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Free Current Events Worksheets and Printables
Published: March 18, 2015
Contributor: Carrie
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Are you learning about current events with your middle school and high school kids? Grab these free current events worksheets and printables to help your students answer questions about the news around the world today.
Why is teaching current events important?
The main idea of studying current events is to help your students understand just how significant people are in the community around us and how what people do is completely impactful. Children also comprehend how events and issues in the news affect others. Current events also intrigue students about the world around them, as they take their eyes off of themselves and towards others.
Discussing Current Events as a Family
One of my favorite parts of the day is sitting together at dinner and discussing current events as a family. We’ve been truly surprised discovering how much our children are interested in the world around them. We absolutely know that if we do not share current events with them from a Biblical perspective , the world will teach them from a worldly perspective . This has become extremely important to us.
Our children grow and it is crucial that they rest in God’s truth no matter what is going on in the world. It is also beneficial for them to think of the context of world news and local events firstly with a Biblical view.
Where can I find current events for students?
Of course, the internet is FULL of information. It is important that we can guide our kids to search for sources that are appropriate and as unbiased as possible. That is my focus. The news was once just reporting the facts and somehow has shifted some.
Most sources are extremely biased and in my opinion, slightly dangerous because of it. So, here are some news sources that may help with sharing news with kids in a less swayed environment – well in as much as possible anyway.
Free Current Events News Sources for Kids
DOGOnews – This site is an academic kids news source of current events. The articles can be searched by interest level from Grade K-1 all the way to Grade 11-12. The articles can be sorted by grade level or category.
Teen Kids News (TKN) – All of TKN’s reporters are teenagers. The source is geared towards 6th to 12th grade. If your students enjoy visual arts they will really enjoy this teen-focused and eye-catching site. And yes, some kids act as a news reporter for this site.
PBS Newshour – This site offers news articles and videos on various current event topics for 7th to 12th graders. Sort which content they need by subject area or check out lesson plans related to current events and media literacy to spread throughout your academic year.
Youngzine – This is an online news magazine bringing current events to children in a simple AND unbiased way . It has appropriate context and the articles can be sorted by category for students from the 3rd to 12th grade.
BBC’s Newsround – This BBC source provides news articles and programs of course of British, but also international news useful for our students. And here is a WIN, it includes games and quizzes from 2nd grade to 12th grade.
News-O-Matic: Reading for Kids Free App – This is a Daily Newspaper app for kids of the ages 6–14. You will find 100+ news articles each month in varying topics.
Christian Biblical View News Sources
World Kids – This site helps your children (grades 1st to 5th) to read current events in the news critically from the United States and around the globe. They learn to sift through the articles for truth, knowledge and relate it to everyday issues.
The Briefing by Albert Mohler –Albert Mohler has The Briefing , a 20-minute podcast of several news events and with comments from a biblical perspective. It will help your young learners to develop their Christian worldview. This is good for older teens before they become young adults.
God’s World News – This is a subscription magazine, but it is super cool. There are three different publications. For reading level ages 3 – 6 there is God’s Big World, for ages 7 -10 is World Kids Explore, and for ages 11 – 14 is World Teen Discern.
Kids Go Global – This site helps kids explore, act, inspire, and embrace the news in varying subjects like animal rights, food, nations, going green, culture, and more. This is for students in the grade levels elementary, junior, and high school to explore global impacts and issues.
How to Teach Current Events
Now we know where we can find some credible sources, now what? Children can read articles all day, but how do we get the most out of what they are reading. It isn’t enough to give our kids reading assignments of current events.
There are several ways we can get the most out of our current events lessons in homeschool. Check out these different ways to teach current events:
- Compare information for news sources. Students can compare articles to analyze which items in news sources are fact and which are opinion, what is similar, and where they differ.
- After reading news articles, you can task your students to create possible impacts, after effects, conclusions, or resolutions to the news topic.
- Graphing news story data. Have your students explore articles that lend themselves well to graphing information. This provides graphing practice and helps them visualize the information provided.
- Think About the Five Ws. The great questions of who, what, where, why, and what of a news article help students highlight the important parts of the news article.
- Opinion responses. Task your students to choose an article then write responses from two or more different perspectives. This is a great way for students to focus on their own opinions and put them down on paper.
- Charting and reporting the weather. Check out the weather section in your news source and have your student graph weather over a period of time. They then can write an article about the weather during that period, maybe even in different regions.
- Task your students to read news articles as part of their daily routine and then summarize the gist of the article. Students can provide a brief summary in 5 sentences or less. Summarizing news articles as daily writing prompts are actually meaningful assignments.
- Use article current event locations for a brief geography lesson. Have your students check out the global news and learn more about the area of the article. What country is this city located in, what is the culture there, what are the coordinates, etc.
