HOT SPOT Week 6

Summer Readers: Keep Sizzlin'

Now that summer is in full swing, you have some free time to enjoy some of the wonderful museums of Tampa Bay. This week’s HOT SPOT, Great Explorations The Children Museum, is one of those museums. At Great Explorations, you will learn about science through creativity, play and exploration.

This week’s HOT SPOT activity

Think about what the bay means to you. Do you like to swim, go fishing or boating, and watch wildlife? Can you think what school subjects and outside activities might prepare you to work in the environment and help to protect it? Look through this week’s St. Petersburg Times, find and clip out as many articles, photographs and graphics as you can that focus on this week’s theme: environment and the Tampa Bay Estuary. What you are creating is called a clip file, which is a collection of articles cut from newspapers and magazines on a particular topic. You can keep these clippings in a file folder or notebook. If you are using the e-Edition of the Times, you can print out the items you find, or make pdfs and create an electronic clip file. You might want to supplement your St. Petersburg Times clip file with articles and pictures you find in other publications or on the Internet. Be sure to include the source and date of your clipping, for history’s sake! What can you do to improve the health of the Tampa Bay Estuary? Share your thoughts with others in this blog. Just click on the comment button below to share your thoughts.

If you want to participate in the Summer Reader program, go to tampabay.com/nie/summer for details on how to get started.

HOT SPOT Week 5

Summer Readers: Keep Sizzlin'

Now that school is out , you have some free time to concentrate on YOU! Summer is a great time to focus on exercise. Do you know what it takes to stay fit and healthy? Reading is a great way to exercise your mind. Moving is a great way to exercise your body. This week’s HOT SPOT focuses on your mind and your body. You can exercise and have fun at this week's HOT SPOT sponsors, YMCA of the
Suncoast, YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg and Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA.

This week ’s HOT SPOT activity

Did you know that more than 60 percent of American adults do not get enough physical activity? Even if you can’t get to the gym five times a week, you could start making small changes in your daily routine, by parking further away at the mall if you drive, or taking the stairs. The St. Petersburg Times is a great place to look for ideas or special events where you can get a fun workout and a nutritious treat. Throughout the week, look in the Times for places to get physical and eat healthfully. Don’t forget to check out the advertisements as well as the articles. Create a list to share with your family and see if you can get everyone off the couch! With all the new knowledge you have, create a health and fitness poster with photos, ads, cartoons or slogans you have found in the Times this week. What’s your favorite form of exercise? Maybe you’ll inspire others to get fit by blogging about it. Just click on the comment button below to share your thoughts.

If you want to participate in the Summer Reader program, go to tampabay.com/nie/summer for details on how to get started.

HOT SPOT Week 4

Summer Readers: Keep Sizzlin'

This week people around the nation will take time from their busy schedules to celebrate Independence Day. This week’s HOT SPOT will take time to honor the important values and rights our forefathers and mothers fought for, including one that is near and dear to every newspaper’s heart, freedom of speech. This week’s HOT SPOT celebrates the United States and its freedoms. Speaking of celebrating, you can celebrate your freedom from school with our HOT SPOT sponsor, Celebration Station.

This week’s HOT SPOT activity

French writer and Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus once wrote, “A free press can of course be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad. . . . Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better, whereas enslavement is a certainty of the worse.”  Camus believed that it is your duty as a citizen to stay informed!

As you read the St. Petersburg Times this week, look for articles that cover issues you need to be informed about. Create a chart listing these issues. Which issues do you want to see elected officials address, and how? Make a list of local issues and state issues. Look for news about political candidates in the Times this week. How do the candidates plan to address the issues you care about? Share your ideas with other students across Tampa Bay. Just click on the comment button below and start blogging!

If you want to participate in the Summer Reader program, go to tampabay.com/nie/summer for details on how to get started.

HOT SPOT Week 3

Summer Readers: Keep Sizzlin'

It’s not the heat; it’s the humidity. Florida is known as the Sunshine State, if you’ve ever spent a summer in Florida, you know it also could qualify as the “Hot State.” Surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, our state is influenced by warm, tropical moisture, especially in the summer. Florida summer is in full swing, despite the calendar saying it has only been here officially for a few days. Is this making you hot under the collar? If you need to escape the sizzling summer weather, then cool down with this week’s HOT SPOT, Circle K.

