Reporting From....

"Hello, and welcome to the 1st Grade News!" If you are walking down our hallway on a Friday morning, you will hear these same words from members of our class News Crew as they record their newscast.

It was about a year ago when I began dreaming of a class newscast. You know the teacher life though; dream big and you'll get to it someday. Well it finally happened! With the help of my first graders, we planned and carried out our first newscast a month or so ago. It has been such a hit that I think you should give it a try too! And it's easy! Watch this if you aren't quite sure yet.

Here's the run down:

• In the first newscast I choose 3 students who would make great guinea pigs! In following weeks, I require a job application to be completed before they can serve on the News Crew. 
• On Monday or Tuesday we have a News Crew meeting (3 students and the teacher). In this meeting we discuss: 
• Expectations of the News Crew
• Who will serve as two anchors and one recorder 
• News Crew Report: they start working together to find current news that should be included in the newscast for the week. 
• On Wednesday or Thursday they work together to turn their News Crew Report notes into a script. They do the talking, I do the typing.  I'm certain to send home the script at least one day in advance so families of the anchors have a chance to practice. I also remind them to not wear green on Friday (that could cause a major green screen issue)!
• On Friday we record!  The News Crew is responsible for setting up the equipment in the hallway (small table, green screen, iPad, 2-4 chairs, etc.). I am also their to guide and help them when needed.
• After the recording is finished and they approve of their work, I begin producing the segment with DoInk (an easy to use green screen app). 
• I use PowerPoint to create the images (save as JPEG) I want in the background - including the corner images that change throughout the newscast. 
• With DoInk, I am able to overlap the recording and the images. 
• Press SAVE and SHARE on Seesaw! We also put it out in our weekly school news bulletin.

Best part? Applicable to ALL grade levels! 

You can find all of the documents here.