Dear teachers,
Here the IDEAS activities for the July 2016 issue of What’s Up. Regular users of IDEAS will notice that this is a new-look website. If you are looking for the activities associated with previous issues, please visit our old site, www.newsforkids.com.sg.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
The What’s Up team
This month’s IDEAS activities
Jonathon, senior citizen of Saint Helena [page 10]
About how this 184-year-old Seychelles giant tortoise has been nursed back to health by his caring veterinarian, Dr Joe Hollins. Jonathon is the world’s oldest known living land animal.
Word Find – For English, Level 1 – DOWNLOAD*
Individual exercise. To strengthen figure-ground perceptual skills, and to grow vocabulary. Puzzle of 15 hidden words, followed by sentence construction using the words.
Sadiq Khan breaks down walls [page 15]
Sadiq Khan, the newly elected Mayor of London, is the first Muslim and the first non-white to hold this position. This is a story of his childhood, election challenges he faced, and his vision for London.
Vocab Builder – For English, Level 1 – DOWNLOAD
Individual exercise. To strengthen vocabulary and syntax. Students first examine the use of given phrases in the story and then, use the phrases to construct sentences.
Helping hands in Sri Lanka’s big flood [page 6]
Tells us how ordinary citizens made a difference by pulling together in innovative ways. Side bars share examples of long-term volunteers’ impact in Japan after it 2011 tsunami, and a small agency partnering an established organisation to help the 2010 child survivors of the Haitian earthquake.
Sentence Splits – For English, Level 1 – DOWNLOAD*
Individual exercise. To practice varying sentence forms. The student is required to splice each of the given compound sentences from the story into grammatically-correct simple sentences.
She swam for her life [page 6]
About Team Refugee which will compete under the Olympic flag at Rio. This is the first time that the Olympic Council has formed a team of athletes who are stateless because of their current refugee status. Other Other Olympic stories: Small but powerful Olympic contenders [page 20]; Horrible science turns winners into losers [page 8]
Mime Time – For CCE & Science, Level 2 – DOWNLOAD
Whole class. To experience using only nonverbal language and whole-body movements to communicate. A relaxing game of charades where teams have to enact 2016 Olympic sports.
Provided: mime slips of 20 sports. DOWNLOAD
Tiny Superstar Nations – English & Social Studies, Level 2 – DOWNLOAD*
Individual exercise. To become more familiar with lesser-known countries. The task is to identify which of five nations have each of six conditions listed.
Searching for the bones of Peking Man [page 16]
Part of our series of articles about investigators who are exploring big mysteries of the world, this is the story about a box of bones of the Peking Man that disappeared long ago. Scientists think they might have located it and, are planning to excavate the box soon.
All in a Comic – For English & Art, Level 2 – DOWNLOAD
Groupwork. To hone perspective taking and creative communication. Steps for transforming scenes about any one character in this article into an eight-part comic strip.
Box of Bones Timeline – For Social Studies, Level 2 – DOWNLOAD*
Individual exercise. To practice portraying historical events using a timeline. On the given timeline, the student has to inert blurbs and sketches of events related to the Peking Man’s box of bones.
Hanging out with hedgehogs [page 14]
Pet cafes are popular with humans but animal activists wonder about the pets’ quality of life.
Debate: The Pet Café – For English & Science, Level 3 – DOWNLOAD
Whole class. To hone teamwork and debating skills. Guidelines for (i) supporters to participate in a Round Robin preparing points for their teams (ii) the teams to debate. Motion provided.
Your feedback on this month’s offerings
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