A "silver lining" to the mining disaster

DISASTER PUTS COPIAPO ON THE MAP

When a copper mine collapses trapping 33 miners, it’s a terrible tragedy.

However, in the case of the recent Chilean mine collapse, there is a silver lining. In fact, the mayor of Copiapo, Chile, calls the incident “a blessing from heaven” for his town.

Before Aug. 5, not very many people from outside of Chile knew about Copiapo. Then the tragedy struck. The miners were trapped underground for two months while millions of people around the world watched and waited, and thousands of reporters descended on Copiapo.

Now the small town is very well known. And that has improved its economy. All of the reporters and mining experts who spent months in Copiapo spent a lot of money there, on things like hotels, rental cars and food. The city’s mayor estimates that more than $20-million has been spent there since the mine collapse.

Now, tourists are visiting the city that the miners made famous. The city’s tourism board is talking about building a museum about local miners, with a focus on “los 33,” which would feature the rescue capsule.

“Copiapo is not the same place it was on Aug. 5,” the mayor said.

Curriculum Connection
The tourism board and the mayor of Copiapo are very excited about the attention and money the town has received in the months surrounding the mining tragedy. Do you think residents of the town and the miners who were trapped feel the same way? If so, why do you think they would have a similar point of view? If you think they may feel differently, support your answer using evidence from the article and your own ideas.

Primary:
identify the point of view presented in a text and suggest some possible alternative perspectives (OME, Reading: 1.9)

Junior:
identify the point of view presented in texts; determine whether they can agree with the view, in whole or in part; and suggest some other possible perspectives (OME, Reading: 1.9).

Grammar Feature
An idiom is an expression that cannot be understood when someone just looks at the words that make it up. For example, if someone has a chip on their shoulder, it means that they are upset; and if something is a piece of cake, it means that it is easy.
There are three idioms in this article (“on the map”; “is not the same place it was on Aug. 5.”; “silver lining”). Help your students to identify these idioms and infer what they mean.

Extensions for Primary and Junior
If you were in charge of designing the museum in Copiapo, what would you include in it to make it appealing for children to visit?

Customers prefer "old" Gap logo

The Gap won't be changing
its logo any time soon.

Image: Dorsetdude, Wikimedia Commons

The Gap is a popular clothing store. It sells clothes for babies, kids and adults.

Have you ever seen The Gap’s logo? Millions of people have and they obviously like it, because when the retailer decided to change its logo, its customers revolted.

The Gap posted its proposed new logo on its website. It said the new logo was more modern than its old logo.

But before it could replace the old logo with its new one, customers started complaining. They complained on Facebook and Twitter and they sent e-mails to the company.

Within a few days, they knew they had made a huge mistake. Customers liked the old logo and didn’t want it to change. So they changed their mind, and withdrew the new logo.

On their website they posted a note to customers: “OK. We’ve heard loud and clear that you don’t like the new logo. We’re bringing back the Blue Box tonight.” The “blue box” refers to the fact that the old logo is the word GAP inside a blue box.

Some people are wondering if the “new logo introduction” was just a way to sell more clothing. Even though it looks like The Gap made a huge error, in fact they received a lot of attention from millions of people—and it didn’t cost them a cent.

And it turns out, they needed the publicity. Sales at Gap stores in North America have been falling this year.

Whatever the reason, there is no doubt that The Gap won’t be changing its logo any time soon. Its customers have spoken.

Related Links
The Gap's statement about the logo change.

Curriculum Connection

“What questions do you ask yourself to make sure you are understanding what you are reading?” “How do you know if you are on the right track?” “When you come to a word or phrase you don’t understand, how do you solve it?” “How do you figure out what information is important to remember?” “What do you do when you get confused during reading?”

Primary
Identify, initially with some support and direction, what strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading and how they can use these and other strategies to improve as readers (OME, Reading: 4.1).

Junior
Identify the strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading and explain, in conversation with the teacher and/or peers, or in a reader’s notebook, how they can use these and other strategies to improve as readers (OME, Reading: 4.1).

Grammar Feature
Today’s article uses quotation marks in an “interesting” way. Twice, words are in quotation marks but no one is speaking. This is because quotation marks can also be used to show sarcasm or irony.
“blue box” - The Gap logo is not actually a blue box.
“new logo introduction” - The new logo introduction may have been a trick to get people talking about the Gap.
Extensions
Why is a logo such a powerful image? Why do you think customers were upset about the logo of the Gap changing? Is there a logo or a business that you feel strongly attached to?

