques to illustrate your new writings.



22. Dandy Designs
    Math Have students reproduce a tile pattern on graph paper, then have them take the design apart and create new ones by making translations, reflections and rotations of the original. Encourage students to experiment with color combinations in the various designs.
23. Exciting Issues
    Reading Celebrate Children's Magazine Month in October by letting students vote on their favorite magazines. Make a bulletin board of the winners, and include the class' statements about why they like those particular magazines.

Intermediate Grades


24. The Story of Stamps
    Social Studies October is National Stamp Collecting Month and a great time to introduce students to the history of stamps. Each stamp has an individual story to tell. Go to www.usps.gov for initial information, then contact stamp collecting clubs in your area to invite a guest speaker to bring in a collection.
25. Saving For Stamps
    Math During National Stamp Month, tell the students the price for a postcard stamp, then figure out how much it would cost to send postcards to everyone in the class. How about to everyone in the school? Next calculate the cost of using a first class stamp. Why do stamps cost money? Why might the postal system need money?
26. Seeds For the Future
    Science Challenge students to find as many different seeds as possible during this harvest season. Bring in pine cones, wildflowers, acorns, sunflower seeds, soy beans, potatoes, etc. Make a display of the seeds and write about how they will be protected over the winter. How does nature ensure there will be another crop next year? Divide the class into groups and assign each group a different seed to research. Then design an experiment in which the various seeds can be placed back into nature and checked on in the spring.

27. Fall Foliage Trees
    Art Tree trunks cut from corrugated brown paper can simulate the texture of bark. Students glue a trunk on background paper of white, black or blue. Young students can paint leaves onto their trees with brushes or fingers. Older students can use ripped paper or cut out leaves of more realistic shapes.
28. Celebrate the Fall
    Reading/Art Read together the following poem and then write it on a large poster board to place on a bulletin board with the tree pictures students made in the previous activity.


I'm Tree-mendous!

by Heidi Roemer

I wear a crown of leaves, not hair.
In fall, my leaves flit everywhere.

I have a trunk. Not arms, but limbs.
My bark protects me, just like skin.

I grow long roots, not toes or feet.
Through my roots I drink and "eat."

I am home to birds and bees.
I'm proud to be a living tree!

29. Facts in a Flash
    Math Remove the joker and face cards from any deck. Practice addition by turning over two cards at a time, then three and four. This works well for multiplication skills too.
30. Parents Activity
    Life Skills Provide drawing paper, a ruler, markers and pencils with which your child can make a chores chart. As you help your child prioritize his or her chores, explain how you expect the chores to be completed. This is terrific practice in organizational skills and taking responsibility.
31. Bingo Problems
    Math Pass out bingo cards and have students add up different combinations of columns, for example, the total of the "B" column or the sum of the entire "N" and "G" columns. Then call on one student at a time to give clues about the sum they got. For example, "This is an even number that comes between 35 and 37."

32. Super Loop Glider
    Science/Art From construction paper, cut one 1 1/2" by 8 1/2" strip and one 1 1/2" by 7 1/2" strip. Form each strip into a loop and tape it closed, then tape the loops to a drinking straw, about 2" in from the ends. With the small loop in the front, toss the glider into the air. What makes it fly? What happens if you turn it so that the larger loop is in the front? Why does this happen? Have students experiment with changes to the design of the glider.
33. On the Spot Research
    Science/Research Ask a local florist or grocery store to donate a handful of various fresh flowers to your class. Divide students into pairs or groups and give each a flower to identify and research. Students can write the information on an index card to display with their flower.
34. Factory Construction
    Math Take all of the students' desks and put them together in the center of the room. This will be the new "factory" that's coming to town. Choose a group of students to be responsible for the new "sidewalk" around the factory, which can be made from bulletin board paper or construction paper. Put another group of students in charge of measuring the area of the roof for the new "factory." They will gather material according to their own measurements to put a roof on the "building."

