George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate in Virginia has opened a library dedicated to the study of the nation’s first president. It’s called the Fred Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington, and it cost $47 million to build. The library will host visiting scholars and experts who will examine the lives of the nation’s Founders. It also will hold events for political and military leaders and others who want to understand Washington’s values. As a class, discuss some of the personal values George Washington had that made him effective as a military leader and the first president. Draw a comic strip for the eEdition in which President Washington tells readers some values he hopes they would learn about by visiting his library.

A Library at Mount Vernon

Super-Volcanoeson the Planet Mars

A Hazardous Haze

Meet a ‘New’ Mammal

To Be Continued …

On the surface of Mars, it has long been believed that the Eden Patera crater was created by the impact of a meteor crashing into the so-called Red Planet. A new study, however, concludes that the crater was caused by the eruption of a volcano. And not just any volcano. The study published in the journal Nature suggests that massive formations like Eden Patera are actually the remains of super-volcanoes. Super-volcanoes are far larger than regular volcanoes and their eruptions are so large they can change the landscape and climate of an entire planet. Scientists are constantly learning more about planets, the solar system and the universe. In the eEdition or on the website www.nasa.gov, find a story about a space discovery or space mission. Write a short summary of the story in the form of a three-line haiku poem. A haiku has five syllables in the first line, seven in the second and five in the third.

A new species of carnivore has been identified in the Earth’s Western Hemisphere —the first in the last 35 years. But it took more than 10 years to identify the small meat-eater. That’s because naturalists had mistaken the creature, which they have named the olinguito, for a close relative, the olinga. The 14-inch animal is in the mammal family that includes raccoons, and experts from the Smithsonian

Institution identified it through DNA samples. It is the smallest member of the raccoon family, active at night and eats fruit as well as meat. It lives in an area from central Colombia to western Ecuador in South America. New species of insects, worms, bacteria and viruses are discovered on a regular basis, but new mammals are rare. Wild animals can make news in many ways. In the eEdition or online, find a story or photo involving a wild animal. Write a paragraph explaining why the animal is in the news.

Even though local laws forbid it, farmers on the Indonesian island of Sumatra often burn forests to prepare their land for new plantings. In some years (like this one), this can create widespread air pollution. This summer, haze covered the nearby city-state of Singapore, where air pollution soared to record levels. In neighboring Malaysia, more than 200 schools were ordered closed because of the pollution. Air and water pollution are issues that concern many nations and communities. In the eEdition find a picture of an outdoor scene. Study the picture and make a list of ways that air or water pollution could have a negative effect on the place in the picture.

At the start of a new school year, it’s good to review the features of your eEdition. Here’s an important one because it helps you find stories and information you need. Open the different tool bars at the top of the page until you find the one that shows the different sections of the eEdition. Go to the first page of the entertainment or sports section. Read a story on the page that continues on another page. Use the toolbar at the top of the page to find the rest of the story. When you find the rest of the story, read it and write a short paragraph telling what it’s about. Then write how find-ing the rest of a story with the eEdition compares to using a paper edition.

Common Core State Standards: Engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions; using drawings or visual displays when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or points.

Common Core State Standards: Demonstrating understanding of figurative language; writing narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events; applying knowledge of language to under-stand how language functions in different contexts.

Common Core State Standards: Writing informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly; conducting short research projects that build knowledge about a topic.

Common Core State Standards: Conducting short research projects that build knowledge about a topic; using technology resources for problem-solving, self-directed learning and extended learning activi-ties; discussing the positive and negative impact of technologies.

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

As the Earth’s climate warms, sea ice recedes in the Arctic area around the North Pole. Just ask the walrus. An estimated 10,000 of them have come ashore on Alaska’s northwest coast, because they are unable to find sea ice over shallow water in the Arctic’s oceans. This can be a big problem because walrus, especially the young ones, can easily be spooked into stampedes by polar bears, hunters or low-flying airplanes. In stampedes, walrus not only can cause damage to the environment but to each other. Global warming and climate change are in the news frequently and affect life on Earth in many ways. With the eEdition and Internet, compile a log of stories showing different effects of global warming on wildlife, habitats and people. Use what you find to write a short essay summarizing some effects of global warming.

A Walrus Stampede?

Jellyfish Shut Nuclear Plant

Pick a Movie!

Ancient City Unearthed

A ‘Righteous’ Egyptian

One of the world’s largest nuclear reactors was forced to shut down recently because of … jellyfish! Tons of jellyfish clogged the pipes that bring in cool ocean water for the turbines at the Oskarshamn nuclear plant in the European country of Sweden. After two days, the pipes had been cleared, and engineers were preparing to restart the reactor. The Oskarshamn plant has the world’s largest boiling-water reactor and employs the same technology as Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, which suffered a catastrophic failure after its walls were breached by a tsunami tidal wave. Wildlife affect human activities in many ways. In the eEdition or online, find a wild animal that has an effect for better or worse on human behavior. Use what you find to design a poster that high-lights the effects. Give your poster an eye-catching title.

Archaeologists have discovered a 3,300-year-old city under a mound in the Middle East nation of Iraq. They believe it is Idu, which was located on the northern banks of the Zab River in Kurdistan. Cuneiform writing samples and works of art reveal the palaces that flourished in the city throughout its history thousands of years ago. The earliest remains date back to Neolithic times, when farming

first appeared in the Middle East. Later the city was part of the Assyrian empire and had control of the surrounding region. It gained independence for 140 years before being reconquered by the Assyrians. Signs of more modern warfare also are evident: A village on the site was burned to the ground during Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s campaign against the local Kurds. Excavating ancient cities can reveal how people used to live and how lifestyles evolved. Find a city that interests you in today’s eEdition. Do some research and write a paragraph describing what features of the city would be most interesting to future archaeologists.