Any one of these ideas can help you expound on your current event lessons at home as additional resources for learning. Grab the resources below to help as well to improve your students’ personal writing standards with current events.
Middle School and High School Current Events Worksheet – This worksheet contains questions that can accompany any current events news article. Students select their own article helps students identify the main issues of a news article, the moral question of the article (if present), and to consider any possible bias in the writing of the article.
Current Events Unit Study – Help your students with creating a unit study based on current events. The topics include hygiene, physical, mental, and/or emotional health viruses, effects a crisis has on an economy, and more!
Tough Topics with Kids – Help your children talk to your kids about the news. Grab these ten questions to start conversing about tough topics in the news with your students.
Free Printable Current Events Worksheets – The Curriculum Corner has developed these current events resource worksheets to help go alongside your lessons plans. If your child is in an age group ready for learning about world events or current related issues.
Resources to Teach Events – The internet is filled with free access to digital media with different perspectives. However, these are more educational free online news sources for the young people in your homeschool.
Printable for Researching Current Events – News articles or digital current events articles are plentiful. Now how can our children learn to get the most out of them? Grab this free printable to use when they are trying to research current events.
Our Favorite Current Events Resources:
God’s World News with Free Current Events Journal Page – God’s World News is a resource we use often in our homeschool. In our home, we want to stick to and adhere to a Christian Worldview. Therefore, providing our kids with a news source they can review, read, do research from with our worldview is extremely important. OH! And don’t forget to grab your free journal page in various content areas.
Top Christian Worldview Current Events Resources – We have to keep our young students abreast of real world current events. However, it can be really difficult, especially when we want them to view the happenings of the world from a Christian perspective. Check out these awesome sites that explore topics around the world but still impact our faith and our culture.
Free Current Events Notebook
Instant Download from WriteBonnieRose: Free Current Events Notebook – Help your high school students think through what they see or hear on the news, dig deeper, and form their own conclusions with this Current Events Notebook. Choose from several current event templates to help your student record everything from basic info to information from multiple sources.
Current Events Can Be Overwhelming
Remember that all these news stories CAN be information overload. Whether it be a failure in women’s rights, natural disasters, military action / inaction, political unrest, or other newsworthy happenstances, they can weigh heavy even on adults.
Unplugging from Stressful Current Events
It’s important to show your students how to wind down. Use some time to teach your kids about “unplugging.” Understanding that though they may hear so much information via news sources and social media, it is equally as important – if not more- to make sure to put the source aside.
Children can learn early on that although the happenings of the world may be seen overwhelming, they also have to power to turn it all off and just enjoy the current events happening in their own life right at that moment.
Remember to remind your kids about this verse as they see the current events presenting themselves around the world.
“The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” – Psalm 24:1
Carrie Fernandez is the owner of Daily Skill Building . She has been homeschooling for over 18 years, has two girls and works side by side at home with her awesome husband. She has been saved by grace, fails daily, but continues to strive toward the prize of the high calling of being a daughter of the Most High God.
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Study Guide and Notetaking Templates (Middle School & High School)
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Current Events Templates
Customize current events templates.
If you're assigning this to your students, copy the worksheet to your account and save. When creating an assignment, just select it as a template!
Engaging Students with Current Events Worksheets: Fostering Critical Thinking and Global Awareness
Real world current events serve as a powerful educational tool, as students learn tangible examples and relatable context to explore societal topics and understand their relevance in the broader world. Studying a current event and completing a current events assignment keeps students informed and is essential for their development as engaged and informed citizens. One effective tool for achieving this goal is the use of free current events worksheets. These worksheets provide a structured approach to help children learn and stay updated on the latest news, while also promoting critical thinking and global awareness.
When students engage with these handouts, they not only learn about what is happening in the world, but also develop essential analytical skills and learn about possible bias and what's going on in their city, country, and the world in the present day. By examining news articles and answering questions related to the content, children are encouraged to think critically about the information presented. They learn different ways to assess the credibility and reliability of news sources, ensuring they become discerning consumers of information. Through these activities, students gain media literacy skills and become better equipped to navigate the vast amount of news available to them.
What is a Current Events Worksheet?
It serves as a valuable resource for teachers and students alike. It offers a structured format that includes essential components such as a summary of the news article, questions to assess comprehension, and opportunities for reflection. Teachers can provide a blank sheet for kids to fill in with information from news articles they find, or they can use pre-selected articles and provide a sheet with answers. By using these worksheets, teachers can guide the class in analyzing news articles effectively and guide classroom discussions on important topics.