This Week's HOT SPOT Activity

Have you noticed summer’s afternoon rainstorms appearing with more regularity? Meteorologists use many tools to forecast and keep close watch on thunderstorms. Your local National Weather Service office has meteorologists and technicians working around the clock to keep an eye on the weather. The weather page on the back of the Sports section in the St. Petersburg Times is a great place to keep an eye on future storms. Go to tampabay.com for immediate updates.

Have you ever wondered how different weather conditions affect your moods? Find out by creating a data chart. You can use the Times weather page to collect data for this activity each day. At the end of the week, use your data to create a line or bar graph. You also can keep a chart of your results. Keep a mood chart, too. Does the weather affect your mood? Share your thoughts with other students across Tampa Bay here at our Summer Times Reader Blog. Just click on the comment button below and start blogging!

If you want to participate in the Summer Reader program, go to tampabay.com/nie/summer for details on how to get started!

Summer Reading the Times

Whether you are attending a summer reading camp, wandering the world with Hillsborough County's summer library program, reading with the Rays or keeping a reader log for the Times Sizzlin' Summer Reader program, you are spending time reading the St. Petersburg Times. How do you feel about reading the Times? What parts do you like? What would you change if you were in charge? Click on the COMMENTS bar below to share your newspaper views.

For more topics of discussion, explore the 2008 categories at the top of the left sidebar like:

READING WITH THE RAYS
WANDER THE WORLD
ZOO STORY

SHORTCUT: To go straight to the topics above, just click on the titles!

HOT SPOT Week 2

Summer Readers: Keep Sizzlin'

Museums are full of things that make you think. In fact the word museum is derived from the Latin term “muses,” meaning “a source of inspiration,” or “to be absorbed in one’s thoughts.” The Florida Holocaust Museum is a source of inspiration. One of the largest Holocaust museums in the country, this museum is dedicated to teaching members of all races and cultures to appreciate the essential value of human life.

This Week's HOT SPOT Activity

Anne Frank is one of the best-known diary writers in history. The young Jewish girl detailed her life in hiding in an attic in Amsterdam during World War II, protected by a Dutch family as Nazis rounded up Jews during the Holocaust. Even in the face of evil around her, she clung to her ideals, “because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.”

The St. Petersburg Times is a good source for stories about people of all ages helping others. Each day this week, look in your edition’s regional section for local profiles of people who are “truly good at heart.” Make a list of positive characteristics for the people in the articles you find. Do you know  someone who makes a difference for others? Share your stories with other students across Tampa Bay here at our Summer Times Reader Blog. Just click on the comment button below and start blogging!

If you want to participate in the Summer Reader program, go to tampabay.com/nie/summer for details on how to get started!

Summer Readers: Start Sizzlin!

We are lucky to live in Florida where so much sea life is easily accessible. A walk on a beach, a paddle down a local river or even a peek into a nearby retention pond will expose you to all types of creatures that live in or near the water. You can read in the St. Petersburg Times about the creatures that live in the waters and woods around us and what is being done to protect their habitats.

This week’s Hot Spot activity
If you read this week's Hot Spot activity on Monday, June 9th, you learned about the Coral Reef Gallery at the Florida Aquarium, an artificial reef modeled after the coral formations of the Dry Tortugas off the Florida Keys. Housed in a 500,000-gallon tank, the reef provides the base for a community of more than 1,600 coral reef residents. Artificial reefs provide habitat for all kinds of marine plant and animal life. On land, structures also provide habitat for wildlife. Insects live in and around our homes; birds often nest around buildings or under bridges; mice take shelter in our cities.

Look in the St. Petersburg Times for photos of manmade structures that could make good habitats for animals, birds or plants. Cut out the pictures and write down why these structures make good habitats. If you read something interesting about Florida wildlife this week, be sure to share it with other students across Tampa Bay here at our Summer Times Reader Blog. Just click on the comment button below and start blogging!

If you want to participate in the Summer Reader program, go to tampabay.com/nie/summer for details on how to get started!