Happy Birthday, Noah Webster! -- Issue 41 -- October 14, 2008

This week's standards:
Students understand that history relates to events and people of other times and places by identifying examples of interesting Americans. (Social Studies: History) Students explore factors that contribute to one¹s personal identity, such as interests, capabilities and perceptions. (Social Studies: Individual Development)

Activities:
1. Use words to show family members and friends that you like them. Fold a piece of paper in half to make a card for each person. Inside, paste newspaper words that describe the person. Give your cards to the people they describe.

2. The sports section is a great place to look for exciting words; writers have to say "won" or "lost" in almost every story. Look at the headlines in the sports section of your newspaper. Circle every word that means "won" in red and every word that means "lost" in blue. See if you can add other words that mean "won."

3. Find at least three long words in the newspaper that look interesting. Look up the meanings in the dictionary.

4. Find five words in the newspaper that did not exist in Noah Webster's time. List the words on a piece of paper. Write a sentence telling why Webster did not have the words in his dictionary.

5. The editorial and opinion pages of the newspaper are places to find clever uses of language. In opinion columns, people use words to emphasize their position on an issue. Read an opinion column or letter to the editor. List the words that reflect the writer's opinion. Now rewrite the letter or parts of the column to reflect the opposite point of view.

(standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)