The article, ‘News-paper-chase!’ published in the March 2010 issue of Teacher Plus had used newspapers to devise games to be played in the classroom. This time the focus is on simple activities that can be done using newspapers.

Activities for the English class
Cut a picture from an advertisement in a newspaper and use it to sell something else. You can sell anything even friendship and care. Something else you can do is to keep the picture of the advertisement but change the meaning of the advertisement by changing some or all of the words.

Take a small paragraph from a news item. Now try to change its meaning by changing the punctuation marks. Or change pronouns, prepositions, verbs (tense), etc., depending on what grammar you are studying.

The authors run Geniekids, a learning centre in Bangalore that works with children. To know more about their work visit www.geniekids.com.

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It’s practically free, it’s colourful and visually appealing; it’s big and malleable; it’s omnipresent in today’s society; it’s current and topical with something to cater to everyone’s interest. Moreover, it is one resource which is comprehensive in terms of multiple intelligence (even though it is primarily verbal in its presentation). These are the reasons we are looking at some games to develop each of the eight intelligences using the newspaper. (To know more about multiple intelligence, look up the internet or visit our website www.geniekids.com/mi. You can also go back and read “Multiple Intelligences: Seven ways to approach curriculum”, the cover story in the March 2008 issue of Teacher Plus).

Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Intelligence
Impromptu skit: Get the children to scan a newspaper and let two kids select two people featured in the news items in the paper. Once the selection has been done let them interact with each other with responses based on the person they are pretending to be.

The authors run Geniekids, a learning centre in Bangalore that works with children. To know more about their work visit www.geniekids.com.

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The dice is essentially a randomizer. Since it helps create random numbers, you can use the dice for activities that require random numbers. For instance, instead of giving students the numbers to solve math problems, let children generate their own numbers by throwing the dice and then do the problems. You can then get the children to check each other’s answers (classwork or even homework), thereby multiplying the learning.

While we talk about the use of dice in classroom, any other randomizer can also be used for the activities listed below (for a list of zero cost randomizers please visit www.geniekids.com/randomizers). But what separates the dice from other randomizers is that it has dots on it, which makes it easy for children to count and know the number; they also automatically relate the quantity to the number.

The authors run Geniekids, a learning centre in Bangalore that works with children. To know more about their work visit www.geniekids.com.

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Chess is a popular and very engaging game and probably stimulates the mind like no other. Apart from playing chess, the chess board inspires you to think of other challenging games that can be played. The grid like pattern on the board gives you opportunities to to do lots of things like move tokens, arrange them, make patterns, count, connect, etc. The black and white squares are visually interesting and can be used to add challenges. So why not try out a few of these games played on a chess board in your next class?

The authors run Geniekids, a learning centre in Bangalore that works with children. To know more about their work visit www.geniekids.com.

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Aditi Mathur and Ratnesh Mathur
Tambola or Bingo is a game commonly played at fairs, festivals and get-togethers in India. A versatile, cost-effective and easy to play game, tambola is enjoyed by both adults and children alike. Like musical chairs, (See Laugh, play, learn with musical chairs, Teacher Plus October 2009) tambola too is a wonderful tool that can be used for introducing or reinforcing a topic.

The authors run Geniekids, a learning centre in Bangalore that works with children. To know more about their work visit www.geniekids.com.

This is an article for subscribers only. You may request the complete article by writing to us at editorial@teacherplus.org.

Let’s look at musical chairs with respect to multiple intelligences and how its variations can help us develop the eight intelligences.

The authors run Geniekids, a learning centre in Bangalore that works with children. To know more about their work visit www.geniekids.com.

This is an article for subscribers only. You may request the complete article by writing to us at editorial@teacherplus.org.