Implementing current events lessons in the classroom provides an interactive and engaging way for kids to learn about the world around them. By discussing current events and sharing their perspectives, they develop a deeper understanding of real-world issues and their impact on society. With these and other resources, teachers can facilitate classroom debates, encourage collaborative activities, and encourage students to express their opinions on the news articles they explore together.
To make these more effective, it's important to choose a variety of news articles that cover diverse topics and perspectives. This ensures children are exposed to different viewpoints and fosters empathy and understanding in preparation for life as they get older. Educators can also integrate multimedia elements such as videos, infographics, links, and newspaper clips to enhance the learning experience and cater to different learning styles. Another great idea it to let kids choose their own article relating to a current event in the world today.
Components of Effective Current Events Worksheets
To maximize the benefits of a current event handout, be sure to include components that provide a structured format for learners to engage with news articles. This can include sections for recording the title and date of the news article, allowing students to keep track of the articles they have explored. Additionally, including a section for students to write a summary of the article helps them condense information and identify the main points. To promote critical thinking, the handout can also include questions to answer that encourage students to analyze the main idea, supporting details, and different perspectives presented in the article.
Implementing Current Events Worksheets in the Classroom
These lessons offer a valuable opportunity for kids to delve into real-world issues, fostering critical thinking, empathy, and a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness between their lives and the events shaping the world. A current events activity provides a dynamic and hands-on approach to learning, as students actively explore and analyze real-world issues through engaging exercises and interactive tasks. Teachers can provide a selection of templates with different topics and difficulty levels, allowing students to choose worksheets that align with their interests and grade level. It's important to provide resources and materials such as a variety of news articles, websites, and other relevant sources to support students in completing the worksheets. To illustrate the relevance of current events in the classroom, educators can provide students with a compelling example of current events news articles during their discussion.
Examples of Current Events Worksheets and Activities
A current events report sheet serves as a valuable tool for all grades to structure their research, gather relevant information, and craft a well-organized report on the news article they have analyzed, fostering effective communication and critical thinking skills.
Engaging in classroom discussions allows the class to exchange perspectives, broaden their understanding, and develop critical thinking skills by critically analyzing and debating various aspects of the news articles. By discussing recent events, students not only gain a deeper understanding of the world around them but also sharpen their communication skills as they articulate their thoughts, listen to others' viewpoints, and engage in respectful debates on pressing global issues.
To make these worksheets engaging and interactive, use activities like comparing articles from different sources, creating presentations or podcasts, and conducting in-depth research. These activities promote analysis, communication skills, critical thinking, and a deeper understanding of global issues.
Worksheet Making Tips
- Find a News Article: Look for a relevant and age-appropriate news article from a reliable news source or consider allowing students to choose their own articles within certain guidelines.
- Determine the Focus: Decide on the main issues or themes you want to explore through the assignment.
- Provide Resources: Gather additional resources such as articles, videos, or websites that can supplement the students' understanding of the topic.
- Create a Template: Design a format that includes sections for reading the article, answering questions, summarizing key points, and reflecting on the moral or ethical questions it raises.
- Prepare the Worksheet: Write clear and concise questions that prompt critical thinking and analysis of the news article. Answer questions as they arise.
- Engage Class in Reading and Research: Encourage students to read the news article carefully and use additional resources to gain a broader understanding of the topic.
- Complete the Worksheet: Have kids fill out the worksheet, answering the questions and summarizing the main points of the article in their own words.
- Make Use of Available Resources: Explore the curriculum corner or utilize educational websites on the internet, newspapers, or community resources to find additional articles and materials for future current events worksheets.
Even More Storyboard That Resources and Free Printables
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How to Make a Current Events Worksheet
Choose one of the premade templates.
We have lots of templates to choose from. Take a look at our example for inspiration!
Click on “Copy Template”
Once you do this, you will be directed to the storyboard creator.
Give Your Worksheet a Name!
Be sure to call it something related to the topic so that you can easily find it in the future.
Edit Your Worksheet
This is where you will include directions, specific images, and make any aesthetic changes that you would like. The options are endless!
Click "Save and Exit"
When you are finished, click this button in the lower right hand corner to exit your storyboard.
From here you can print, download as a PDF, attach it to an assignment and use it digitally, and more!
Happy Creating!
Frequently Asked Questions About Current Events
Why is it important to keep students informed about current events.
Keeping kids informed about current events helps them understand the world they live in, fosters critical thinking, and encourages active citizenship. It promotes global awareness, empathy, and the ability to make informed decisions. Teachers can provide engaging and age-appropriate current events for kids worksheets to spark children's curiosity about the world and encourage their active involvement in understanding global issues.
How do current events worksheets promote critical thinking?
