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Thursday News Day Quiz
Help kids stay current on what’s happening in the community, the country, and the world. Each Thursday, from September through May, we will prepare a 10-question quiz based on that day’s Blade. The quiz is sent to teachers by email, fax and may be found online when you click here.

Pigskin Geography
Recommended for grades 5 and up, this program uses the Monday sports section to answer weekly geography quizzes and language, math and social studies activities.

Program takes place during NFL football season – September through January.

Pigskin Geography, Jr.!
Recommended for grades 2-4 and Special Education

This program includes activities appropriate for younger learners.

March Mania
This program is focused on U.S. Geography and college basketball. Mid-March through April.

Teachers who use The Blade in their classrooms may order one of the following teacher guides for every 50 newspapers, with a maximum four guides per year:

Creating a Classroom Newspaper
This guide is designed for five days of instruction, allowing your class to create its own newspaper. Lesson plans and student worksheets are included. This resource guide is helpful in creating a newspaper for NIE Week.
Divided for primary, middle and secondary school students.

Garfield Activity Cards

Activities directed toward primary students, some appropriate for independent study in grades four, five and six.
Grades K-4.
View Sample

CELEBRATE! Every Day's a Holiday

Activity book designed to take elementary students through the calendar, using The Blade to look into familiar as well as unfamiliar new and engaging holidays. Use five activities a month, each with a specific focus in the following subject areas: social studies, language arts, math, health and science.
View Sample

Special Education and Cooperative Learning: Using The Newspaper as a Primary Resource

Curriculum guide divided into four sections so all levels of competency, K-12, are addressed. Allows teachers to motivate "Special Needs" students in language arts, math, social studies, health and life skills.

Reading Realities
Guide students through the news, classified and retail advertising, editorials, features and sports sections of The Blade while developing and enhancing their reading, writing and thinking skills.
Grades 4-12.

Comic Strips -- Newspaper Capers

One hundred ten activities use your students' favorite part of the newspaper, the comic pages, to cover categories such as Values and Human Behavior, Social Problems and Issues, and Comic Strip Understandings.
Grades 4-12.

Dateline: Ohio

Use today's news to teach Ohio history and address citizenship objectives on the proficiency test.
Grades 4-6.
View Sample

Life Skills in the News

Develop consumer skills with the comprehensive applications in this guide, including life essentials, language and communication, lifestyles and success.
Grades 6-12.

Black History and the Newspaper

Incorporate lessons about black history all year long. Student activity pages focus on different subjects: government, politics, civil rights, the arts, music, entertainment, business, sports, education and more, highlighting outstanding African-American individuals in each field. Interdisciplinary, social studies.
Grades 4-10.

Earth Watch: For a Cleaner and Safer Environment

Use this curriculum guide to examine today's environmental issues and challenge students to seek ways to heal the environment using problem-solving skills, analysis, critical thinking and the newspaper.
Grades 4-10.

Using the Newspaper to Teach Secondary Language Arts

Two hundred language arts activities, based on a language arts foundation, writing, literature and speech application using the newspaper.

Using the Newspaper in Secondary Social Studies

Ninety-two pages of history, government, economics, and geography activities include social studies problem-solving and the newspaper.

Using the Newspaper in Secondary Science

Supplementary materials for instruction with topics including personal needs, societal issues, science and career education.

Celebrate Theatre!

Celebrate the arts with this exciting NIE curriculum guide! The theatre offers a unique perspective on our lives and the world. Newspapers show us the reality of the world. This noteworthy guide includes detailed lesson plans and student activities for the Broadway musicals Cats, Jelly's Last Jam, and Les Miserables, as well as 18 others. Information and newspaper activities related to the theme of each play are included.
Grades 6-12.

On the Sidelines

Use the sports pages for skills application in a variety of curriculum areas -- language arts, math, science and social studies.
Grades 4-12.

Messages & Meaning: A Guide to Understanding Media

Activities will help students access, analyze, evaluate and generate media messages. Designed for middle school students, the packet also includes a special addition: Read, Watch, Listen and Learn activity sheets for primary grade students to increase media awareness.

Mastering the Message: Performance Assessment Activities for Understanding the Media

This resource is designed to help students gain control of media messages by analyzing them and using what they learn to create messages of their own.
Middle school and older.

Exploring Your World with Newspapers

Explores the newspaper, issues, community resources, the environment, the arts, and the world of people.
Middle school or older.

Challenges and Choices

Six content strands are woven through the challenge units: self-esteem, multicultural education, civic competence, literacy/language, geography and economics.
Middle school and older.

Citizens Together

Designed for five days of instruction, this guide helps your class explore individual freedoms protected in the Bill of Rights: Your Right To Know, Your Right To Express Your Opinion, Your Rights In The Legal System, Your Right To Be Secure.
This guide is written at three levels of complexity: elementary, intermediate and advanced.

Geographic Challenge

The newspaper is one of the best resources to use in the study of local, national and world geography.
Grades 3-12.
View Sample

Measuring Up In Mathematics

Activities that motivate students to be involved, to think, to create multiple techniques for solving problems and to apply math concepts in real-life situations.
Grades K-8.

Reading To Follow Directions

Activities provide students with practice in recognizing initial letters and sounds, and also provides them with the opportunity to illustrate their understanding with art work.
Grades K-2.

Celebrate Diversity

This guide uses newspaper activities to heighten awareness of diversity topics, including gender, race, ethnicity, religion and language.
Middle school and older.

It's NIE for K-3

Activities focus on areas of newspaper knowledge, language arts, writing, social studies, science and health, and math.
Grades K-3

Science in the News

More than 70 newspaper activities to lend relevance to the daily science curriculum
Grades 4-12

The Sunday Edition

"Classroom ready" activities to apply learning skills to a variety of content areas through use of the Sunday Blade
Grades 5-12

Newspapers Maintain the Brain

A teacher's guide for using the newspaper to enhance basic skills. Activities labeled:Elementary, Middle, Secondary

Ohio Reads

Developed by the Ohio Newspaper Foundation and the Ohio Department of Education, this guide was designed to help teachers and parents use the newspaper in conjunction with student learning outcomes for the Ohio Proficiency Tests.
Grades K-6

Speaking of Language: Using the Newspaper in ESL Studies

Activities focus on language skills, connecting students to the world - jobs, consumer assistance, self-improvement, and information critical to the achievement of quality living.

Art Concepts In The Newspaper

Though we often think of the newspaper as a medium of words, the activities help to develop understanding of visual arts in every day life, in every page of the newspaper.
Grades 5-12

To order The Blade and these exciting teaching tools for your classroom, click here.