Weekly Reader, Edition 4 (including Science Spin) articles from March 2002

Weekly Reader, Edition 4 (including Science Spin) archives from March 2002

Schools ban balloons. (Health News).(health risks associated with balloons)
March 29, 2002... Having a party at school can be lots of fun. Balloons and paper streamers can add to the fun. But for some kids, some kinds of balloons can be deadly. Those kids are allergic to rubber balloons. To protect those kids, some schools are banning...

A comet's tale. (Cover Story).(discovery of Ikeya-Zhang comet)
March 29, 2002... Last month, two astronomers made a whale of a discovery. One of the astronomers, Kaoru Ikeya, was in Japan. The other, Daqing Zhang, was in China. Both countries are in Asia. Each scientist pointed a telescope toward Cetus the whale. Cetus is...

Mammoth Cave. (Social Studies News).(exploration of cave system yields information about Native Americans who lived in them 5,000 years ago)
March 29, 2002... When George Crothers leaves for work each morning, he doesn't drive to a factory or an office building. Instead, he goes to a cave. Crothers spends his days deep inside the world's longest known cave system--Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. ...

Elephant walk. (News Clips).(teachers use elephants to travel through Thailand)
March 29, 2002... Does your teacher take a bus, a car, or a subway to school? In parts of Thailand, a country in Asia, where buses and cars are scarce and subways do not exist, teachers ride elephants to class. Thailand's Non-Formal Education Department...

A buggy zoo turns 25. (News Clips).(O. Orkin Insect Zoo, Washington, D.C.)
March 29, 2002... Are you afraid of spiders? What about cockroaches? If so, then the O. Orkin Insect Zoo isn't for you. The zoo, in Washington, D.C., is the oldest insect zoo in the United States. And it recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. The zoo...

Grandson to repeat Lindbergh's flight. (Social Studies News).(Erik Lindbergh to retrace path of grandfather's historic flights)
March 29, 2002... In 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off in a small plane from an airport near New York City. He flew over the Atlantic Ocean to Paris, France. At age 25, Lindbergh became the first person to fly solo, or alone, nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean....

Study the map. (Brain Builders).(caves in the United States)
March 29, 2002... This map of the lower 48 U.S. states shows the locations of some caves. Study the map. Then fill in the oval that best answers each question. 1. Which of these states is directly east of Kentucky? (A) Ohio (C)...

Word wise. (Brain Builders).(vocabulary quiz)
March 29, 2002... The words below are from this issue. Study the words. Then read the sentences. Write the word that best completes each sentence. constellation allergic comet arthropods orbits 1. Lobsters, spiders, and insects are all --....

Know the news. (Brain Builders).(quiz about current events)
March 29, 2002... How much have you learned from this issue? Read each question. Then fill in the oval in front of the best answer to each question. 1. Two astronomers recently discovered --. (A) a planet (B) an asteriod (C) a comet 2....

Use a web.(tip for writing stories)
March 29, 2002... A web is a tool to help you write well-organized stories. The center box in the web contains the main idea or theme of the story. The circles around the center box provide space for ideas or details that are tied to the main idea. Fill in the...

Trash man.(cleaning up rivers)
March 29, 2002... Four thousand nine hundred and fifty-two truck tires, 1,113 steel drums, 287 refrigerators, 75 televisions, 49 sinks, 28 toilets, 27 bicycles, 5 motorcycles, 2 farm tractors, 2 artificial legs, and the top half of a school bus. That's just a...

River kid.(Chad Pregracke's efforts to clean up the Mississippi River)
March 29, 2002... Chad Pregracke grew up on the banks of the Mississippi. He spent summers fishing, sailing, water skiing, and canoeing. When Pregracke was 15, he started working with his brother, a commercial shell diver. Like a modern-day Tom Sawyer and...

Did you know?(statistics about water pollution)
March 29, 2002... * The majority of Americans live within 10 miles of a polluted body of water. * Water pollution has caused fishing and swimming to be prohibited in 40 percent of the nation's rivers, lakes, and coastal waters. * Your own daily habits...

Phantom garbage.(how water runoff pollutes)
March 29, 2002... Pregracke has hauled tons of garbage from the Mississippi, but the river is still polluted by a type of waste that can't be picked up with a forklift: polluted runoff. When it rains, water either soaks into the ground or flows over...

