What to do with this activity?
Chat to your child about the news. Think about all the places we get our news - from the television, radio, newspapers, and increasingly from online sources. Help them to think critically about what they hear and read, and to ask questions.
Talk about the stories that interest them. Does the news reflect what is going on? Perhaps there is too much celebrity news? What is news and what's not?
Ask your child to write a news item about something that has happened that is important to them.
You can help them to structure the story by asking who, what, where, when, how questions:
- Who was there?
- What happened?
- Where did it happen?
- When did it happen?
Have a look at RTE Junior "News2day" on the RTE player. There are lots of short news items of interest to young people. Encourage your child to write a story suitable for "News2day" and perhaps record it on a mobile phone to see how it works as a script.
-
Why am I doing this?
Writing is like a muscle – the more your child practices it the stronger their writing ability will become. You child is also more likely to write about things they like or are interested in – writing is a way to express yourself and using writing in this way can be more meaningful to a child.
-
How can I do more?
Decide on a writing project you could work on either together or with you standing by to help. This could be writing or sending an email to a family member or friend living away or your child writing about one of their interests. List key messages you want to write about, who else might read it and then begin work on the piece. Have a dictionary at the ready and use the spell checker if working on a computer.
Rate this activity
Based on 52 reviews
How would you rate it?
1 = Poor, 5 = Great.
Share this activity
If you’ve found this activity helpful, why not share it with your friends?
