The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has recently promoted a new website available to staff and students in the area and is having huge success. TeachKidsNews.com is a site for staff to utilize in their classroom to help make sense of local, national, and global current news.
The site is geared towards grades 2-6, and helps simplify news with age appropriate language and context, shortened articles, and photos and examples to helps students understand. Available topics and headings include: News, Entertainment, Sports, Science (which branches out to Technology, Environment, Animals, and Health), Arts, Politics, and ESL.
Additionally, the website offers concrete connections to the Ontario curriculum for both primary and junior grades, questions for discussion, ideas for lessons, and extensions to use in the classroom.
Two educators in the TDSB are the creators of the site and now also use a freelance journalist to help maintain the site. It has guidelines and help for teachers, parents, and students, and also connects to other sites for further information, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Getting Kids Reading.
I believe this to be a fantastic resource for students and teachers to use in the classroom. Especially with the increase of technology (specifically SmartBoards) in classrooms, it is a simple way to bring current events right into the classroom. It helps students be informed, to connect to the community, and to be contributing members of a changing society.
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