Teachers!

Welcome to www.scholastic.com/sn1, the Web site for Scholastic News, Edition 1. You can use this Web site to extend your print issues of Scholastic News every month. Below you will find:

• Tips for using each feature on this site.
• More Scholastic Links
• We Meet National Standards and Reading First Skills

Tips for using each feature on this site:

• Listen and Read

How It Works:
Have your students listen to their issue of Scholastic News being read as they follow along! For one issue of Scholastic News every month, students look at the photos and text for our magazine on the computer screen. They can click on each section to hear it read aloud. A vocabulary list on the bottom of the page shows all the hard-to-read words from the text above. Students can click on the words in this section to hear them pronounced.

Purpose:
Listen and Read is a great tool for fluency instruction. You can use this feature in the same way you would use tape-assisted reading. As the voice from the computer fluently reads the text on-screen, the student follows along. Over repeated listenings, the student can read out loud along with the voice. Ultimately, this feature should help your students read the text independently.

The bottom of the page also has a list of difficult words that appear in the text. The student gains extra practice with these words by hearing them pronounced in isolation.

This is a great feature for students who need extra help in class. Kids can do Listen and Read at the computer center, or they can do it at home, when their teacher isn't there to help them read.

Technical Instructions:
To hear Listen and Read, you must have a computer with speakers and RealPlayer installed in your computer. If you don't have the player, you can download it FREE.

After you've clicked on a program and RealPlayer starts, listen just like you would to a tape or CD. That means you can pause the program, or fast-forward and rewind to hear segments more than once. You can minimize the player (just like you'd minimize any window on your computer) and the program will continue to play while you use your computer for other functions.

• Print a Fun Page

How It Works:
Just click on Print a Fun Page and print out the page. You can photocopy it for your class. Your computer-savvy students can also print it out on their own or with their parents.

Purpose:
Print a Fun Page is a fun way to build students' skills in topics related to their Scholastic News issues. This feature also extends the topics covered in Scholastic News for advanced students who have finished the regular activities, or for other students who could use a little extra help.

• Vote Now!

How It Works:
Students click on their answer for the Vote Now! question. Then they are immediately taken to a bar graph comparing their answer to other students'.

Purpose:
Vote Now! allows students to make personal connections to a topic, while encouraging the higher-order thinking skill of evaluation. Students must evaluate responses to a question and then make a choice. They bring their prior knowledge as well as their own personal experience into their evaluation process as they decide upon their answer. This feature also teaches children about bar graphs. These bar graphs are high-interest because they show students' opinions. Children can click on "What is a bar graph?" for a kid-friendly explanation of bar graphs.

More Scholastic Links

Here are some great links to other areas of www.scholastic.com! They give you more information and tips for teaching this month's SN issues and other themes.

Learn all about the rain forest with this fun Magic School Bus activity.

Students learn where seeds can sprout with this hands-on activity.

Students will learn all about the life cycle of a caterpillar with these activities.

These activities are a great way to celebrate Earth Day!

For more resources, sign up for our Scholastic e-news, a newsletter that comes to you by e-mail.

We Meet National Standards and No Child Left Behind Reading Goals

Click here (PDF) for a printable copy of the 2003–2004 Pull-Out Planning Calendar.

This month's Scholastic News issues meet the National Standards and No Child Left Behind Reading Goals.

Topics	Reading Skills Focus
• A Walk Through the Rain Forest	Phonics: Final consonant blends
• Garden Surprises!	Fluency: Practice with punctuation
• What Kind of Insect Am I?	Vocabulary: Word parts
• Happy Earth Day!	Comprehension: Main idea

Bulletin Board: Spring
Maps, Graphs, & Charts: Cardinal directions; Labeling a graph

Topics		Reading Skills Focus
• Mother's Day/Father's Day		Phonics: Syllables
• Patriotic Holidays		Fluency: Tape-assisted reading
• Olympics		Vocabulary: Antonyms
• Summer Safety		Comprehension: Retell

Maps, Graphs, & Charts: United States map; Comparing graph data