Aug. 8, 2007: Dog Parks! Bow WOW!

The Mini Page is a syndicated, four-page tabloid written for young children found each Wednesday in the Rocky Mountain News. This issue of The Mini Page is available through the eEdition Archive to registered eEdition subscribers. Click here to learn about subscribing to the eEdition at no cost to you (for Colorado teachers).

Activities:

1. Design your own dog park. Draw a picture of the park showing grassy areas, trees, dog runs and water areas.

2. Design a sign that welcomes dogs to your dog park. Use words and phrases from the newspaper that show how much fun dogs will have in the park. Add your own words to your newspaper words. Include drawings of dogs on your sign.

3. Find three items in newspaper ads for toys you could take with you to play with your dog at a dog park.

4. What kinds of problems can be caused in dog parks by (a) owners bringing food, (b) small children at play, and (c) dog waste?

5. Find three different breeds of dogs in the classified section of your newspaper. Use resource books and the Internet to learn more about the characteristics of the dogs. What do they look like? What are their special skills (such as retrieving)? Now write a story about the three dogs having an adventure in a dog park. What does the dog park look like? What problem do the dogs encounter in the park? How is their problem solved? Share your story with family members and friends.

This week's standards:

• Students understand the characteristics of organisms. (Science: Life Science)
• Students understand the behavior of organisms. (Science: Life Science)
  
  

(standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)