35. Old-Time Fun
    Science Try this old-time game, then have your students hypothesize about what makes the sound and the movements possible. Make a twirling "hummer" by threading a 30" piece of heavy thread or string through both holes of a large coat button and tying the ends together. Then hold the string at both ends so that the button hangs loosely in the middle. Swing the button in a circle around and around, until the string is wound up well. Then, spread your hands apart and unwind the button in the opposite direction. Alternately pull and loosen the string and the button will wind and unwind indefinitely, making a humming noise. Have students write a detailed report of how they made the hummers, what they believed the hummers would do, what the actual results were and their impressions of the whole experiment.
36. They Didn't Go Alone
    Reading/Social Studies To celebrate the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition, read aloud Dog of Discovery by Laurence Pringle (Boyds Mills Press, 2002). It's written from the point of view of the Newfoundland dog that accompanied Lewis and Clark on the journey. Compare the story with other true dog stories, such as that of Balto.
37. The Destiny of a Dog
    Research/Writing In conjunction with the above activity, have students research and write reports on Newfoundlands. What made this breed of dog so well-suited for Lewis and Clark's journey? What is the breed known for? Contact local pet facilities to see if a local Newfoundland can visit your class.

38. A Village Visit
    History/Art For the bicentennial celebration of the Lewis and Clark expedition, research Sacagawea and her tribe. Construct a model of a Shoshone village like the one Sacagawea would have lived in, and make a computer slide presentation to accompany the model. Invite other classes to view the model and hear the presentation.
39. Spooky Story Starters
    Writing Read aloud the first few chapters of The Monster's Ring or The Skull of Truth, both by Bruce Coville (Harcourt, 2002), then ask students to write the next chapter based on what they've heard.

Middle Grades

40. Turning on Teens
    Reading Teen Read Week, October 12-18, is sponsored by the American Library Association. Go to www.ala.org for ideas. Involve your own class by sponsoring a "read-in" during a lunch period or after school. Students can select favorite poems or book passages to read aloud, or organize a book swap where each student brings in a book to swap with someone else.
41. Peer Prompts
    Writing Give each student a sheet of paper with a 3" x 3" box in the upper left corner. The students write and illustrate a writing prompt in the box. Have students exchange papers and let the writing begin.
42. Travel Reading
    Reading/Geography Contact a local travel agency for a tour book about whatever state or region you are currently studying. Assign groups or partners different cities or towns within that area. Provide the tour book and have the students compile a history of the area as well as what can be visited at that location now. Check for populations, resources, motels and restaurants. It's a real place, so ask students to show what it would it be like to really go there.
43. Getting There from Here
    Math/Geography After each group of students reports on their location in the activity above, make an enlarged map of the overall area. Have students estimate and then calculate times and distances between towns. Is the area in your time zone? If not, what time is it there when you go to lunch? recess? home? bed?
44. The News and You
    Perception Provide copies of newspapers. On a sheet of paper, have the students list three categories: "Affects Directly," "Affects Indirectly" and "Doesn't Affect At All." Have them write each news headline in the category it best fits. Discuss the students' lists.
45. Parents Activity
    Research/Life Skills Work with your child as he or she reads your car manual to find out when it needs to be serviced. Help your child make a chart for keeping track of when the car needs to be serviced; be sure to leave space on the chart to record when service is done, and what type of service was done. Also include how much mileage is achieved with each tank of gas and the cost. Have your child assume responsibility for washing and cleaning the car as well as filling the washer fluid container.
46. Romans Rule!
    Math/Reading/Vocabulary Introduce some new vocabulary by writing the words' definitions on the board, along with a Roman numeral telling the students on which page in their books they will find that word. Ask students to match the definition beside the Roman numeral with the correct word from the text. Review math and scanning while introducing some new words. The scavenger hunt feel will spur the readers on!
47. Last-Minute Division
    Math While students wait for a bell to ring, use those few extra minutes to do a little extra math practice. Have a student roll dice to come up with a divisor. Choose another student to select any number between 1-100, then have all the students divide the problem on paper or call on some students to go to the board.

