Extra, Extra!
Time: 10 minutes
Suggested Materials:
● Newspaper template (or blank
paper)
● Pencils or pens
● Colored pencils
● Markers
Instructions:
1. Print out the newspaper template or use a blank piece of paper.
2. Follow along with the template or customize your newspaper layout.
3. Come up with a name for your newspaper and a logo. Be creative!
4. Date the newspaper with the current day, month, and year.
5. Come up with a news story that centers around what happened to you that day. What’s
important to you?
a. OR
if you want, you can make up a story. Make up a whole world and the news
that’s happening in it.
6. Make sure to add a picture to that story.
7. When you create ads make sure they’re persuasive -- you want people to buy things.
8. Make your own cartoon - a beginning, middle, and end.
9. Write an op-ed, or an opinion piece, to talk about something you feel strongly about.
a. Upset about inequality in our country, express yourself.
b. Need something more lighthearted?
i. Don’t like pineapple on pizza? Write about that!
Extra Info:
● Newspapers tell us the current events going on in our towns and even around the world.
○ News should be grounded in fact - the who, what, where, when, and why.
○ Opinion pieces or ads, require you to use persuasive writing.
■ You need to get the reader on your side or to buy your product.
● In 1729 Benjamin Franklin and his partner Hugh Meredith bought the Pennsylvania
Gazette
.
○ Newspapers in the 1700s were mainly for news from Europe. Printers could also
put in essays they’ve written or essays written by others.
○ Some newspapers had to rely on european newspapers for news or letters from
friends abroad.
○ Benjamin Franklin himself would publish essays he wrote but sometimes he
wrote under a wide variety of pseudonyms (fake names). He did this to shed light
on different social topics and also to do good in society.
■ One of the pseudonyms that Franklin used was Silence Dogood which he
wrote under when he was 16. The Silence Dogood persona was a middle
aged widow who made comments about daily colonial life.
What’s in a newspaper?
Title: What your newspaper is
called.
This add says:
“This day is PUBLISHED, and to be SOLD, by
JAMES HUMPHREYS, JUNIOR,
At the corner of Black horse Alley, Front-street
Price Two Shillings”
It then has the name of the book (The Man of
Real Sensibility) and its description.
Logo: a logo is a symbol for your
newspaper.
Political Cartoon: Comments on an issue in
the news at the time. .
Date: Tells people what news is
most up to date.
Number: How many
newspapers have been printed.
Ads: People pay you to advertise
things they are selling like books,
sugar, coffee, alcohol, etc. This
includes the name of the person
selling the items, the items, and
their price.
Article title: The name of your
article. It should summarize the
story and be catchy
Lead: First sentence or
paragraph of an article that
answers the who, what, where,
when, and why.
Body: Tells the full story of the
article.
Op-ed: An opinion piece in a
newspaper. Can be about an
issue, person, or thing you care
about greatly.
Logo
Name of Your Newspaper
Title of Article
Image
Body
Date Newspaper #
AD AD
Cartoon Title By: (Author’s Name)
Op-Ed Title: (Remember it’s YOUR opinion about anything).
Image Text (use persuasive writing here).
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