Don’t Trash Your Yellow Pages!

Hi, there. Let me introduce you to GOLD.

Okay, so it’s yellow, but still. This is gold for a learner.

Yesterday I noticed this lil’ guy on my porch. I kind of rolled my eyes. “Ugh! Just more for the recycling bin. Nobody uses these. Hello! We have the internet.”

I threw it in, went inside, saw my children, then ran back to get it. I almost trashed a wealth of text!

Kiddos need to be familiar with several font types and sizes. Everything in the world is not Times New Roman, and they need to read it all! The hundreds of pages in this book represent countless hours of learning for little people.

Here’s one activity I did with a little girl I tutor. She is a student in Classical Conversations, where they are learning about pronouns: nominative, possessive, reflexive, possessive adjectives…the list goes on. For review, I had her open up to a page and search like a hawk for pronoun prey. Since the book is FREE, she chose a writing tool and colored away!

Here is a list of other activities for the Yellow Pages:

1. For younger children just learning letters, have them circle all of one letter or cut them out/paste the letters to a poster-board. Do the same with numbers!
2. Teach alphabetical order. Tear out 5-10 pages and mark out the page numbers. Have the student put them in alphabetical order.
3. Have your kids plan your next field trip by reading through the local “Attractions” section. Older students can research the corresponding website to plan what you should do.
4. Search for sight words. Have a race to see who can find 10 of a sight word first (e.g. and, the, we).
5. Find examples of parts of speech. Have students cut them out and paste them in a composition notebook, sectioned into different parts of speech.
6. Search for and highlight a certain phonogram (e.g. sh, th, or, ow).

The Yellow Pages aren’t the only junk mail that can be used for learning. Other advertisements can be used for many of the activities above.

What ideas do you have for turning mail trash into learning treasure? Please share them in the comments!