[LM_NET] Hit: (Elem) Broadcast ideas

[Janet McCoy <mccoymedia@YAHOO.COM>]

Thanks for all of the great ideas for my morning broadcasts.  
     
  Janet L. McCoy, LMS
  McAuliffe Elementary, Tulsa, OK
  mccoymedia@yahoo.com

  
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  One of the things I used to do is take candid hotos, and through them in a video 
to play. The kids were always asking when I would do another one...We used Windows 
movie maker so that we could sometimes add text or names t the screen.  SOmetimes 
there was a focus--like "Caught reading!" or stuff like that.  We played some 
upbeat music from freeplaymusic.com in the background.  If you are not ready for 
moviemaker, download Microsoft Photostory.  Easy enough for third graders to use! 

We also did a lot of trivia contests and drawings. Trivia each day Mon-Thur and 
then the drawings on Friday. Prizes were always something small, but I was amazed 
at how many participated. 

One time we did a phone in answer.  3rd caller type thing. I got an extension and 
put the library phone in the studio.  I had the anchors ask the question of the 
week, and tell kids to ask their teacher to call in -- we'd accept the 3rd caller.  
They literally answered the phone live telling the caller what number they were and 
to try again until we got the right caller. Too bad the viewers could not hear who 
the winner was.  FOt this contest we decided t reward the "class" of the caller 
instead of a single student--free ice cream or something. It was FUN anyway.  
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  student or staff birthday announcements?  "On This day in history"?  
local events -- i.e. stuff around town, author appearances or  
activities at local libraries/bookstores
  
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  When I was in charge of that for a K-5 school, I used to have 'the daily 
numbers'.  I don't know if you are familiar with the 24 Game but it is a math game 
where there are 4 numbers on a card and you have to figure out how to 
add/subtract/multiply/divide them to get 24.  The answers/guesses went into a jar 
on my desk and the first correct one I pulled got to appear on the next news show 
with their answer.  I had 3rd grade and up coming up with the correct answers.  We 
also had a fact of the day---a highlight from history--on this date--whatever you 
want to call it.... 
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    I am in charge of school broadcast at my school... we start out with the Pledge 
to the flag, we also have a school pledge, and the quality pledge, then we have a 
moment of silence followed by a song,  this month is My Country Tis of Thee.. as 
most kids don't know those songs any more, then we do the weather , kind of day 
sunny,etc, and the temperature.  Lunch menu, special speaker of the day... this is 
our literacy person who is in charge of AR, or the math teacher who gives a problem 
for the week or the fire dept person who is now talking about a poster contest, I 
sometime speak about library news, and then the principal speaks, and then we close 
the news... Our broadcast is 15-20 mins long... we also do all the school 
announcements like for pictures, fundraisers, etc. 
  
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  We do exercises on broadcast every morning.  It's a great way to get
everyone awake and ready to start the day. :)

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   1.  This date in history -- Usually easy to find and has some trivial or not so 
trivial thing that is good to get the juices flowing so to speak.

2.  Biology blurb of the day -- Like This date in history.  Choose a person known 
or otherwise and to a short bio on him or her.  It can be anyone from school staff 
to city officials (like the Mayor) to people in the news to people who contributed 
to society in some way in years past (like Einstein, Nobel, and so on).

3.  Since you are doing this on a Friday, do some sort of Friday Fun Puzzle.  Some 
sort of puzzle, trivia question, or short challenge that the kids can do with or 
without parental assistance over the weekend.  Answers can be submitted to the 
library.  Correct answers then go into a hat and the winner gets to announce the 
answer and perhaps gets to read the next challenge on the following Friday.  Does 
that make sense?
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   We just did a series of health and safety spots featuring the school nurse and 
p.e. teacher.  The p.e. teacher was the "child" running in front of a car, not 
washing hands correctly, etc. The nurse then gave the lesson on the right way.  Our 
kids really got a hoot out of the whole thing.  I'll bet yours would love to direct 
the adults in such a role play! 
  
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  You may have already thought of and done something like this, but what about a 
simple serial that groups of kids could take turns writing—sort of like an acted 
out “round robin.” For example, on the first week you would start telling a story, 
perhaps an original story having to do with your school (or perhaps you could 
borrow a storyline from a favorite story).  Then, the next week, one group of 
students could act out a continuation of the story and the following week, another 
group could add another portion, and so on, etc.  It could be a sort of “Fractured 
Fairy Tale” round robin or something that seeks to teach morals.  
  Or trivia is always fun.  It could even be school-specific trivia that highlights 
random acts of kindness (if your school does that) such as: “What 3rd grade teacher 
helped jump-start the principal’s car?” or ‘Which kindergartner shared her lunch 
when another student’s lunch got squished?”.  
  I thought of another possibility for the trivia—the bonus being that it relates 
directly to library/research skills (you could probably even say it fulfills some 
of the PASS requirements.)  Have students submit trivia questions that they have 
researched and to which they know and have documented the answer.  You could make a 
standard form with 1)the question, 2)the answer and 3)the resources used to find 
the answer (two or three sources, I’d say.)  Then you can pick the “best” and each 
student whose question gets chosen can get a…whatever incentive you like plus 
getting to have their name read during that broadcast.  And you get to be 
“Quizmaster”! 
  
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  At a previous school I was at they did features about the new teachers
at the start of the year which I thought was nice.
  
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  Trivia questions work.  Also class spot light.  Every week I tape the
"spotlight" class.  Hi from Mrs. ____class  This week we....  Bye.  2
minutes.  Math word of the day.
  
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 Service Announcements about things the
staff, admin., etc. want to have happen, spotlight a teacher, a student,
staff member, This Day in History, Man-on-the-street questions, highlight
classroom activities, show clips from assemblies, dances, etc.
  
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