Script: The Christmas News Report -a hilarious radio show/play for 3rd-5th grade

This is a super-funny script I wrote for a 28-student Third-Fifth Grade class. It’s a hilarious make-believe News Report that can be recorded and shared with friends and family on YouTube or any other suitable social media outlet. As written, it is intended to be a radio news broadcast, but you could adapt it so that it is a live-action report that could be filmed. Please note that no stage directions are provided. As an audio recording, it’s much easier to share online without risk to your students’ safety and privacy.

The make-believe news “stories” presented in the script are based on a school with students from Kindergarten to Eighth Grade. The News Program covers the events around the first Christmas parade at a make-believe school, and nothing goes as planned!

This activity is a great community builder. My students learned the importance of speaking clearly, reading slowly and with expression, attending fully to punctuation and of course, all the interpersonal skills that come with working together on a project such as this.

It took us about a week to complete. I handed out the scripts on Monday, we practiced a few times and addressed some of the key skills that I wanted to cover such as: reading fluently, reading in character and comedic timing. After that, it took us a day or two to record the entire report (we did it in sections) and then it was up to me to piece it all together. By Friday, it was time for our big premiere! If you have a group of students who enjoy working with different types of sound/video creating software, perhaps they might enjoy creating the final project!

I used Windows Movie Maker and just added the audio recordings to a cute digital sign/picture that I had made (thank you Graphics From The Pond!). For your convenience, I’ve included a “photo” in the pdf that can be saved as a j-peg and used for your own broadcast.

The process was so much fun and the final product was very well received by parents. Of course, the kids just loved making it and asked to listen to it over and over again! It was just so much fun seeing my students take on their various roles. I’ll definitely be doing more “podcast” activities such as this in the future. We were able to address so many curriculum expectations in just one activity and it was a real confidence booster for all of my students.

There are parts here for all reading levels. It is an inclusive product that really does build community in the classroom. If you have a smaller class, you can have students with smaller reading parts take on two roles. Even my most reluctant readers had a lot of fun with this and enjoyed this “acting” experience very much. I really think it has all the benefits of a class play without the loss of instructional time that can accompany a large class project such as a play. There is no need to memorize lines, so reading fluency really is the focus.

For your convenience, I’ve linked the recording I made with my own students. The purchased script is almost identical. I encouraged my students to use their classmate’s names so that the broadcast would sound more authentic. On the script you’ll receive, I’ve left blank lines in areas throughout the script for your students to fill in the names of their classmates.

Please be sure to download the preview file, which consists of the first eight pages of the script, and then listen to the recording I made with my own class. The recording really is the best description of the product. Please be advised that other than a brief tip or two, there are no instructions provided for how to create a podcast or audio recording such as the one I made for my own students.

Here’s the link to my own students’ presentation!

The Christmas News Report

If, after purchasing, you find you need this script edited in any way, don’t hesitate to email me, I’d be happy to help.

Thanks so much for visiting my store!

Patti Mihalides

mrs.mihalides@gmail.com

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