They require learners to analyze news articles, identify bias, evaluate sources, and discern between facts and opinions. These activities challenge students to think critically, consider multiple perspectives, and develop their own informed opinions. Students can assess their understanding and compare their interpretations by discussing the current events worksheet answers during classroom conversations.
How can current events worksheets enhance media literacy skills?
They play a crucial role in enhancing media literacy skills by providing students with opportunities to evaluate news sources, analyze media elements, fact-check information, recognize bias, and critically analyze news articles. By engaging with real-world current events through these worksheets, children can bridge the gap between classroom learning and the complexities of the world.
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Current Events Worksheets
Download these free printable current events worksheets to help children record their learning in the classroom.
This is another free resource for teachers and homeschool families from The Curriculum Corner.
This collection of free printable current events worksheets is just what you need to begin your current event focus in the classroom.
Studying current events can be an important part of helping students learn about the world around them.
It can also be a way to give students real-life reading practice along the way.
Studying informational text is important as children become better readers.
There is so much for students to learn from studying current events.
Because not all children learn in the same way, this collection contains an assortment of current event worksheets.
You can choose the current event printable that fits your current focus. Or, provide students with choices. They can choose the page that fits the current event they are studying.
These printable current events worksheets
This PDF download contains twelve pages.
Within the pages, students will be looking to identify the following:
- Reason the event is important
- Details of what happened
- Picture of event
- Details about event
- Connections (students can be encouraged to think about text to text, text to world or text to self)
- Fact & opinion
- Summary writing
Some of the pages include spaces for words and pictures. In these spaces encourage children to simply share their thoughts. These pages might resemble sketch notes pages where words and pictures are randomly scattered around the page.
These pages will be meaningful because they encourage children to respond in different ways. Not only will they be reading and processing what they read, they will also be writing and drawing about their reading.
You can download this free collection of current events pages here:
Worksheet Download
Looking for other resources for your classroom? You might like these freebies we have created:
As with all of our resources, The Curriculum Corner creates these for free classroom use. Our products may not be sold. You may print and copy for your personal classroom use. These are also great for home school families!
You may not modify and resell in any form. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Current Events Recording Forms
Monday 31st of July 2017
[…] GO HERE TO GET THEM […]
Current Events: What's in the News?
Learn how to analyze and interpret current events with the help of this graphic organizer! This one-page social studies worksheet provides a framework to help students read and analyze current events in local, statewide, national, or international news. Students will first identify key information on the source of the news story. Next, they will answer questions identifying and analyzing the details of the news story, as well as its importance and any questions they are left with. Geared toward middle school learners, this worksheet can be used as a weekly assignment or to help students research a current event for a paper or class presentation.
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Classroom features daily news lessons based on PBS NewsHour , full-length video-based lesson plans and opportunities for teachers and students to be published on Classroom Voices
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Using the Library of Congress' databases, students analyze primary sources ranging from Civil War photographs to broadcasts of the Watergate hearings.
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Twenty-five great ideas for teaching current events.
Looking for ways to work news into your classroom curriculum? Check out these great ideas for connecting current events to all subjects.
Young Americans today know less and care less about what's going on in the world than young Americans of previous generations did. Those were the conclusions presented in a 1995 report from the Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press (now called the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press). "On average, only 20 percent of respondents aged 18 to 29 paid close attention to the stories covered in the News Interest Index [an index of top news stories]." Attentiveness rose to 23 percent among respondents 30 to 49 and to 29 percent among those 50 years and older.
So what can be done to raise students' interest in and awareness of the stories making news headlines?
Another study, highlighted in the introduction to the Education World story Why Teach Current Events? indicates that the more exposure students have to newspapers and current events the more likely they are to be aware and interested in learning and reading more about them. Indeed, including current events in the school curriculum can go a long way toward developing lifelong newsreaders!
Education World is pleased to offer 25 activities -- activities intended to help teachers make use of newspapers and the internet to help students make sense of the news. Also included, at the end of the activity list, is a list of additional activities and Internet resources.
The activities
This first activity won't make better or more interested news readers of your students -- but it was too interesting not to include in our list! Taken from an ERIC document, Twenty Ideas for Teaching Science Using the Newspaper, the first activity provides a recipe for keeping old newspaper clippings from turning yellow. Try it!
Preserving the news! Dissolve a milk of magnesia tablet in a quart of water, and let it stand overnight. Pour the mixture into a flat baking pan large enough to hold the news clippings that you want to preserve. Place the clippings in the solution so they're completely covered by the liquid. Let them soak for an hour. Then take them out and pat them dry. They'll be crisp and new for a long time to come! (This works because the magnesium carbide in the solution neutralizes the acid in the paper; it is the acid that makes the newspaper yellow.)
