The Newspaper in Education program is a free service from The Press Enterprise

1. As a class, place news items or pictures about each state on a large outline map of the United States (or world). See how many states (or countries) you can find in the news in two weeks.

2. Chart community crimes over a period of time. Chart the type of crime, age of the criminal, location, etc.

3. If you didn't live in California, where would you want to live? What city? State? Country? Try to find pictures or articles in the paper about your favorite spot. Check the weather map to see what the temperature is there.

4. Travel with the paper! Allow students to clip pictures and articles of interesting places. Then, have them write about what things they would see or do if they visited that locale.

5. Clip or trace a political cartoon from the newspaper. Write a new caption for the cartoon.

6. Rules are made to help you. Find articles in the paper about people who broke some rules. What rules were broken? How does this affect you?

7. Research good and bad relationships between the United States and other countries. Try to classify the reasons these relationships may exist.

8. Using the newspaper, have student give names and titles of international political leaders. Have them describe their roles and they understand them from the articles they have read.

9. From the library files, compare newspapers from another period of time – World War II, the seventies, etc. How do these newspapers differ from today’s paper?

10. Research the monetary unit of a foreign country and then change the prices in 10 display ads in the newspaper into the foreign currency.

11. Check the food advertisements in The Press-Enterprise. Mark those foods which had to be shipped to your area and which are important to a well-rounded diet. Would they have been available in your area 100 years ago? 50 years ago? How would the introduction of such foods have affected the population?

12. Find the national and international datelines in The Press-Enterprise. After locating the datelines on a map, decide on which of the main landforms (plains, plateaus, mountains, hills) each city is built.

13. With a group of three or four classmates, use The Press-Enterprise to find a news article about each of the 10 major regions of the world: (1) Anglo-America; (2) Latin America; (3) Europe; (4) North Africa-Southwest Asia; (5) Sub-Sahara Africa; (6) South Asia; (7) East Asia; (8) Southeast Asia; (9) Australia and New Zealand; (10) the Pacific Islands. (This activity may take several days of newspaper use or work at home with a daily newspaper.) Note which areas are easily found in the newspaper and which are more difficult to find. Discuss the reasons with your group.

14. Find news stories in The Press-Enterprise that are related to the climate in the various regions of the Earth (for example, crop failure due to drought, skiers trapped because of blizzards, etc.)

15. Look through the retail clothing ads The Press-Enterprise. Find examples of clothes that are advertised at this time of year because of the climate.

16. Name the three largest population areas in California. Scan the news stories in The Press-Enterprise to find articles about those areas that offer clues as to why so many people have settled there.

17. Locate the detailed weather report in today's newspaper. Circle the city with the highest temperature in the nation. Find these cities on a map or globe. Give their locations by telling their approximate latitude and longitude. Tell the relative locations of the two cities.

18. Scan the international news stories in The Press-Enterprise. Consult a map to determine what nations in the news have geographical features (rivers, oceans, mountains, etc.) that form their political boundaries. Are these geographical features related to why that particular nation is in the news?

19. Choose national or international datelines to which you'd like to win a trip. On a map trace the route to each destination. In which region of the country does each trip end? How many time zones would you go through during the trip? Compare each destination city to the one in which you live in climate, elevation, longitude and latitude.

20. In today's newspaper find the names of at least 10 countries excluding the United States. Tell why each one was in the news. On a globe or map, locate each country and give the following information: (1) continent on which each country is located; (2) whether the country is located north or south of the equator; (3) name of one bordering country; (4) name of two major cities; (5) whether it is larger or smaller in area than the U.S.