Yaktivities
for Sept. 16, 2015
Kids making news
Get Fit For Fall With These Tips
NOTE TO
TEACHERS
This page is for you!
These Yaktivities are designed
to help you use Yak’s Corner
in your classroom. This is the
Teacher Page, consisting of
discussion questions and an
answer key to the reading
comprehension questions and
vocabulary exercises presented
on subsequent pages.
Print the two subsequent
pages for your students to
use in class.
Ten winners of the Michigan BlueCross BlueShield summer challenge got a summer
training session with the Detroit Lions. Many of the students discussed how they enjoyed
sports and playing outdoors, along with eating healthy foods. The goal of the challenge
is to promote healthy habits for kids. Discuss with your students: Why is it important to
create healthy habits while you’re young? What are some of your favorite ways to stay
active? What are your favorite healthy snacks?
FITNESS CCS 2: In this month’s first issue of Yak’s Corner of the school year, your students learn some good tips
about fitness. What is the main idea of this story? How do key details support it? Talk about some of the fitness goals
in class and have the students write their tips. Discuss some of the goals and tips that each story shares. What is alike
and what is different?
Answer key
How well did you read?
A Sweet Visit To Southwest
Detroit
1. b
2. c
3. d
4. d
5. a
Yakking About Books
Yak’s Corner is a Michigan K.I.D.S.
Non-Profit Educational Supplement
Supported by readers of the Detroit
Free Press and The Detroit News
1. d
2. a
3. c
4. b
5. e
Yakking About The News
1. New Horizons
2. 2006; dwarf planet
3. Nine years
Yaktionary!
1. e 2. h 3. b 4. f 5. a 6. g 7. d 8. c
Yakagrams phrase:
The Little Shop Of Monsters
Common Core State Standards Guide
Yak’s Corner
HISPANIC CCS 1: Share the story about Mexicantown and Detroit City Council Member Raquel Castaneda-Lopez. Ask your students how many have visited Mexicantown
and what they saw and did there. How many Spanish-speaking countries can your students name other than the four mentioned in the story? What do the indigenous, or
native peoples of North, Central and South America have in common?
YAKWOLVES CCS 1: Ask you students if they can think of any stories in which wolves are depicted as evil. Do they have a favorite charismatic megafauna? Why do they
like the species so much? Why do wolves deserve to be included in the category? Explain why the special category was created. Ask them what role they think the wolf
plays in the ecological balance in nature.
YAKPLUTO CCS 1: As your students share the Yakking about the News feature on Pluto probing, look at what the story says explicitly and what inferences they can draw
from it. What can they infer from the interview with Amanda on what might be needed for a career studying stars? Talk about some of the images of Pluto and what is
exciting about these discoveries. Bonus: Why do you think Pluto should be classified as a dwarf planet?
Yaktivities
HOW WELL DID YOU READ RF.CCS.4 Grades 1-5: Story related questions test reading accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
YAKTIONARY!!! L.CCS.6 Grades 3-5: Students are asked to match words to their definition to enhance and expand on the student’s base of general academic
(Tier Two) and domain-specific (Tier Three) words.
Yak’s Corner: Sept. 16, 2015
YAKTIVITIES
how well did you read?
A Sweet Visit To
Southwest
Detroit
1. What is special about Raquel’s
Detroit city council position?
a. She is the first woman on city council
b. She is the first Hispanic person on
city council
c. She is the first woman to serve
multiple terms on city council
d. All of the above
2. Who does Raquel live with?
a. Her parents
b. Her husband
c. Six of her eight siblings
d. Her grandparents
3. Where does Raquel say has the
best cookies in Mexicantown?
a. Mexicantown Bakery
b. Café Con Leche
c. Xochi’s Gift Shop
d. La Gloria Bakery
4. Why does Raquel prefer the term
Southwest Detroit instead of
Mexicantown?
a. People from other Spanish-speaking
countries live there, not just those from
Mexico
b. There are also African-Americans,
Asian-Americans and Anglo-Americans
who live there
c. It’s a very culturally-diverse area
d. All of the above
5. What is Raquel’s heritage?
a. Mexican-American
b. Native American
c. Spanish-American
d. South American
Yakking About
Books
1. What is the name of the book R. L.
Stine and Marc Brown teamed up on?
a. “Arthur’s Nose”
b. “Monkey: Not Ready For
Kindergarten”
c. “Goosebumps”
d. “The Little Shop of Monsters”
2. Where was the first place R.L. had
something he wrote published?