Listening for details. Students can do this activity individually or in small groups. Ask students to listen carefully as you read aloud a story from the day's newspaper. (Story length will vary by grade level.) Then hand out to students a sheet with questions about details from the story. The higher the grade, the harder (more detailed) questions you can ask. Invite students or groups to respond to the questions. Who caught the most details?
News-mapping. Post a map (a community, state, U.S., or world map, depending on the focus of your current events curriculum) on a bulletin board. Post stories around the map and string yarn from each story to the location on the map where the story takes place.
More news-mapping. Take a look at the front page of the local newspaper each day. Plot on the map the location of each of the news stories on that page. Invite students to use the scale of miles on the map to figure out how far each place in the news is from your community. If longitude and latitude is a skill your students are expected to master, students might plot each location's longitude and latitude to the nearest degree.
News scavenger hunts. Provide students with a list of things to find on the front page of today's newspaper. Students might hunt in the paper for math-related words and terms (a percent, a measurement of distance, a cost, an address, and a fraction) or grammar-related terms (a present-tense verb, a past-tense verb, a proper noun, an abbreviation, a colon, and a list separated by commas). Or students might scavenge the main sports page for a list of sports-related terms. Or you might let students work in small groups to hunt for as many nouns (or proper nouns, or verbs) they can find in a story or on the front page. The group that finds the most is the winner!
A to Z adjectives. Each student writes the letters from A to Z on a sheet of paper. Challenge students to search the day's front page (or the entire newspaper, if your students are older) for an adjective that begins with each letter of the alphabet. Students cut the adjectives from the newspaper and paste them on their list.
Graphing the news. Pull facts from the news that lend themselves to graphing (e.g., the cost of a postage stamp, the population of your community, the number of barrels of oil imported). Provide students with the information needed and invite them to create a bar, line, or picture graph to depict that information.
Scanning the page. Provide a copy of a news story for this activity that teaches the skill of "skimming for information," or let all students work with their own copy of the front page of the same daily paper. Provide a list of words from the story/front page and invite students to skim the page to find as many of those words as they can. Set a time limit. Who finds the most words before time runs out?
Abbreviation/acronym search. The names of many common organizations are shortened to their acronym form when used in news stories. For example, the American Broadcasting Corporation becomes ABC, the National Organization for Women becomes NOW, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration becomes NASA. Also, abbreviations are commonly used for state names and some titles, such as Tex. (for Texas) or Sen. (for Senator). Invite students to work in groups to find and create a list of acronyms and abbreviations they find in the daily newspaper. (Note: You might include the classified ad section in your students' search. Many abbreviations can be found there.)
Local, national, or international? To develop your students' understanding of a news story's "place," create a bulletin board divided into three sections. Invite students to bring in from home news stories that might fit into each of the three sections. News of the community or state will be posted in the "Local" section. News of interest around the country will fit in the "National" section. And world news will be posted in the "International" section.
Headline match. Collect ten news stories and separate the story text from the headline. Number each headline from 1 to 10. Assign a letter, from A to J, to each story text. Invite students to match each headline to the correct text.
The five Ws. Introduce students to the 5Ws found in most news stories. Often, the five Ws are introduced in a story's opening paragraph. Create an overhead transparency of a major news story. Invite students to talk about the who , where , when , what , and why of the story. Circle or highlight and label the areas of the story that tell each of the five Ws. Then provide each student or group of students with a news story and ask them to report to the class the who , where , when , what , and why of the story. Students might underline each of the five Ws with a different colored crayon.
A five W variation. Provide each students with a news story. The student lists on a separate sheet of paper the who , where , when , what , and why of the story. Then the students' papers are collected and redistributed so no student has his or her own sheet. Each students takes a look at their five W list and writes the opening paragraph of a news story based on that information. At the end of the activity, students share their stories and the original stories to see how they compare. How accurate were the students' stories?
Sequencing the facts. Select a news story that includes a clear sequence of events. Write each of the facts of the story on a separate strip of paper. Invite students to order the sentence strips to tell the story in its correct sequence. (Option: Once you've done this activity, you might invite students to do the same thing. They can retell the events of a story in five simple sentences, each written on a separate strip of paper. Then each student shares the activity he/she created and a copy of the original story with another student, who gets to try the activity.)
Why is it news? Each day, newspaper editors around the world must make decisions about which stories they will publish. Stories make it into newspapers for many different reasons. Invite students to look at the stories that have made the front page of a local newspaper during the last few days and to talk about why each of those stories made headlines. Among the reasons students might come up with are these:
- Timeliness -- News that is happening right now, news of interest to readers right now.
- Relevance -- The story happened nearby or is about a concern of local interest.
- Magnitude -- The story is great in size or number; for example, a tornado that destroys a couple houses might not make the news but a story about a tornado that devastates a community would be very newsworthy.
