11-1 (01)
release dates: March 10-16
Especially
for
and
their
families
e
I
By BETIY DEBNAM
- . , The Mini P_ by Betty DebNlm 0 2001 The MInI
~
Publishing Compony Inc.
Hello, Alexander Graham Bell
Hello! What in the world would life
be without our telephone to call
friends and family?
We celebrate the
125th anniversary
of that first call
with the story of the
unusual inventor
who would have preferred to be
remembered for his work with the
deaf. Hello, Alexander Graham Bell.
Alexander Graham
Bell with his wife,
Mabel, and their
daughters, Elsie
(left) and Marian.
They also had two
sons who died
soon after birth.
Mabel Hubbard lost
her hearing from
scarlet fever when
she was a young
girl. She later
became one of
Alexander Graham
Bell's students.
The first call
It was on March 10, 1876, in Boston,
that Bell called, "Mr. Watson, come
here. I want you!"
About six months later, Bell made
the first long-distance call over wires
stretching for eight miles.
His family background
As a young man
Bell got his lifelong interesj; in
speech and hearing from his family.
His grandfather, Alexander Bell,
was an actor and a speech therapist
who helped treat such problems as
stammering.
His father, Alexander Melville Bell,
was a teacher who
wrote textbooks on
speaking correctly.
His father also
invented Visual
Speech, a way of
teaching the deaf how to speak by
using pictures to show how to make
certain sounds.
His mother, Eliza Symonds Bell,
was a painter and a musician. She
lost her hearing when Aleck was
about 12.
Alexander Graham Bell was born
March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh,
Scotland. His family
called him Aleck.
Even as a child, he
showed a lively
interest in teaching
speech. He even
tried to teach his
dog to talk. He taught it to growl
while he moved its mouth and
vocal cords.
What came out sounded
something like, "How are you,
Grandma?"
When he was younger, Aleck
planned on becoming a musician.
From the time he was a toddler, he
could play any music he heard.
When he was 16,
he taught music and '
speech at a boy's
school in Scotland.
He later attended
the University of
Edinburgh. After
college he taught
Aleck at age 11.
full time.
When he was 17, he and his two
brothers made a talking machine out
of a skull and other materials. When
they made the skull cry "Mama,"
neighbors thought a baby was crying.
When his brothers diea of
tuberculosis, and Aleck also }("~ame ill,
his father moved the family to a
healthier climate in Canada. Aleck
began teaching the deaf in America.
®
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The Mill
11-2 (01); release dates: March 10-16
from The Mini Page by Betty
C 2001 The Mini Page Publishing Company
Some Telephone Milestones
How people use the phone has
changed a lot through the years. You
used to have to go to the phone; now
you can take it with you. Your phone
lines might not even be connected to
a phone. They might hook up to a
computer instead.
1876
1878
1964
Switching was confusing, so you had one
hand-held piece to
listen to and
another one to talk
into.
Push-button
dialing made
calling even
easier.
1882
Now you had one hand free because you
talked into a built-in
wall set and held the
receiver. A crank on
the side signaled
the operator.
"Mr. Watson,
come here. I
want you."
These were
the famous
first words ever
said over the wire.
1919
Here you could
take the phone
to your desk!
Some models
were off the
wall. Some even
had dials.
1878
1937
You talked into and listened to the
same
handheld
piece
with
this
phone.
This was a
fancier, desktype phone
with the
receiver and
transmitter in
one piece.
1970
With fiber optics, glass or plastic fibers
carry laser light signals a
great distance. This gave
much better reception.
1877
With this phone you had to make mouthto-ear shifts because you talked into and
listened at the same spot
1965
The Early Bird Satellite was the
first commercial satellite to
regularly relay TV and phone
calls between the U.S. and
Europe. Satellites made longdistance calling much more
efficient.
1980s
You could take your cell
phone almost everywhere.
Cell phones send and receive
messages over radio waves.
1984
f------"'---=------'-)
The Internet linked the public
by computer to
people all over the
world. Phone and
cable lines link the
v:-,d::E~~rt":; computers.
Mini Spy ...
Mini Spy and Basset Brown are using the telephone, an
invention of Alexander Graham Bell. See if you can find:
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ruler
sleeping moon
number 8
pencil
arrow
kite
strawberry
saw
pumpkin
sailboat
bell
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G M A H A
J M U S I
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V N 1M L E Y
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C 0 V
D Q Z
V E R
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11-3 (01); release dates: March 10-16
The Mini Page Dinosaurs From A to Z Book is bursting with dinosaur
information from Apatosaurus to Zephyrosaurus, with illustrations, descriptions,
and where and when they lived. To order, send check or money order only, for $4.95
plus $1 postage and handling per copy, to: Dinosaurs From A to Z Book, P.O. Box
419242, Kansas City, Mo. 64141. Make checks payable to Andrews McMeel
Publishing.
