In case you’re wondering what kids like you want for the holidays this year, Nintendo will be happy to tell you that Wii U is topping the list. In just one week, the video game giant sold more than 400,000 of its new game consoles in the United States alone. According to an Associated Press story, it is the first major game console introduced in the last six years. This new controller has a touch screen that offers different people in the same room a different experience, depending on the controller used, the article said. The sales of the new console are almost the same as the sales of the original Wii. Search your eEdition and the Internet for stories about new games or toys kids want as presents this year. Draw a picture of a video game you would design for the new Wii U. Write a complete sentence describing it.

Wheee! It’s a Wii!

Set Sail, Snoopy

Section Fronts

Got the Travel Bug?

What’s That Word?

Snoopy is hitting the high seas this week as he attempts to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. OK, it’s not a living Snoopy, but a Snoopy doll carried by the Snoopy Sloop, an unmanned boat built by Robin Lovelock of the European country of Great Britain. Lovelock put the small vessel together using parts he purchased online for about $720. It measures four-feet long and weighs just 30 pounds, is wind powered and has a solar-powered GPS and computer system on board so that it can stay on course. Lovelock, who works as a scientist, is hoping to be the first person to successfully navigate an unmanned toy boat 6,000 miles across the Atlantic from Great Britain to America. As a class, search your eEdition and the Internet for stories about the Snoopy Sloop’s progress. Write a fictional “journal” from Snoopy’s point of view about the adventure of this trip.

People who visit the United Nations building in New York City find themselves surrounded by the cultures and people of 193 countries. Graham Hughes of the European nation of Great Britain, however, decided he would rather visit all of the United Nations’ 193 member states in person — plus Taiwan, Vatican City, Palestine, Kosovo, Western Sahara and the four countries that make up the United Kingdom.

He also decided to do it without ever flying in an airplane. Hughes, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is the first person to visit all the countries in the world traveling only by foot, bus, boat, taxis and trains. He filmed his adventures for a documentary movie and to raise money for a charity called WaterAid, a non-profit group that brings clean drinking water to people in developing third-world countries. Search your eEdition for stories about traveling to foreign countries. Choose a country you would like to visit and research it on the Internet. Write a short essay about the country and why you would want to visit.

Your eEdition allows you to quickly move from section to section to see what the top stories are. In the toolbar at the top or side of the page, pulldown menus allow you to look at the front page of each section to see what stories interest you. With a partner, find the pulldown menu that lets you move through the eEdition section by section. Look at the front page of three sections and write down the story in each section that is given the biggest display. Write a sentence for each explaining why it was displayed the way it was. Finish by writing a short paragraph explaining how having the ability to look quickly at section fronts helps readers.

Newspapers and eEditions are known for using larger words that have several syllables, prefixes and suffixes. Knowing the meaning of prefixes and suffixes will help you understand the meaning of many words you read. Writers also use compound words, which are two words that can stand alone, but are put together to form new words. For example, the word “pancake” is made of the word “pan” combined with the word “cake.” Search your eEdition for an article that you find interesting. Print it out. Using different colors, highlight or circle all the prefixes, suffixes and compound words that you find.

Common Core/National Standard: Using drawings or visual displays when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or points.

Common Core/National Standard: Writing narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events.

Common Core/National Standards: Using appropriate technology resources to access information and communicate electronically; describing uses of technology in daily life.

Common Core/National Standard: Identifying and knowing the meaning of the most common prefixes and suffixes.

Common Core/National Standard: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.

Buying holiday gifts wasn’t the only way money was spent over the Thanksgiving weekend. Millions of Americans shelled out $290.8 million to watch Hollywood’s latest movies. It was a record high for the Thanksgiving period, topping the previous high of $273 million in 2009, according to an Associated Press story. The big winner during Thanks-giving weekend was “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2.” It raked in $43.6 million in ticket sales from Friday to Sunday. “Skyfall” was second with $35.5 million and “Lincoln” was third with $25.7 mil-lion. Other movies that did well were “Life of Pi,” “Wreck-It Ralph” and “Red Dawn.” Search your eEdition and the Internet for movie reviews. Read several reviews and write a review of a movie you recently have seen, using the professional reviews as examples.

Movie Madness

Talking to Their Hearts

Smoking and Your Brain

Spy vs. Spy

Search by Date

If you had the chance to stand in front of your favorite NFL team and give the players a pep talk, what would you say? Fifteen-year-old Adam Merchant just wanted to see a New York Giants game for his Make-a-Wish Foundation wish, but Giants head coach Tom Coughlin decided the young man fighting cancer should get the royal treatment. He was invited to join the team for a weekend and got to watch a practice, visit the locker room, see the game with a sideline pass and give a speech to inspire the players to do their best. He apparently did a great job inspiring the team with his speech that ended with, “Play like the world champions you are.” The Giants went out and beat the Green Bay Packers 38-10. Search your eEdition and the Internet for stories about your favorite football or basketball team. Think about areas in which the team is struggling and write an inspirational team speech.

