Newspaper Activities
for Grades 9-12

Have Students:

1. Study an ad with a number of items in it for three minutes, then turn the ad over and write down the names of all the items they can remember. Have them check each other's ads to see how well each of them remembered.

2. Divide items advertised in one section of the newspaper into two categories: things they want and things they need.

3. Create an original product and write an ad for it, including the name of the product, its use, and the price.

4. Rewrite a comic strip as a news story. Don't forget the who, what, where, when, and why.

5. Clip several recipes from the Mercury News and glue them to separate sheets of paper to make a recipe book. Make a front cover and back cover out of heavier material, then draw a picture on the front cover and staple the book together.

6. Select an editorial that discusses a problem that would affect them or their families. Write a short paragraph agreeing or disagreeing with the newspaper's position.

7. Locate five different monthly rental payments for two-bedroom apartments. What is the average monthly price of these apartments?

8. Check the ads in today's paper to find the best place to earn the most interest on $100.

9. Compute the averages of their favorite athletic team, and then figure the averages of individual players.

10. Make a plan to remodel their bedrooms by using the ads for the different items they'd need to buy, such as carpeting, paint, furniture, paneling, etc. Compute the total cost of the remodeling job.