The school is trialing a new newspaper idea called ‘Snoop’. A Christmas issue will be given out to everyone today. The idea is that the children use online templates to create their own newspaper virtually alone with minimal adult supervision. We have tried this in class (the summer issue) and in a club (the most recent Christmas issue) to find out the most beneficial and
straightforward way to complete the project. So far, children can all work the online templates easily, uploading photos, typing in text and using the drawing tool. Some children love to draw and write stories while others like to take photographs and gather content. Making a newspaper is a good way to develop all their abilities and improves literacy, creativity, design and IT skills, it also encourages teamwork and helps to build on the strong sense of community that already exists in DKH.
We hope to include as many children that are interested as possible, so in the next summer issue worksheets will be given out asking for stories and art. All their work will be displayed in a communal space in the school and some will be chosen by the children and teachers to feature in the paper. The size and number of pages in the paper have been carefully thought through so that the children have an achievable amount of work to complete in a short space of time. The middle section has been designed by Okido for free and has been included to appeal to the younger children and help to make them feel part of the project. Okido is an arts and science based magazine created by ex-teachers for 3 – 8yr olds. They also have an animation on CBeebies explaining tricky science concepts, called: Messy goes to Okido. If you or your child have any ideas or comments about this project we would love to hear from you, please email jo.mcneill@gmail.com
We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to Jo for all her support and hard work with this project. The children have thoroughly enjoyed it and we really appreciate you giving up your time to help us.