Little boy ties up 911 line

Image: Sug, Wikimedia
Commons.

TODDLER MAKES HUNDREDS OF CALLS TO 911

Did you know that old cell phones, even if they’re no longer connected to a network, can often still dial 911? Alex’s parents know it… now.

That’s because Alex used his “play” cell phone to dial 911. Four hundred times.

People can dial 911 in an emergency, when they need the police or an ambulance or the fire department.

So when four-year-old Alex called 911, the operator thought there was an emergency. At least, the first few times.

Alex’s parents had given him an old cell phone to play with, and he was probably very excited to find out that there was a number he could dial to actually get a real person on the other end of the line.

So he kept calling. Again and again and again.

He tied up the 911 line for hours. He ignored the operator’s repeated requests to stop calling 911 or to put his parents on the phone.

The operator shouted into the phone, hoping that Alex’s parents would hear him and take the phone away from the child.

During one call, the operator heard an adult asking Alex if he wanted some pie.

The police think the calls were coming from the area of Highway 21, five kilometers south of Port Elgin, Ont.

Curriculum Connection

In order to understand new information, we use schema. Schema is a person’s background knowledge.

Before your students read the article, have them use their schema to brainstorm everything they know about 911.

Have your students read the article. Ask them to identify how their schema/background knowledge of 911 helped them to better understand the article.

Primary:
identify a variety of reading comprehension strategies and use them appropriately before, during, and after reading to understand texts (OME, Reading: 1.3)

Junior:
identify a variety of reading comprehension strategies and use them appropriately before, during, and after reading to understand increasingly complex texts (OME, Reading: 1.3)

Grammar Feature
Capital letters are used throughout the article for the following purposes:

1. At the beginning of a sentence

2. Proper nouns – ex. Port Elgin, Alex, Highway 21

Discuss the different uses of capital letters.

Extensions
Alex made serious mistakes by calling 911 so many times. Do you think he was old enough to know better? Do you think Alex should be punished? If so, how do you think he should be punished?

Do you think Alex’s parents were at fault? Do you think his parents should face consequences? If so, what punishment should Alex’s parents face?
Many children now have cell phones. Some children have them for safety reasons, while others use them to call their friends and socialize. At what age do you think a child is responsible enough to have a cell phone?

All 33 miners rescued

Mario Gomez, 59, was the oldest of the
33 miners trapped in the Chilean mine.

Image: Hugo Infante/Government of
Chile via Wikimedia Commons.

CHILEAN MINERS SAFE

All of the 33 Chilean miners are safely back home now. The miners, had been trapped 600 metres underground for two months when a tunnel in their mine collapsed.

Millions of people around the world were glued to their television sets last week, watching each of the miners surface as they were pulled, one by one, from the mine.

While the miners were underground for two months, teams of people on the surface helped ensure they stayed healthy. Good nutrition was particularly important and trickier than you might think.

When the mine first collapsed on Aug. 5, two weeks went by before anyone on the surface could get food to them. The men lived on two mouthfuls of tuna and a sip of milk a day, and a few bites of cracker every other day. Remember, these are large, strong men used to eating a lot of food!

Each miner lost about 20 pounds during that time, and became very dehydrated, meaning their bodies didn’t have enough water. Seventeen days later, the first food arrived down in the mine: a type of medical milkshake called “Supportan.” They were also given water and vitamins.

For five days, Supportan was the only thing they were allowed to consume. That’s because eating too much, too soon, after you’ve been literally starving could bring on a seizure or a heart attack.

After that, the miners’ diets were carefully crafted so they got all the nutrients they needed, but didn’t get too fat which might prevent them from fitting in the rescue capsule. They were given 2,300 calories a day and told to exercise an hour each day.

Here’s a sample daily menu for the miners.
Breakfast: liquid yogurt, toast and jam.
Morning snack: four protein cookies.
Lunch: baked salmon with mashed potatoes, pineapple, Gatorade.
Afternoon snack: bread with dulce-de-leche (a caramel-milk treat).
Dinner: baked pork with corn, tangerine.

When the miners got out, they all looked forward to eating their favourite foods again. Most of them said they wanted to have a big barbeque with their families.

One man, Pablo Villacorta, wanted his mother-in-law to make him spaghetti with sauce because, according to his wife, “he thinks she is a better cook than me.”