- Unexpectedness -- Something unusual, or something that occurs without warning.
- Impact -- News that will affect a large number of readers.
- Reference to someone famous or important -- News about a prominent person or personality.
- Oddity -- A unique or unusual situation.
- Conflict -- A major struggle in the news.
- Reference to something negative -- Bad news often "sells" better than good news.
- Continuity -- A follow-up or continuation to a story that has been in the news or is familiar.
- Emotions -- Emotions (such as fear, jealousy, love, or hate) increase interest in a story.
- Progress -- News of new hope, new achievement, new improvements.
In the days ahead, study each front-page story and talk about why editors decided to put the story on page one. Which reason(s) on the students' list would explain the newsworthiness of the story?
Voice your opinion. Set up a tape recorder in a convenient location in the classroom. Pose to students an opinion question and let them think about it for a few days. When students are ready, they can take turns expressing their opinions to the recorder. This can be a little less threatening for some students than talking in front of a class would be. Later in the week, once all students have had a chance to express their opinions, you might begin a class discussion of the question by playing back the tape or by sharing select opinions that you cull from it.
Charting the weather. The weather page in the newspaper can be the starting point for many great classroom activities. The class might follow the local weather for a week or a month and create charts and graphs to show the ups and downs of temperatures. Or each student might follow the weather of a different city in the United States (or the world) for a set period. Students can use the collected information to compare weather (high and low temperatures, total precipitation, sky conditions, etc.) in different places.
Create historical newspapers. Challenge students to create a newspaper about a period of time they are studying. If students are studying U.S. history, they might include stories such as "Pilgrims and Indians Gather for Feast" and "Lincoln Wins Election." The stories relate the facts as students have researched them. Students should include each of the five Ws in their first paragraphs.
Plan a healthful menu. After a study of nutrition, invite students to plan a healthful menu for a day. Provide three paper plates for each student; each plate represents a different meal -- breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Invite students to find and cut out from newspapers, magazines, store ads, etc., pictures of foods and to arrange them into healthful meals on the three plates. Invite students to share the results, which will make a colorful and attractive bulletin board!
You be the editor. Rewrite a news story to include ten errors of punctuation, capitalization, or grammar. (Emphasize skills your students are working on in class wherever possible.) Invite students to "edit" your story free of errors!
There's plenty of math in the news too!
Figuring an average. Students might collect classified "Homes for Sale" ads for ten homes in a given area or for homes of a given size (e.g., two-bedroom homes). Invite students to figure from those ads the average cost for a home. (Or students might figure the average rent for homes of similar characteristics from the "Apartments for Rent" section of the newspaper.)
More ad math. Invite each student to choose a job ad from the newspaper classifieds; the ad must include a yearly salary figure. (Teach students that the term "40K" often seen in job ads is short for $40,000.) Invite students to figure from that salary figure the average monthly, weekly, daily (based on a 5-day week), and hourly (based on an 8-hour day) salary for that job.
Ad math #3. Provide a group of five ads from a local newspaper and the section of the paper that describes how much it costs to place an ad. Invite students to use the per-word or per-line cost information to figure out how much it cost to run each of the five ads.
Guess-timating! Provide each student with the copy of a news story. (Story length will vary depending on grade level.) Invite students to count the number of words in each of the first five lines of the story and to guess-timate, based on that figure, how many words long the whole story is. Older students might average the number of words in the first five lines and consider half-lines and other elements of a story to come up with a more accurate figure. Let students share their estimates and how they arrived at them. Then inform students of the exact number of words in the story (which you have pre-counted). A prize goes to the winner!
Furnish a home! Invite students to use store ads to figure the cost of furnishing a home. You might provide a list of items for each of four rooms, including a living room, a kitchen, a dining room, and a bedroom. For example, living room furniture might include a couch and side chair, a coffee table, a television, and an air conditioner. Older students might also need to figure the cost of carpeting the living room! (Options: Provide students with a budget for furnishing a four-room home and let them set priorities for the furnishings they'll select. For older students, state and local sales taxes might be figured as part of the total cost.)
Some great Internet "current events" resources
These activities are worth checking out.
Classroom debate formats Looking to hold a debate in your classroom? Here are some simple, straightforward formats from which to choose.
Organization of a Newspaper Students demonstrate their knowledge of the parts of a newspaper.
Parts of a News Article Kids use the story of the Wright brothers to learn about how a news article is organized.
Creating a Class Newspaper Creating a classroom newspaper is a perfect opportunity to develop students' writing skills.
More on Creating a Class Newspaper
Additional resources
Newseum This museum of news calls itself "the most interactive museum in the world."