34.
35
31
•
30
• 29
•
•
•
You'll need:
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1 (12-ounce) package refrigerated biscuits
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
What to do:
1. In a bowl, combine cinnamon and sugar. Mix well.
2. Separate biscuits. Using your hands, roll each one into a
piece about 8 inches long. Pinch ends together to seal.
3. Dip each piece in melted butter or margarine, then into
cinnamon-sugar mixture.
4. Twist each biscuit to form a figure 8.
5. Place several inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake in a preheated 400-degree oven for 11-14 minutes.
28
27
36
Cinnamon Twists
•
•
•
•
Go dot to dot and color.
33 32
• •
~ROOkie Cookies Recipe
•
37.
from _
Mini " - by Belly Debnam C 2001 _
Mini P_ PubIIohing Company Inc.
Meet Kimberly J. Brown
• 21
•
7·
from _
MInI " - by Belly Debnam C 2001 _
MIni P_
Publiohing Company Inc.
Kimberly J. Brown, 16, has been
acting since she was 5.
She got her start by acting in
commercials and modeling. At age 7,
she was acting on Broadway. She was
also in the Disney TV movies
"Halloweentown" and "Quints." She
was one of the voices in the movie
''A Bug's Life."
Kimberly grew up in Gaithersburg, Md., with three
younger brothers. She lived for a while in New York City and
now lives in California. Her hobbies are reading, in-line
skating, drawing and swimming. Her favorite group is the
Backstreet Boys, and "Grease" is one of her favorite movies.
Some of her favorite foods are garlic pasta, pumpkin pie,
kiwi and cherries.
from _
The
··h~
LEARN THE STATES •••
~~
• multi-colored
• large (35 x 23 inches)
• perfect for the classroom or a child's room
~
To order, send $3.00 plus $1.00 postage and handling for each copy. Send only checks or money orders
payable to: Andrews McMeel Publishing, P.O. Box 419242, Kansas City, MO 64141.
Please send
copies of The Mini Page Map of the U.S.A. (Item #9937-0) at $4.00 each,
including postage and handling. (Bulk discount information available upon request.)
Name: _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
~ress:
City:
Mini " - by Belly Debnam C 2001_ Mini " - Publiohing C o _ Inc.
It's fun learn phonics, or the way letters sound.
This week's target sound is the one made by the
letters ai, as in the word pail.
Mini Page
and each stlte's
capitll, flower
and bird
Mini " - PubIIohing Company Inc.
~ ~~~~ Funny Phonics
~
to
TM
t.=L..
from _
Mini " - by Belly Debnam C 2001 _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___
State:
Zip: _ __
Abby: What did the angry trainer say to
the elephant?
Jeanne: "Pack up your trunk and get out!"
\ \ Andy: What did the giraffe
I} II
b
say when it started
\
• • d?
6.
rrunms;
b 0 Adam: "That hits the spot!"
Megan: What is the best w·"
way to grow fat?'
Brittany: Raise pigs!
Go on an Ai word
hunt. What other
words can you find
that use the Ai
sound? What sound
do you hear?
-------------------------------------------Please include all of the appropriate registered trademark symbols and copyright lines in any publication of The Mini Page®,
11-4 (01); release dates: March 10-16
from The Mini Page by Betty Debnam 10 2001 The Mini Page Publishing Company Inc.
Hello, Again, .Alexander Graham Bell
Inventing the phone
Bell was only 29 when he received
the patent (or legal credit) for the
telephone.
What he learned from music and
while working with the deaf helped
him make that invention.
Also, when he needed money for the
research, parents of deaf students
helped him out.
With this money he was able to hire
his famous
assistant,
Thomas
Watson.
After he
married,
he and his
wife moved to Washington, D.C. They
also kept a home in Canada. Bell later
became a U.S. citizen.
For 45 more years after he invented
the phone, he led an active life as an
inventor and teacher of the deaf. He
died in 1922.
After President Garfield was shot in 1881,
Bell invented a machine to find the bullet in
the president's body. Unfortunately, the
metal bedsprings confused the results. But
Bell's invention did help doctors treat many
soldiers in World War I.
r • a machine to remove the salt
~ from sea water to make it drinkable
I • a medical jacket to help injured
i people breathe. This led to the iron
, lung, which was later used for polio
i victims. Bell invented it after his
j infant son died because of breathing
! problems.
