Jan. 21, 2009: The Northern Lights

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 picture of yourself watching the aurora borealis. Then cut out five newspaper words that describe the aurora borealis and paste them along the bottom of your picture.

2. Make a "rainbow line" on a piece of paper. Cut out sections of colors from newspaper photos and ads. Paste them in a straight line following this pattern: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

3. What is winter weather like where you live? Look at the weather page of your newspaper. Write down the high temperature for today. Find two places where the weather will be warmer and write down the cities and temperatures. Now find two places where the weather will be colder and write them down.

4. How are each of these important for the northern lights: (a) sun, (b) oxygen, (c) sun cycle, and (d) the Earth's liquid center?

5. Today's Mini Page gives you the scientific explanation for the northern lights, but people in earlier times may have different explanations. Write a story that uses myth or magic to explain how the northern lights came to be. You may want to Google images for the aurora borealis for inspiration.

This week's standard:

• Students understand changes in the Earth and sky. (Earth and Space Science)
  
  

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