48. Which Web?
    Science/Art While teaching a unit on spiders, have students research different kinds of spider webs and how spiders use them. Then invite the children to use black paper and white yarn to make demonstrations of spiral, triangle, tangled and funnel webs. Students can then make a replica of the proper kind of spider to place in each web or download photographs of the appropriate spiders during online research.
49. Look Around
    Perception Read the following poem and discuss point of view. Have students add to this poem with their own perceptions of things around them.


Point of View

by Muriel Mandell

Does a fly call me a walk?
or a lark listen to me talk?
In the eye of the elephant
is my nose much too scant?

50. Popular Pages
    Reading/Writing October is Children's Magazine Month. You can celebrate by asking your students to bring in their favorite magazines and write a paragraph about why these magazines are their favorites. Make a bar graph of the class' favorite magazine.

51. Moving On
    Reading/Writing Many of our students have experienced all the changes that come with moving from one house to another. Read together the following poem, then discuss how the descriptions help the reader to picture the house. Invite students to write poems about their own houses, using descriptive words mixed with their personal memories. Students can make illustrations of their own homes to accompany the poems.


House For Sale

by Heidi Roemer

We're leaving soon; it's hard to do.
Good-bye, Old House. I'll think of you

Your squeaky door swung open wide;
You greeted friends who trooped inside.

Your breezy windows let me hear
Blue jay's cry and robin's cheer.

Your cozy kitchen felt so snug;
My bedroom wrapped me like a hug.

I'll miss your halls, your sunny rooms.
But your new family moves in soon.

Good-bye, Old House. I'll miss you so.
We're all packed up. It's time to go!

52. Step By Step
    Research/Social Studies Have your students make a topographical map of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Divide the class into groups and assign each group a different part of the journey. Research the supplies Lewis and Clark took with them and the manner in which the landscape was traversed.

53. Far and Wide
    History/Research The Lewis and Clark expedition had far-reaching effects on our nation. Have students do research at the website of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation at www.lewisandclark.org and the website of the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial at www.lewisandclark200.org to find out what those effects were. Have a class discussion about what our nation might be like today, if the Lewis and Clark expedition had never occurred.
54. Mystifying Magicians
    Research/Writing October 31 is National Magic Day be-
    cause it's the anniversary of Harry Houdini's death. Have students research Houdini as well as famous magicians and illusionists such as the Amazing Kreskin, David Blaine, Doug Henning, James Randi, David Copperfield and others. Students can write biographies of the magicians, then compare their lives, training and careers, including the tricks for which each magician is most famous.
55. Real Magic
    Reading October 26 is the beginning of National Magic Week 2003. Have students read biographies of well-known magicians, as well as books about how to perform magic tricks. Challenge each student to learn at least one trick that can be done with everyday objects such as playing cards, coins or rope, and have them perform their tricks for the class. Then have them read the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling, or C.S. Lewis' books about the land of Narnia. Ask the students to compare the magic in those books with the magic tricks they have learned.

For a printable version of Your Green Pages click here. PDF 279KB

ABOUT THE GREEN PAGES: Green Pages activities are for use in teaching grades PreK through 8. Activities are labeled according to basic skill areas.

THIS MONTH'S CONTRIBUTIONS:
Marie Cecchini, West Dundee, IL, #1; Richard Latta, Plainfield, IL, #2, #9, #10; Julie Bulver, Des Moines, IA, #3; Sherry Timberman, Sanford, ME, #4, #6, #32, #35, #44; Joan Macey, Binghamton, NY, #12, #20, #27, #48; Joanne Calcagno, Jackson Heights, NY, #16; Jacqueline Schiff, Moline, IL, #54, #55.

POETRY: "I'm a Clock" by Martin Shaw, Bronxville, NY. "Playing With Dough," "The Pumpkin Nobody Wanted – But Me," "I'm Tree-mendous!," "House For Sale" by Heidi Roemer, Orland Park, IL. "Point of View" by Muriel Mandell, New York, NY.

Illustrations by H. Robert Loomis.

October, 2003, Vol.34, No.2