June 3, 2009: Rat Tales

The Mini Page is a syndicated, four-page tabloid written for young children The Mini Page is a syndicated, four-page tabloid written for young children found each Wednesday in The Denver Post. 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. Create a "Wanted" poster. Print "Wanted" at the top of a piece of paper. Draw a rat under the word. Then paste newspaper words and pictures to show problems rats can cause under your picture.

2. With a friend, go through the newspaper using two different-colored markers. Circle plants and food that rats might eat with one color. Circle non-food things they might chew on with another color. What is the softest thing you circled? What is the hardest?

3. Compare rats and humans with a Venn diagram. Draw two circles that overlap in the middle. In the center section, write the ways humans and rats are similar. In the left circle, write the ways humans are different from rats. In the right circle, write the ways rats are different from humans.

4. How does each of these items relate to rats: (a) ships, (b) laboratories, (c) diseases, (d) telephone poles and (e) burrows?

5. Use a library book or the Internet to read the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. He had an unusual way of getting rats out of a town. Now write a story with your own creative way of getting rid of rats from a town. However, you are not allowed to harm or kill the rats in your story. You must just get them out of town. Share your story with family members and friends.

This week's standards:

• Students understand the characteristics 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)