Startling young artist.(artist Jonathan Lerman suffers from autism)
March 29, 2002... Like many other 14-year-old boys, Jonathan Lerman likes movies, video games, ice cream, vacations, girls, and rock bands. But unlike most kids his age, Jonathan has autism. Autism is a developmental disability that impacts brain functioning...

Taming lightning.(experiment to conduct lightning through saltwater)
March 29, 2002... A group of California scientists is planning to lasso lightning bolts by zapping thunderclouds with powerful streams of salt water. Salt is an electrical conductor, a substance through which electricity can flow. The researchers theorize that...

Wallaby boot camp.(Australia teaches wallabies about the hazards of foxes)
March 29, 2002... Australian zoologists are teaching tammar wallabies--the smallest cousins of kangaroos--an important survival lesson: Foxes are bad news. European settlers introduced the fox to Australia roughly 200 years ago. Since then, the fox's...

Calculate it. (You Be the Scientist!).(sources of water on Earth)
March 29, 2002... Name -- The table below shows the sources of water that exist on Earth, the volume of water in each source, and the percentage of Earth's total water the sources contain. Use a calculator to fill in the missing percentages in the...

Sci-q.(vocabulary quiz)
March 29, 2002... These incomplete sentences refer to stories in this issue of ScienceSpin. Read each sentence. Then fill in the blank with one of the words from the word box. autism runoff electrical conductor ...

Follow a drop of water.(water cycle quiz)
March 29, 2002... Earth's water resources are constantly being recycled between Earth and the atmosphere through a process called the water cycle. Follow a drop of ocean water through the water cycle in the diagram below. Then find the word in the diagram that...

Machu Picchu.
March 29, 2002... Machu Picchu is an ancient Inca city in Peru. The city lies on a ridge between two mountains in the Andes. The Inca were people who lived in South America. They ruled the largest empire on the continent. Scientists believe Machu Picchu was...

Run for your life!(eruption of Mount Nyiragongo)(Cover Story)
March 8, 2002... A volcano in Africa suddenly roared to life on January 17. Red-hot rivers of molten rock, or lava, gushed from three openings, or vents, in the volcano. Surging down the volcano at 40 miles per hour, the lava sped toward Goma. Goma is a...

Are you overloaded? (School News).(how heavy backpacks can affect your health)
March 8, 2002... How much weight do you lug around in your backpack--5, 10, 20, or 50 pounds? According to the sixth annual Weekly Reader backpack survey, most of you seem to be carrying the right amount of weight. However, some of you said you were carrying...

Backpack Survey. (from the desk of).(weigh your classmates and their backpacks)
March 8, 2002... Find out whether the kids in your class are overloaded. Weigh each student and each student's backpack. Record the results in the table below. Then use a calculator to determine whether the pack is less or more than 15 percent of each...

Mind your metaphors. (from the desk of).(what a metaphor is)
March 8, 2002... A metaphor is a figure of speech in which two different things are compared without using a word of comparison such as like or as. Writers use metaphors to spice up their prose. Here are some examples of metaphors: Her cheeks are polished...

Weekly Reader[R] Reading Assessment, Spring 2000: read each story. Then fill in the square that best completes each sentence or answers each question. (Comprehension * Vocabulary In Context * Graphic Aids).
March 8, 2002... A If you think that investing in the stock market is for adults only, think again. There are about 5 million kids between the ages of 12 and 17 who are investors. A stock market is a place to buy and sell shares of stock in all kinds of...

Reading Assessment Teacher's Guide.
March 8, 2002... Weekly Reader is delighted to bring you the second of two Reading Assessments for the 2001-2002 school year. The purpose of these assessments is twofold. First, the assessments provide students with practice in taking tests similar to...

Sample assessment.(reading comprehension)
March 8, 2002... Name -- Read the story. Then fill in the square that best completes each sentence or answers each question. On July 2, 1999, President Bill Clinton announced that the American bald eagle would be taken off the endangered species...

Weekly Reader 4 Reading Assessment Teacher's Guide.
March 8, 2002... Weekly Reader 4 Reading Assessment Teacher's Guide Date: -- Enter students' names in the left-hand column. Opposite their names, place a tally mark in the column that names the skill in which their assessment responses were...