News-O-matic: The Daily News Experience Just for Kids
Need some exciting and engaging nonfiction experiences for your elementary-age students? Then News-O-Matic, an iOS and Android app that covers relevant news of the day, just might be your answer! This super cool tool provides a combination of five current events stories covering the latest U.S. and international news, sports, science, arts, fun human interest stuff and more—all within a 100% ad-free environment. Each News-O-Matic article is accompanied with a wealth of rich media: Images, video clips, illustrations, interactive maps related to the story location, history-based timelines, puzzles, games, fun facts, a News Room for drawing or asking questions and audio support for challenging vocabulary as well as in-app audio playback of complete articles. All stories are written by journalists, award-winning K-12 writers and educational experts and then reviewed by a child psychologist prior to publication to ensure all content is age appropriate and emotionally safe. Sounds like a deal, right? Yeah, pretty much! Download the News-O-Matic app, select your subscription option (Yearly: $19.99; Monthly subscription: $1.99; Weekly: $0.99) or sign up for the free daily email delivered in PDF format right to your inbox. News-O-Matic also offers a School Edition that’s perfect for classroom use. Get all of the really great stuff previously mentioned plus a Teacher’s Guide which includes questions related to the text, suggested discussion prompts, several assessment questions correlated to the Common Core State Standards and graphic organizers. Check it out here. Classroom Connection: Bring the news to life in your classroom with News-O-Matic, an excellent resource for incorporating national and world news into the curriculum. What an awesome way to develop well-informed global citizens via real-world relevant reading assignments! The articles can also be used for class discussions as well as prompts for writing. In addition, educators can utilize News-O-Matic to inspire class projects in which students produce their own publications.