Related Links
Miners to be out tomorrow

Curriculum Connections
“What is the purpose of a list in this article? How could you use it to help you understand the text?” Why did the writer of this article include a list?

Primary and Junior
Identify a variety of text features and explain how they help readers understand texts (e.g., table of contents, charts and chart titles, headings, an index, a glossary, graphs, illustrations, pictures, diagrams, hyperlinks, a menu) (OME, Reading: 2.3).

Grammar Feature
Colon: The list in this article uses colons after each heading. Point out to your students that colons are used to separate headings from the sentence or sentences that are linked to them.

Breakfast: liquid yogurt, toast and jam.
Morning snack: four protein cookies.
Lunch: baked salmon with mashed potatoes, pineapple, Gatorade.
Afternoon snack: bread with dulce-de-leche (a caramel-milk treat).
Dinner: baked pork with corn, tangerine.

Extensions
If you were trapped with the miners in the mine, how would you have kept your spirits up? What types of things would you have said to the miners who were trapped with you?

Actor Johnny Depp helps avert a mutiny

JACK SPARROW SHOWS UP AT PRIMARY SCHOOL

A group of schoolchildren in Britain got the surprise of their lives recently, when actor Johnny Depp showed up at the school, dressed as the character Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Actor Johnny Depp surprised
students at Meridian
Primary School in London.
Image: Edward Scissorhands,
Wikimedia Commons

Grade-four student Beatrice Delap had written Depp a letter, telling him that she wanted to mutiny against the teachers at Meridian Primary School in Greenwich, and that she needed his help.

She got the letter into Depp’s hands by giving it to a security guard where Depp was filming Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides at a location nearby.

She never dreamed he would actually show up at her school!


Not only did he show up, but he brought with him a cast of four pirates in full costume. They performed pirate songs and dances at a quickly arranged assembly.



Depp called Delap out of the audience and gave her a hug, joking that, “maybe we shouldn’t mutiny ‘cause there are police outside monitoring me.” Instead, he suggested that they eat candy every day and not brush their teeth until they turn green and fall out.

He pulled out Beatrice’s letter, which read:

“We are a bunch of budding young pirates. Normally we’re a right handful, but we’re having trouble mutinying against the teachers. We’d love it if you could come and help.”

He said he plans to frame the letter.

Related Links
Someone (presumably a teacher) took a video of the visit. View the two-minute YouTube video here.

Curriculum Connection

Questioning:

Before students begin reading, encourage them to formulate questions about the article after reading the title: “Jack Sparrow Shows up at Primary School.” Then have students pose questions while they read and after they are finished reading the article. 

Discuss these questions as a class and encourage students to use inference and prediction to answer the questions. 

As a class, indentify why questioning is useful as a reading comprehension strategy (for people to focus their reading and to clarify their understanding of a text). 

Primary

identify a variety of reading comprehension strategies and use them appropriately before, during, and after reading to understand texts (OME, Reading: 1.3)

Junior

identify a variety of reading comprehension strategies and use them appropriately before, during, and after reading to understand increasingly complex texts (OME, Reading: 1.3). 

Grammar Feature

Quotation marks are used twice in the article for the following purposes: to indicate speech and to quote the student’s letter to Johnny Depp. 

Discuss when and how quotation marks are used in writing. 

Extensions for Primary and Junior 

Johnny Depp’s unexpected visit would have been a wonderful surprise for the students at Meridian Primary School. If you could choose any famous person to come and visit your school, who would you pick and why?

Peace Prize winner in Chinese jail

Liu Xiao Bo is the winner of the
2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
Image: Wikimedia Commons.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE AWARDED TO LIU XIAO BO

Each year, the person who has done the most to help world peace is given what is perhaps the globe's highest honour: The Nobel Peace Prize. Last year's winner was U.S. President Barack Obama.

The winner receives not only the respect and admiration of people around the world, but also a cash prize of over $1-million.

Last week, the winner for 2010 was announced. His name is Liu Xiao Bo and he was chosen because of his long history of non-violent protests for peace.

Unfortunately, Liu Xiao Bo may not even know he has won one of the world's most important awards. That's because he is in a prison in China.

Liu is serving an 11-year prison sentence for speaking out against the Chinese government. As the prize was being read out, Liu was likely sitting in the prison cell he shares with five other prisoners, reading a book.

The Chinese government blocked the news of the award on the Internet from the country's 1.3 billion citizens. In China, anyone who searched for "nobel peace prize," for instance, would get an error message saying the page could not be found. Any television station that mentioned his name or the prize was blacked out in China.

