Newspaper activities teach kids how to navigate through newspapers. With educational activities, kids become familiar with the type of news and information that newspapers provide. Newspapers also serve as inexpensive resources for activities, which is helpful to a teacher or parent's budget. For your kid or group of kids, come up with stimulating newspaper activities that will be engaging and informative.
Scavenger Hunt
A newspaper scavenger hunt sends kids on a search through the newspaper to find the items on the scavenger hunt list. Teachers and parents can create scavenger hunt lists or worksheets that prompt kids on what to look for. For instance, the scavenger hunt list may contain items such as "Write the largest headline on the first page of the newspaper." Kids will have to flip through the newspaper during this activity to hunt down a variety of information. Newspaper scavenger hunts can be performed individually or in small teams.
Current Events
Instruct kids to write a short summary on two current events that they find in the newspaper. This activity builds reading comprehension because it requires kids to read the headline articles and then summarize what they read. If this activity is given as a homework assignment, instruct students to bring in the newspaper articles that they are writing their current event summaries on.
Word Search
Send kids on a word search through the newspaper. Create a list of vocabulary words that the kids are learning and instruct them to search for the words in the paper. If you are doing this activity with your child, you do not need to create a list but can just tell your child to look for certain words. Each time the word is found, the child draws a circle around the word with a crayon.
Alphabet Activities
If you are working with young children, alphabet activities are effective. Focus on one letter per day. Start with the letter "A" and have craft scissors, glue and construction paper ready. The child is instructed to cut out ten -- or however many you decide -- letter "A's" that he finds in the newspaper and glue them onto the construction paper to make a collage. Then the next day, create a letter "B" collage, and so on.
Picture Story
Teach kids how to make a story out of newspaper pictures. Using an entire newspaper each, the kids cut out pictures that they find and assemble them to tell a story. After the activity, kids must share their pictures and tell the story aloud. This activity helps kids develop their story structure and communication skills. It also allows them to be creative.
