Feb. 13, 2008: Discover China

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. Use newspaper words and pictures to create a collage that tells about China and Chinese history. Write a sentence about your collage.

2. Play a newspaper game with a friend. Each of you should have a colored marker. Then go through the newspaper and circle modern examples of items invented by the Chinese. Who has the most items circled?

3. Which Chinese inventions helped people (a) communicate better, (b) have better daily lives, (c) work better, and (d) travel?

4. Use the Internet to learn more about the Chinese practice of naming years for animals. Find the animal that represents the year you were born. Then find the animals representing the years that members of your family were born. Do the characteristics listed with each animal year seem to match you and your family members? Discuss the characteristics with your family.

5. Use resource books and the Internet to learn more about what happened when Hong Kong was returned to Chinese control. Use these questions to guide your research: How had life and government developed in Hong Kong under British control? How did life in Hong Kong compare with life in Communist China? How has life in Hong Kong changed now that control has returned to China? Write a paragraph discussing your research.

This week's standards:

• Students understand the physical and human characteristics of places. (Geography: Places and Regions)
• Students understand the characteristics, distribution and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics. (Geography: Human Systems)
  
  

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