Searchby Ellen Creane
All parents want their children to be successful and happy at school—and in life. The key to these two important goals is reading. Remember the giggles and wide eyes when you read a sweet bedtime story? As children grow into reading by themselves, many parents also want their children to learn to be contributing members of your community. Wisely, they bring the newspaper into their homes. (TIP: Your newspaper will improve their children’s brains—read on!)
But how do you start the newspaper habit in young children with your newspaper? A third-grade teacher in Sonoma, California, was struggling to get her students interested in a required lesson on “Our Community.” The textbook was dull. The children were daydreaming. Then she asked them: “How can we learn about our town, Sonoma?”
The fidgeting students perked up when she held up their local newspaper.
“What do you want to know about Sonoma?” she asked. Soon, they were deep into finding answers to their questions like, “Who is the boss of the city?” “How can we get a skate park here?” “What is playing at the movie theater?”
This teacher, Vicki Whiting, knew there were more ways to get the children reading more with the newspaper. So, she created a page of newspaper activities that actually taught required reading skills and lively content about geography, history, science, and even math. She used fun puzzles, fun word games, fun scavenger searches that took the children throughout the newspaper. It was all fun. Brain-based fun.
Fun? Yes, because for many years, researchers have documented that fun is absolutely necessary for the brain to retain and use new information.
More than 10 researchers report in the article The Neuroscience of Joyful Education* how the brain actually works better when students experience fun in reading and other subjects. Using the key words “fun learning” to search online turns up many reports of successful students at all grade levels.
One newspaper editor decided to show the Kid Scoop page to parents on his own newspaper staff. They enthusiastically chose the Kid Scoop in-paper feature because they could see that the newspaper activities would spark more questions and thinking in their own children. And they themselves found it fun.
One teacher’s determination to bring “serious fun” learning into her classroom and her students’ homes evolved into hundreds of newspapers publishing Kid Scoop weekly in North America. Now some 7.5 million families read local community newspapers at home.
Try out Kid Scoop with your own staff of parents, with local school leaders, and your education-minded advertisers as potential year-round sponsors. Parents in your circulation area will thank you for building their children’s interest and ability to read … everything, including a lifetime with your newspaper.
