Mar. 19, 2008: Keeping Pace With Pandas

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. Draw a large panda on a piece of paper. Then cut out newspaper words that describe the panda and its lifestyle. Paste them on your drawing.

2. Create a series of panda trading cards. Draw pictures of pandas on 3-by-5-inch cards. On the back of each card, write a fact about pandas. Share your cards with friends.

3. Use the classified ads to find three jobs that would be helpful in a zoo or panda conservation program. List the jobs. Explain how a person with that job would benefit a panda program.

4. Find four pieces of athletic or sports equipment in the newspaper that an Olympic athlete might use to develop the muscles needed in handball or water polo. Paste your pieces of equipment on a piece of paper. Explain how the equipment would help develop important muscles.

5. Use resource books and the Internet to expand your knowledge of pandas and other bears. Select another bear (brown, black, grizzly or polar) to study. List information about the bear's physical characteristics, lifestyle and food. Now write a paragraph comparing your bear and a panda. How are they the same? How are they different?

This week's standards:

• Students understand the characteristics and life cycles of organisms. (Science: Life Science)
• Students understand the interactions of animals and their environments. (Science: Life Science)
  
  

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