Newspaper Activities At Home

1. Funny Puzzle

Grade Level: Elementary
Objective: Children piece together a puzzle made of a comic strip, then read the comics with a parent.
Materials: Comics, scissors, glue, tag board, traceable puzzle pieces

Select comic strips your child will be able to read and understand. Place them together on one page. The page may be as large or as small as you would like. Glue the comic page on the tag board. Trace the puzzle pieces on the back of the tag board. Cut the pieces out.

Mix up the pieces, then have the child put the puzzles together. When they have finished, have them read the comics, or read them to them.

You may want to make several such puzzles and store them in large zip-lock bags. You could also ask your child to color the comic pictures.

2. Who Are You?

Grade Level: Elementary
Objective: Self-portrait to answer question: Who Are You?
Materials Needed: newspapers, construction paper, scissors, glue

Help your child design a collage that defines who they are by cutting items and pictures out of the newspaper and gluing them on construction paper. Items can include words that describe them, pictures that show family size and characteristics or interests, articles or pictures of sports they like, foods they like, things they do for fun, or anything else that interests them!

3. Headline Mother Goose

Grade Level: Elementary
Objective: Developing headlines and creative thinking
Materials Needed: newspapers, construction paper, scissors, glue

Would you recognize some of the old Mother Goose rhymes if they were written in the style of a headline? For example, the Record-Eagle might use the following headline to explain how the marriage problem of Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater was solved: Pumpkin Shell Solves Marriage Question.

Each of the headlines below represents a popular nursery rhyme. How many can you identify?

Headline Rhyme
1. Boy Kisses Girls, Flees
2. Man's Request for Taste of Pastry Denied
3. Farmer's Wife Attacked by Blind Rodents
4. Clock Strikes Hour, Frightens Rodent
5. Girl Frightened By Spider
6. Men and Horses Fail to Revive Crash Victim
7. Married Couple Hearty Eaters
8. Wool Supply Assured, Inquiry Reveals
9. Pig Thief Punished
10. Boy Sleeps at Crucial Moment