Article by Gary Hopkins Education World® Editor in Chief Copyright © 2017 Education World
Last updated 01/20/2017
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Common Core Aligned Current Event TemplatesImplementation of the Common Core State Standards brings with it a greater emphasis on informational text. In turn, teachers are left with the imposing responsibility of providing increased opportunities for students to engage with authentic nonfiction. Current event assignments are a great way to bridge the gap. Students are able to demonstrate their knowledge of a nonfiction text with a written response to a relevant news article. Listed below are five different options for aligning your current event templates to meet the Common Core State Standards. Main Idea & DetailsLocating the main idea of a text and how it is supported by the key details in the article is a clear example of how a current event report can easily align with the Common Core State Standards. Identifying the topic, main idea, and supporting details helps students understand the point(s) the writer is attempting to express. Additionally, understanding the interdependent relationship between the main idea and supporting details will increase reading comprehension. The news article and corresponding current event assignment provide a way for students to demonstrate their ability to locate the central idea and how it is conveyed through particular details. Simplifying the current event template to solely focus on main idea and details gives students the time and space to eventually master that particular skill. SummarizingThe Common Core State Standards require students to provide a summary of the text that is distinct from personal judgements and opinions. In order to do this effectively, the current event template should be set up to guide students through the process. Students should begin the summary writing process by locating the 5Ws in the text (who, what, when, where, and why). After recording the 5Ws, students are prepared to turn that information into a succinct summary. Current event assignments are a great alternative for reinforcing summary writing skills, especially when it comes to informational text. Vocabulary in ContextDetermining the meaning of general academic and domain specific words or phrases is a major component of the Common Core State Standards. The scientific research on vocabulary instruction reveals that most vocabulary is acquired incidentally through indirect exposure to words , which is what is likely to happen when students start reading a variety of nonfiction articles. Students need to be able to extrapolate the significance or meaning of unknown words using context. Requiring students to locate and define new words as part of their current event assignment will help them develop the skills needed for decoding unfamiliar terms. Fact vs. OpinionAccording to the Common Core State Standards, students need to be able to explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text. In order to do so, students need to be able to clearly delineate between facts and opinions. It is important for students to be able to trace specific claims in the text, and distinguish between claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not. Paring down the current event template for students to solely focus on facts and opinions stated in the article provides students with ample opportunity to develop the skills necessary for the integration of ideas presented in the article. Text ConnectionsAn additional way for students to integrate ideas presented in the article is for them to make authentic connections with the text. The Common Core State Standards require students to integrate information from multiple perspectives on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably. Connecting the text to a concrete idea or experience will assist students with the integration process. Making text connections, whether it be text-to-self, text-to-text, or text-to-world, is an active reading strategy that can lead to an increase in reading comprehension. Connecting the text with multiple reference points will provide the student with a strong foundation from which he or she can then evaluate the information being presented. Hopefully, the five ideas listed above provide you with a clear jumping off point when it comes to aligning your current event assignments to the Common Core State Standards. Current event article templates do not have take on a one size fits all approach. Varying the reading comprehension skills with different types of templates is a great way to build foundational literacy across academic content areas. Additionally, requiring students to evaluate current events not only provides students with a relevant way to engage with the text while meeting the standards for reading nonfiction, it also builds and strengthens reading comprehension skills. Click on the image or link below to download ready-to-go current event templates aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Five different templates are included (Main Idea and Details, Summarizing, Vocabulary in Context, Fact vs. Opinion, and Text Connections). Along with a the printable PDF version of the templates, digital versions are also provided as an option for those of you that have access to technology in your classroom. Click here to download the printable and digital Current Event Templates from Literacy in Focus.  |
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Introducing current events in the classroom can promote critical thinking, empathy, reading skills, global awareness, and so much more. Whether you're assigning weekly current events summaries or conducting a single lesson, our free current events worksheets for grades 3-8 are the perfect companion. Inside, you'll find two options for ...
If you don't want to recreate the wheel, you can add diversity to your current event assignments with these printable AND digital standards-aligned templates. Each current event worksheet focuses on a different reading comprehension skill including main idea & details, text connections, vocabulary in context, fact vs. opinion, and summarizing ...
The Week Junior is a kid-friendly current events magazine that features sections on trending news, new books and movies, sports and culture, recipes and craft projects, and so much more. There's something for every kid. The Week Junior is committed to publishing trustworthy, accurate, and unbiased content to enable students to form and ...
Free Current Events News Sources for Kids. DOGOnews - This site is an academic kids news source of current events. The articles can be searched by interest level from Grade K-1 all the way to Grade 11-12. The articles can be sorted by grade level or category. Teen Kids News (TKN) - All of TKN's reporters are teenagers.
