Have you been using our new object based news cards and templates? We have!!

In my Pre-Primary have been using it as part of both our oral language program and daily morning writing program.

We place our news telling cards on the board and revise what each card means - at this stage I am only using what, catergory, parts and found. Soon we will be adding 'other information'.

I select a student to come up and choose an object out of my 'magic bag'. This student then gets our 'magic pointer' and leads the class through the cards and we discuss each one. We do this a couple of times to warm up and to also discuss appropriate sentence structure. I have someone come up and choose the final object which we will all be writing and talking about. We discuss the object briefly as a group and students move to their tables to fill in their news template.

After they have filled in their news templates we bring them back to the mat. Using whole brain teaching techniques we use partner teaching (they have assigned partners that they sit next to on our mat with coloured squares) I say 'teach' (clap clap)then they say 'ok' (clap clap). The 1st person tells their news plan in full sentences to their partenr and then they swap. I move around listening to them.

They then take their news plan back to their tables and write about it in their books. They go through each picture and write about each one, and then when they are finished they can draw a picture of the chosen object. I like to staple their plan to their when they are finished.

After they have finished I choose 5 students to tell their news to the class. These students change every week so I get a chance to hear all students.

I use this in conjunction with the event based news telling cards - which I do on a Monday (we talk about their weekend) and run the same way as the object based news. Check them out here!

I find news telling quite tedious, however making it really structured is easier for the student telling news, the other students and the teacher to sit through! Check out our nifty news telling program for news telling cards,  different templates and assessment pieces.