News-o-matic makes learning about current events exciting.
Community Review for News-O-Matic
My Take
News-o-Matic is just right for the elementary classroom. The stories are updated daily and include an array of different topics. They are just long enough to provide a reasonable amount of information without overwhelming the student. Kids enjoy the accompanying videos which really bring the topics to life.
How I Use It
Since I only have it installed on one device, we use it as a group on the projector. I've also used it with my five year old son. If individual students had full access on a daily basis, the application options would be endless! The stories could be used in a "jigsaw" activity where children in small groups become the experts about a single article. The articles are also a great resource for practicing finding the main idea and supporting details using the BIG FOX technique or others. I might also use the articles to point out techniques that reporters use in this type of writing and have students use them as a model to write their own news stories. Some of the stories contain further application, encouraging children to "do" something related to a topic. It would be fun to try some of those too!