He led a group to build some of the
I first planes. They invented the three~ wheel landing gear and wing flaps
to help steer the plane.
!·
f
Another phone
Four years after he invented the
telephone, Bell and another assistant,
Charles Tainter, developed a way to
send sound over a beam of light. This
was the first time speech had been
sent without wires.
Bell called the machine the
"photophone." He was so proud of it
he wanted to name his daughter
Photophone. His wife did not go along
with that idea.
The photophone was the ancestor of
today's fiber optics,
where information
is sent over laser
light beams.
Fiber optics
The Mini Page thanks Elissa M. Brooks,
Alexander Graham Bell Association for the
Deaf and Hard of Hearing; and Edwin
Grosvenor, great-grandson of Alexander
Graham Bell.
Look through your newspdper for dds or
stories d170ut the phone.
Next week The Mini Page is about Florida.
t
Alexander Graham Bell walks with three
of his 10 grandchildren.
Great inventor
Other inventions of Alexander
Graham Bell include:
• an audiometer, which is still
used to test hearing. This machine
also measured how loud sounds are.
This is why we measure sound in
decibels. The word was named after
Bell.
~
• a machine to
find icebergs by ~
listening to
underwater echoes
-
• wax phonograph discs to
greatly improve the phonograph
The Mini Page is created and edited by
Betty Debnam
Associate Editors
Staff Artist
Anne Chamberlain
LucyUen
Wendy Daley
• After World War I, he invented a
boat that could run over water where
mines had been set.
This boat, the hydrofoil, was the
fastest boat in the world at about 71
~& ~~bo;;~t~t
~
bathtub.
Alexander
Graham Bell
was the second
president of
National
Geographic. He
also wrote for the
magazine under
the name H.A.
Largelamb, which
spells A. Graham
Bell when you
unmix the letters.
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Meet Alexander
Graham Bell
by Betty Debnam
Appearing in your
newspaper on _____'
from The _
" - by 80ttJ Dobrwn
02D01 The_ "-~ ~Inc.
(Note to Editor: Above is cameraready, one column-by-41/4-inch ad
promoting Issue 11.)
11-5 (01)
release dates: March 10-16
The .Mi1!.l~ Teacher's Guide
j ~N Goldie oc;~d~p-;;t~;;;;~
For use by teachers and parents at home and at school.
For use with issue: Hello, Alexander Graham Bell
I
~
Main idea: This issue is about Alexander Graham Bell. The following is a list of
f
activities to be used with this issue. They are listed in order of difficulty, with the easier i
pre-reader assignments listed first. Most of the activities are for younger readers. Ask ~
the children to do the following:
~
1. Draw a picture of what you think it might have looked like when Alexander
0
Graham Bell made the first telephone call.
~
2. Pretend you have been asked to invent a new phone of the future. Draw a picture ~
of your creation. How is your design different?
3. When Alexander Graham Bell wrote for National Geographic, he rearranged the ];
letters in his name to form a new name. Rearrange the letters in your name to make a f
new name.
i
4. Pretend you were going to interview Alexander Graham Bell. What five questions ~
would you ask him?
.
~
5. Discuss the following: Why is Alexander Graham Bell such an important man?
~
What would our lives be like without the telephone? How often do you use the
telephone? What would it be like to invent something as useful and important as the
telephone? Had you heard of Bell before reading this issue? What did you learn about
him?
6. Find the following words in this issue: patent, vocal, decibels, polio, beam, toddler.
Define and make up a new sentence for each one.
I
(Note to Editor: Above is the Teacher's Guide for Issue 11.)
Supersport: Sheryl Swoopes
Height: 6-0
Weight: 145
Birthdate: 3-25-71
College: Texas Tech
The winner of last year's WNBA Most Valuable
Player and Defensive Player of the Year was Sheryl
Swoopes. She has spent her entire professional
career playing forward for the Houston: Comets.
Last year she averaged 20.7 points per game. Her best game
was 31 points against the Phoerrix Mercury.
She also played on the Olympic basketball team.
Sheryl, who has a 3-year-old son, would like to work in sports
broadcasting when she retires from playing basketball. Her
hobbies are playing volleyball and video games and shooting
pool. Some of her favorite foods are Mexican food and pralines
'n' cream ice cream.
(Note to Editor: Above is copy block for Page 3, Issue 11, to be
used in place of ad if desired.)
Please include all of the appropriate registered trademark symbols and copyright lines in any publication of The Mini Page®.