Literature, Literacy and Current Events

March 1941: Rosie begins riveting

March 12, 2025 - In 1941 when 25 women completed training at a Vultee airplane factory, their first day of work was scheduled for April 1.

Word of the Day

: Find it in blue in today's top story!

Writing Practice

Practice your writing skills with the story above!

Complete this Writing Practice. Then print or email your document, or if available, save it to Google Drive.

Writing Progress

Track your progress all year. For your Student Summary Report Form:
Click Here (pdf)

Weekly VOCAB

Today In History

October 8

1871: The City of Chicago was engulfed in a ferocious fire from October 8-10, a fire that became known as the Great Chicago Fire. For years, the start of the fire was blamed on a cow kicking over a lantern in the barn of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary. With so many buildings made of wood and windy, dry conditions in Chicago at the time, the fire spread rapidly causing more than 200 deaths and burning more than 2,000 acres of Chicago. The newly built stone Water Tower survived the fire as did the O'Leary home. The Water Tower is still standing today in downtown Chicago. Mrs. O'Leary and her cow were exonerated in 1997 when the City of Chicago's Committee on Police and Fire passed a resolution stating that Mrs. O'Leary and her cow did not cause the Great Chicago Fire. The resolution said the actions of "Peg Leg" Sullivan should be examined as the possible cause.

Featured Unit

Chemical Elements "Off the Wall"

Studio glass art is a recent development but creating functional glass from silica sand is thousands of years old. Through this Student News Net video, tour the Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle, Washington to marvel at the beauty of glass and the chemical elements! Student News Net was there in 2017.

Read More: Seattle sights are simply stupendous

Pink diamonds are rare

Over 90 percent of the world's pink diamonds come from The Argyle Diamond Mine in Western Australia. Pink Diamonds are very rare and very expensive, but all diamonds are tetrahedrons of carbon atoms.

A rush for gold ended quickly

The story of the short-lived Klondike Gold Rush (1896-1899) is told at the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in downtown Seattle.

Glass: a hot and cool combo of art and science

Glassblowing is a red hot, totally cool combination of art and science.

Independent Practice and Activities for Printing

IP: Pink diamonds are rare
IP: Rush for gold ended quickly
Quiz: Rush for gold ended quickly
IP: Glass a hot and cool combo of art and science

In The News

View Student News Net articles with less than 800 words.

View Student News Net articles with less than 1000 words.


	Practice your writing skills by summarizing the information contained in the story at the left. What is the main point of the story? What are the key findings? Why is the story an important one? What are its implications? When finished, you can print or email your document or save it Google Drive.