Studying a current event and completing a current events assignment keeps students informed and is essential for their development as engaged and informed citizens. One effective tool for achieving this goal is the use of free current events worksheets. ... Teachers can provide a blank sheet for kids to fill in with information from news ...
Find free current events lesson plans and resources, or find our latest Today's News, Tomorrow's Lessons (TNTL) to cover the latest news stories in your classroom. Recent Current Events Lesson Plans & Resources. Elementary (Grades K-2) Elementary (Grades 3-5) Middle School High School.
This is another free resource for teachers and homeschool families from The Curriculum Corner. This collection of free printable current events worksheets is just what you need to begin your current event focus in the classroom. Studying current events can be an important part of helping students learn about the world around them.
Add diversity to your current event assignments with these 5 standards-aligned templates. Each current event worksheet focuses on a different reading comprehension skill (Main Idea & Details, Text Connections, Vocabulary in Context, Fact vs. Opinion, and Summarizing). This resource can be completed on paper or online with laptops, Chromebooks ...
This one-page social studies worksheet provides a framework to help students read and analyze current events in local, statewide, national, or international news. Students will first identify key information on the source of the news story. Next, they will answer questions identifying and analyzing the details of the news story, as well as its ...
Current Event Student Reporting Sheets will be helpful if you have your students report on currents events ,To start, there is a mapping feature for the students to complet. Subjects: Civics, Critical Thinking, Other (Social Studies - History) Grades: 7 th - 12 th. Types: Homework, Graphic Organizers. $3.99.
Current Event Worksheet Be sure to attach the original or a copy of the article to this worksheet. Title of Article _____ Date of Article _____ Author _____ ... Give a summary of the main events or main idea of this article. (at least 5 sentences) ...
Current events ready to go for students grades 6-12! Lessons based on the PBS NewsHour with focus on civics, social studies, ELA, science, art, and media literacy.
Preserving the news! Dissolve a milk of magnesia tablet in a quart of water, and let it stand overnight. Pour the mixture into a flat baking pan large enough to hold the news clippings that you want to preserve. Place the clippings in the solution so they're completely covered by the liquid. Let them soak for an hour.
Teachers use the rubric to score the current event assignment. Subjects: Reading, Social Studies - History, Writing. Grades: 3 rd - 6 th. Types: Handouts, Assessment, Rubrics. FREE. Rated 4.88 out of 5, based on 16 reviews. 4.9 (16) Word Document File. Current Events Newspaper Assignment: Global Issues Focus with Assessment.
Current Events Assignment Sheet Directions: Find a (science, technology, or engineering) current event that is interesting to you. Using a highlighter or colored pencil, highlight the main ideas of the article. Next, complete the questions on this sheet. Be ready to present information to the class.
Encourage your English students to investigate, research, and write their very own front-page scoop using this ready-made Current Events Worksheet. This nonfiction resource invites kids to cover a local or national news story and provides a handy set of subheadings to help them complete their news articles. The template even includes a list of possible areas they might like to write about ...
Name: Sarah Cornett. CURRENT EVENTS WORKSHEET Week of (3/23 - 3/27). Directions. Find 2 articles either in the newspaper or online from a newspaper source, Time.com, USA Today, The New York Times, etc., or any other reputable national or local source. Read the article and fill out the statements or answer the questions below.
A current event assignment where students find an article and summarize the key ideas behind what they have read. Can be used for helping students stay up to date on news, while allowing students to identify significant information. ... This sheet will help students connct political cartoons to current events. There are summary qustions ...
10 pts. Current Events Assignment. - Four current event assignments are due by the end of each quarter. - Current events must be handwritten. - You need to write in complete sentences, and use proper grammar and punctuation. - You will need a separate sheet of paper to complete these assignments. - Your article can be no more that 6 months old.
Current Events Assignment Sheet Keeping up with Current Events, or the State of the World, is an important task for any student. All students must always ask this very important question: Is there a relationship between the historical events/people we are learning about and the state of the world
Current Events Assignment. - Two current event assignments are due each quarter. - Current events must be handwritten. - You need to write in complete sentences using proper grammar and punctuation. - You will need a separate sheet of paper to complete these assignments. - Your article can be no more than 6 months old.
This document includes detailed descriptions of activities, sample handouts and assignment sheets. Subjects: Geography, Other (Social Studies - History), Social Studies ... This graphic organizer is designed as a discussion activity to help students facilitate their own discussions about current events. This sheet has full instructions to guide ...
Click on the image or link below to download ready-to-go current event templates aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Five different templates are included (Main Idea and Details, Summarizing, Vocabulary in Context, Fact vs. Opinion, and Text Connections). Along with a the printable PDF version of the templates, digital versions are also ...