Using spies has long been a military and political way of getting information about enemies or rival nations. One of the first female spies in the United States was a housewife and nurse by the name of Lydia Darragh of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On December 2, 1777, Darragh overheard the British planning a surprise attack on General George Washington’s army the following day and gave the

information to American troops. Today’s spies are somewhat more sophisticated, and use tons of tech-nology to help them. In fact, the United States has an entire agency devoted to collecting information to keep our country safe. The Central Intelligence Agen-cy has been under fire lately for how it did or did not use information about an attack on the American consulate in the African nation of Libya that resulted in the death of the U.S. ambassador and three oth-ers. Search your eEdition for stories about the CIA. As a class, discuss its role in U.S. foreign policy.

It’s well known that smoking leads to higher risks for lung cancer and heart disease. Now a new study out of King’s College in the European city of London has found that smoking “rots” the brain by negatively affecting memory, learning and reasoning. Scientists studied 8,800 people over the age of 50 over an eight-year period. They conducted initial brain tests and then re-tested the participants four and eight years later. The results showed a consistent connection between smoking and lower scores on the tests. Search your eEdition and the Internet for stories about the dangers of smoking. As a class, discuss them and how to say “no” to smoking. Design a poster, too.

Your eEdition allows you to access information in a variety of ways. One feature allows you to search previous editions for topics that interest you. Another lets you look at entire editions of the eEdition from different days. This can be done by using the toolbar option that allows you to view eEditions by date. Find that option on the home page of your eEdition. Then scan the front page of the eEdition for every day over the last week. List what the top stories were on each day. Were stories on the same topic front-page news on different days? Write a paragraph summarizing the top story for the week and why that story got front-page coverage.

Common Core/National Standards: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience; writing arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.

Common Core/National Standard: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.

Common Core/National Standard: Engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions.

Common Core/National Standard: Understanding the operations and functions of technology systems and becoming proficient in the use of technology.

Common Core/National Standard: Engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions.

How do you justify participating in something that goes against your beliefs? Angus T. Jones, the teen actor who plays the “half” in the CBS hit comedy “Two and a Half Men,” is facing that dilemma right now. Jones has been on the show for the last 10 years, but his growing religious faith is causing him to wrestle with his role on a show he now calls “filth.” The show is known for its sexual themes and innuendos, and Jones said in an online video that he wishes viewers wouldn’t watch it. In fact, he said he doesn’t want to be on the show any more, but is under a legally binding contract with CBS. Search your eEdition and the Internet for stories of people facing moral or ethical dilemmas. As a class, share opinions on how these dilemmas could or should be resolved.

Moral Dilemma

From History to Silver Screen

Fan Lockout

Download Pages

Give Me Details

The screenwriters of “Lincoln,” “Argo” and “Zero Dark Thirty” have tapped into American history and brought it to life in the movies. Filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow won six Academy Awards for her 2008 film “The Hurt Locker,” which depicted the Iraq war through the eyes of bomb disposal technicians. She and writer Mark Boal now have teamed up again for “Zero Dark Thirty,” a film about the search for terrorist leader Osama bin Laden that is told through the eyes of CIA operatives. It doesn’t shy away from telling how information was obtained, including torture techniques that were used to make people talk. Search your eEdition for an event or person you think would make the subject of a great film. Write an outline for the plot, using details from the article you read.

Your eEdition makes it possible to save and store whole pages of the eEdition for reference. This is especially useful for the front pages of sections when you want to remember which stories were the most important on any day. The “download” tool for the eEdition allows you to download a page in electronic pdf form and save it on your computer. The “print” tool allows you to print out a copy of a page and save

it in a paper file. Get familiar with these functions by scanning pages in today’s eEdition. Pick the front page of a section, or a page that has several stories on it. Download the page electronically to your com-puter (make sure you name it so you will recognize it later). Then print out the same page. Write a para-graph comparing the advantages of downloading and printing full pages. Which would you be most likely to do? Why?

Lockouts seem to have become the bargaining tool of choice for pro sports team owners. Last year, the owners of the National Football League and the National Basketball Association locked out their players when agreements between the owners and the players’ unions couldn’t be reached. This year, it’s the National Hockey League’s turn. Lockouts not only affect the players, but also fans who look forward to attend-ing games and people who work at the games. Search your eEdition and the In-ternet for stories about the NHL lockout. Write a letter to the editor expressing your opinion as a fan, detailing how the lockout affects you or the community.

One of the advantages of print or eEdition journalism is that writers have more time than TV or radio reporters to tell stories. Print and eEdition journalists aren’t forced to cram as much informa-tion as possible into a 15-30 second sound bite. What makes reading news-paper and Internet news gratifying are the details that add texture and feeling to a story. For example, newspaper and Internet stories are able to go beyond the facts of the news to tell how people feel or how others can help. Search your eEdition and the Internet for an intriguing story. Write a summary that shows how the reporter used details to draw in the reader.

Common Core/National Standard: Engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions.

Common Core/National Standard: Writing narratives to develop real or imagined experiences of events using effective technique, well-chosen details and well-structured sequences.

Common Core/National Standard: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.

Common Core/National Standards: Determining a central idea of a text and analyzing its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary.

Common Core/National Standards: Utilizing technology-based research tools to locate and collect information; analyzing the use and reliance on technology.