What did Liu do to deserve such treatment? He wrote documents saying that China should become a democracy and respect human rights. In some countries, such as China, speaking out against the government in this way can force you to be imprisoned or even tortured.

Shortly after the announcement, Liu's wife visited him in prison. She said she was going to tell him that he'd won the prize, but that has not been confirmed: right after her visit she was put under "house arrest" -- meaning she cannot leave her home -- and her telephone has been cut off.

Here are some official facts about the Nobel Peace Prize.

Curriculum Connection
How does hearing a similar article read aloud help you when you read a new article independently?
How does knowing specific words or phrases from speaking or listening help you as a reader?
How do discussions with the teachers or classmates in conferences help you as a reader?
What do you know about writing that helps you as a reader?

Primary
Explain, initially with some support and direction, how their skills in listening, speaking, writing, viewing, and representing help them make sense of what they read (OME, Reading: 4.2).

Junior
Explain, in conversation with the teacher and/or peers or in a reader’s notebook, how their skills in listening, speaking, writing, viewing, and representing help them make sense of what they read (e.g., using a particular form when writing enhances understanding when reading texts of a similar form) (OME, Reading: 4.2).

Grammar Feature
Use a comma to show introductory material. In this article several sentences begin with introductory material that is separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma. Read each sentence to your students, first with the introductory material and then without. Highlight the sentences that still make sense without the introductory material but now have less detail.

“Each year, the person who has done the most to help world peace is given what is perhaps the globe's highest honour: The Nobel Peace Prize.”

“Last week, the winner for 2010 was announced.”

“Shortly after the announcement, Liu's wife visited him in prison.”

Extension
Liu Xiao Bo has peacefully fought to spread democracy throughout China for a long time. Democracy is the belief that each person should be able to vote, and that there should be fair courts of law and basic human rights. What is a right? What rights do you think people should have? What should someone do if they are not being given those rights?

Does Ronald McDonald really smell bad?

FUN WAYS TO GET KIDS TO EAT BETTER

Everyone knows that it’s healthier to eat fruits and veggies than it is to eat fast foods and junk food.

But how do you get kids to eat the healthy stuff and avoid the foods that are bad for them?

It’s especially difficult today when fast food firms like McDonald’s offer toys with their hamburgers, when fast food is packaged to attract kids, and when ads make junk food seem healthy and fun.

Parents, chefs and farmers are fighting back in some pretty unusual ways.

For instance, celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain tells his three-year-old daughter that Ronald McDonald kidnaps children, has cooties and that he smells like pooh.

He says he young children don’t care about calories and nutrition. But cooties, they understand, he says.
Bolthouse Farms, which sells carrots and other healthy foods, has created new packaging that makes their baby carrots look like bags of chips. And their website has a commercial that’s a lot like a Cheetos ad.

Are these chips? Nope - they're baby carrots, dressed up like
junk food to make them more appealing to kids.

Parents also need to help in the battle to get kids eating healthy food, say nutritionists. Simple things like making breakfasts more nutritious or cutting back on juice can really go a long way towards helping kids eat more healthy.

It’s also good to get kids in the kitchen, cooking their own meals. They’re more likely to eat healthy food if they cook it themselves. Toronto’s The Stop Community Food Centre offers a cooking program for kids aged 8 to 12. Kids are 20 times more likely to eat vegetables they’ve prepared themselves than ones that are just served to them, says The Stop’s co-ordinator.

This article was adapted from an article in the Globe and Mail by Wency Leung.

Curriculum Connection

This article contains many high frequency words and words that are relevent to kids’ lives. Ensure that these words are read fluently and that they do not interfere with comprehension.

Primary
Automatically read and understand most high-frequency words, many regularly used words, and words of personal interest or significance, in a variety of reading contexts (OME, Reading: 3.1).

Junior
Automatically read and understand most words in a range of reading contexts (OME, Reading: 3.1).

Grammar Feature
Never say never! Children often start sentences with the words, “but” or “and.” This is generally a problem. However, in today’s article, the author starts three different sentences with these words. Explore and investigate why it works and why it shouldn’t be done all the time.

“But how do you get kids to eat the healthy stuff and avoid the foods that are bad for them?”

“But cooties, they understand, he says.”

“And their website has a commercial that’s a lot like a Cheetos ad.”

Extensions
Eating healthy foods is a huge problem in our city and country. What would you do to help people make healthy choices? What problems do you think you would have?