a. In his high school newspaper
b. In the local town’s newspaper
c. In a monthly humor magazine
d. When he got his first book published
3. Where did R.L. and Marc meet?
a. New York City
b. Columbus, Ohio
c. Moscow, Russia
d. Detroit, Michigan
4. What is Marc’s secret talent?
a. Playing soccer
b. Baking
c. Singing
d. Building birdhouses
5. Who does Marc remember
supporting him in his drawing while
he was growing up?
a. His grandmother, who kept all his
drawings
b. His art teacher, who let him explore
c. His siblings, who gave him ideas of
things to draw
d. All of the above
e. Only a and b
Yakking About
The News
1. What is the name of NASA’s
spacecraft that completed July’s
“Flyby” mission?
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
2. When was Pluto downgraded from
its status as a planet? What is its
classification now?
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
3. How long did it take for a
spacecraft to get close to Pluto?
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
Yak’s Corner: Sept. 16, 2015
YAKTIVITIES
yaktionary!
The words on the left appear in this week’s issue of the Yak! Match each word with its
definition on the right and write the letter of the definition in the space provided.
______1. Acquire
a. A voting member of a community or organization
______2. Terrain
b. Ragged, thin, or untidy in appearance
______3. Scraggly
c. To take part in an activity in a casual way
______4. Freelance
d. Originating or naturally occurring at a place, native
______5. Constituent e. To buy or obtain and object, or learn or develop a skill
______6. Hispanic
f. Working for different companies instead of a permanent job
______7. Indigenous
g. Relating to Spain or Spanish-speaking countries
______8. Dabble
h. A stretch of land
Now, on the lines below, use each new word in a sentence that shows what it means!
1. Acquire: __________________________________________________________________________
2. Terrain: ___________________________________________________________________________
3. Scraggly: _________________________________________________________________________
4. Freelance: ________________________________________________________________________
5. Constituent: _______________________________________________________________________
6. Hispanic: _________________________________________________________________________
7. Indigenous: _______________________________________________________________________
8. Dabble: ___________________________________________________________________________
V
Yak’s Corner: Sept. 16, 2015
YAKTIVITIES
Yakagrams
Unscramble the clue words from this week’s issue of the Yak. If you get stuck, try looking at
the Word Search word bank for help!
UOTRAH
DAETENLT
SIEPPSUL
1 11
22
4
7
3
13
FTICNOI
8
15
UTPRCEI
OSRSTEI
OSBKO
17
URHOM
9
2
ESSEIR
12
6
20 14
16
19
GNRIDWA
21
10
23
5 18
Now use the letters from the numbered boxes above to create a phrase from one of this week’s
stories. Pay close attention to the numbers, they may repeat!
Can you figure out which story this phrase is from?
Word Search!
1 2 3
Name:
4
5
6
7
8 9
10 11 12 13
Date:
14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Find and circle each of the words from the list below. Words may appear
horizontally, vertically or diagonally, but forwards only.
Yak’s word search
M B
I
Z
T G P C
F O A X
I
I
F
I
T
Y C A
C U M E U S A K
F
I
Y O U M Y C S
T O R
T
S P O B A
Y X
I
X
T
T R M T
L
G
I
I
D W L
P W E
I
A M O E
R S
E P R B S
R A U E S
I
A B C W N
Z
Y
J
L
I
O S R
E S C A E R
J
I
A
Z
R T
T W A
L
E
I
P R O N G E E
A N C
I
Q R O S
L
I
U H
I
G H R C H K
W U E A W T
I
T M
I
N
I
O T
N
I
G P
Z R
J
E E
T
I
A R T
I
F
Z
H U R
E P N E N D E U Y
L
E H Q Y V D S R S G D A P M R X
I
R M Z
E O M
I
L
L
U S
Y E R S S C H O
L
T
A S
H U M O R R
C K
F
E Q Z
S G T O Y S G C P A N A P N
A
T
U K B
I
S D Y W W T
T G Z
F
A E
I
I
T
J
I
T O R E
E U G Y
Y
D
T R A
O R O E
F O O N R E
E B O O K S R Y O C
All these words are related to a
theme featured in this week’s issue
of Yak’s Corner.
ARTHUR
MAGAZINE
AUTHOR
PUBLISHING
ARTWORK
BOOKS
DRAWING
FICTION
GOOSEBUMPS
HUMOR
ILLUSTRATOR
IMAGINATION
PICTURE
SCARY
SCHOLASTIC
SERIES
STORIES
SUPPLIES
TALENTED
TYPEWRITER