Your eEdition contains everything included each day in the print edition of the newspaper. That includes ads as well as stories and photos. In today’s eEdition, find an ad for a movie you would like to see with your friends. Click on the ad to show your friend what actors are in the movie and why you find it interesting. Now find an ad or listing that will tell you where and when you can see this movie. List two or three choices on a sheet of paper. Finish by writing a paragraph describing how using an eEdition is different from print for finding movies, along with the advantages and disadvantages.

An Egyptian doctor is the first Arab honored as part of the “Righteous Among the Nations” program run by Israel’s Holocaust memorial. During World War II, Mohamed Helmy owned a cabin in Berlin, Germany, and he used it to hide several Jews from the Nazis and from concentration camps. One of those Helmy helped to survive wrote of him after the war: “I will be grateful to him for eternity.” In countries all over the world, people do extraordinary things to help others. In the eEdition or online, find an example. Use what you find to write a thank you note to the person, stating why you think the action taken was needed or extraordinary.

Common Core State Standards: Reading closely what a text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; citing specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions.

Common Core State Standards: Conducting short research projects that build knowledge about a topic; using drawings or visual displays when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or points.

Common Core State Standards: Conducting short research projects that build knowledge about a topic; using a variety of technology tools for data collection and analysis; comparing information technologies from the past and present.

Common Core State Standards: Reading closely what a text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; writing opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.

Common Core State Standards: Writing informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly; conducting short research projects that build knowledge about a topic.

Rarely has a TV series been as popular as cable’s “Breaking Bad” was. In the process, it made a superstar out of Bryan Cranston, who played the central character, a schoolteacher-turned-drug-kingpin. Now the Emmy Award-winning actor will make his Broadway debut in New York City as President Lyndon Johnson in “All the Way.” The play, which has been playing to sold-out audiences in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has received mixed reviews, but Cranston’s notices have been favorable. Popular actors often are cast in plays because people enjoy seeing them perform live. In the eEdition or online, find an actor or actress you like whom you would like to see perform live in a play. Write a paragraph describing why this actor/actress would be an attraction performing live, and what kind of story would make the best use of his/her talent.

For Star, Things ‘Breaking Good’

A Pilot’s ‘Skill’

Auschwitz Guardsto Be Charged

A ‘Pop-Up’ Concert

Read Electronically

A small plane made an emergency landing on a busy highway near San Jose, California, surprising morning commuters but touching down without injuring anyone. The Bellanca Citabria craft took off with a student at the controls from a San Jose airport, but it experienced engine trouble, and the instructor took over. The instructor then notified air controllers he had to turn back, and used the eight-lane Capitol Expressway as a runway, navigating a landing through power lines and cars before turning into a right-turn lane. “It required some skill on [the pilot’s] part,” a police sergeant observed. Dealing with an emergency takes courage, cool-head-edness and other strong character traits. In the eEdition or online, find a story about someone responding to an emer-gency. Then write a poem, rap or rhyme outlining the character traits the person needed to respond to the emergency.

The world-famous Philadelphia Orchestra was all set to headline Carnegie Hall’s season-opening gala in New York, but then stagehands went on strike and the concert had to be canceled. The orchestra performed anyhow — not in New York, but back home in Philadelphia. Substituting casual wear for formal clothes, they presented a last-minute “pop-up” concert in the Kimmel Center — for free. A “sellout”

audience of about 2,500 responded on short notice to radio announcements and word of mouth and got to hear 90 minutes of Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Ravel conducted by the orchestra’s musical director, Yannick Nezet-Seguin. “We are musicians,” the mae-stro explained about the decision to do the pop-up performance. “What we like to do … is play music.” Orchestras, theater companies, museums and other organizations often make news for the contributions they make to communities. In the eEdition, find a story, photo or listing about a cultural group in your community or state. Write out all the things the cultural group contributes to the community.

Auschwitz was one of the most horrific concentration camps created by Nazi Germany, and more than 40 people believed to have been guards there are still alive, sources in Germany report. As a result they are being pursued by Ger-man investigators under a new approach that holds that anyone who served in a Nazi death camp can be charged as an accessory to murder. Human rights viola-tions still make news in the world. In the eEdition or online, find an example and discuss the case as a class. Then write a short eEdition editorial discussing what rights are being violated, what steps have been taken to correct the violations and whether more steps should be taken.

An eEdition makes it easy to quickly scan the news with a computer. With toolbars or navigation arrows you can easily move from page to page. And by moving your cursor or navigation tool over stories, you can read highlights of the headlines or key points. Go to the front page of today’s eEdition, or the front of a section that interests you. Scan the stories with your cursor or naviga-tion tool. Click on one that interests you. Read the portion that appears on the front page and click to find the rest. Write a paragraph describing what was most interesting about the story and the advantages of reading stories with the electronic tools of eEditions.

Common Core State Standards: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task; citing specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions.

Common Core State Standards: Demonstrating understanding of figurative language; writing narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events; applying knowledge of language to under-stand how language functions in different contexts.

Common Core State Standards: Writing opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information; citing specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions; conducting short research projects.

Common Core State Standards: Conducting short research projects that build knowledge about a topic; using prescribed technology tools for data collection and analysis; describing uses of technology in daily life.

Common Core State Standards: Conducting short research projects that build knowledge about a topic; writing opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information; citing specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions.