Name:

© 2019 Vicki Whiting, Editor • Je� Schinkel & Eli Smith, Graphics Vol. 35, No. 50 - Message in a Bottle, pg. 1

Over time, people have tucked messages into bottles and thrown them out to sea. Sometimes these messages are found long after they were sent. They each have a special story to tell.

The world’s oldest known message in a bottle was found half-buried at a West Australian beach almost 132 years after it was tossed into the Indian Ocean. It was part of an experiment by German mariners to discover faster shipping routes by seeing where the messages drifted. The message asked anyone finding it to contact German authorities telling where it was found. Thousands of these bottles were thrown overboard over a 69 year period.The message was dated June 12, 1886. What year was it found if it was 132 years old when it was discovered?

Find the two identical bottles.

How many bottles can you �nd on

these pages?

Name:

© 2019 Vicki Whiting, Editor • Je� Schinkel & Eli Smith, Graphics Vol. 35, No. 50 - Message in a Bottle, pg. 2

n September 12, 1990, a ten-year-old English girl named Zoe threw a bottle with a message overboard from a ferry. Twenty-three years later while walking along a dike, a Dutch couple found the bottle with her message. They sent a note to her childhood home and reached her!

10-Year-Old’s Message Found

262524232221

ABCDEF

======

201918171615

GHIJKL

======

14131211109

MNOPRS

======

876543

TUVWYZ

======

Use the code to read Zoe’s message:

21 18 9 19

15

21 15 7 8 22

22

25 26 15 15 22 8

19 26 14 9 8 22 10

9 11 22 24 16

11 15 22 26 9 22

5 10 18 8 22 8 12 14 22

What would you write? Imagine you are going to toss a bottle with a message into the ocean. What would you write? Write it here!

Can you �nd the bottle’s path from the island?

Name:

© 2019 Vicki Whiting, Editor • Je� Schinkel & Eli Smith, Graphics Vol. 35, No. 50 - Message in a Bottle, pg. 3

Standards Link: Vocabulary Development: Students identify nouns and adjectives.

Find five nouns and five adjectives in today’s newspaper. Write a message to send in a bottle that contains these 10 words.

Bottled Words

Message Connects PeopleIn 2011, Daniil Korotkikh was walking with his parents on a beach in Russia. He found a bottle with a message inside that had been tossed from a ship in 1987—twenty-four years earlier!

Put Frank’s message back in the right order to read it.

Daniil and his father wrote to Frank, who was now 29 years old. They were able to meet via an internet video link in March of 2011.

Message MysteriesHow old was Frank when he tossed the message in a bottle off of a ship?

________________________________________

Where was Frank going when he was on this ship?

________________________________________

Who was Frank traveling with?

______________________________________

Name:

© 2019 Vicki Whiting, Editor • Je� Schinkel & Eli Smith, Graphics Vol. 35, No. 50 - Message in a Bottle, pg. 4

The fisherman fell overboard when trying to pull the fish into the boat.

OVERBOARDThe adverb overboard means over the side of a

ship and into water.

Try to use the word overboard in a sentence today when talking with your friends and family.

ANSWER: Put a third one in

between them.

Standards Link: Comprehension: Students identify and extend simple patterns.

Draw the bottle that should come next to continue the pattern in each row.

Name:

© 2019 Vicki Whiting, Editor • Je� Schinkel & Eli Smith, Graphics Vol. 35, No. 50 - Message in a Bottle, pg. 5

What was one of the strangest things you have ever read or heard about?

That’s Strange

Standards Link: Research: Use the newspaper to locate information.

Sending a letter to the editor of a newspaper is a way to get a message to thousands of people! Find the letters to the editor of this newspaper. Read what people have to say. Write a letter to the editor about something you care about.

Letters to the Editor

Name:

© 2019 Vicki Whiting, Editor • Je� Schinkel & Eli Smith, Graphics Vol. 35, No. 50 - Message in a Bottle, pg. 6

Find the words by looking up, down, backwards, forwards, sideways and diagonally.Then see how many of these words you can find in today’s newspaper.

AUSTRALIANOVERBOARDMESSAGEBOTTLETOSSEDBALLETFINDERDUTCHOCEANFOUNDWRITEDIKENOTEYEARSEA

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