Freeport 5^th Graders Become "Kidsday" Reporters

What would it be like to be a reporter for Newsday? The 5 th grade students in Patricia Belfi's class at Caroline G. Atkinson School in Freeport got a chance to find out when they worked with Newsday Editor Patrick Mullooly to produce an edition of "Kidsday", a section of the paper written "for kids, by kids". Click this picture to Enlarge Patricia Belfi's 5 th grade class at Caroline G. Atkinson School in Freeport worked with Newsday Editor Patrick Mullooly to create an edition of the newspaper's "Kidsday" page. Pictured with Mullooly are, from cub reporters Victoria Mulé, Brandon Jackson and Lilyana Acevedo.

Students went to two special media events. First they visited the Dragons arena football team, and conducted a live interview with player Donvetis Franklin. Next they rubbed elbows with reporters from all over the world, waiting for their turn to interview pop singer Mya. The children were thrilled when the busy star devoted more than 20 minutes to their questions.

Back in their classroom, students worked with Belfi and Mullooly preparing other sections of their news page. They wrote a column explaining the school's theme, "Unity through Diversity", wrote about a school project that raised money to send books to needy students in Ethiopia , reviewed new games and videos, conducted surveys, took photos and created the illustrations that will be used to make up their page. They even got a chance to answer letters to the "Kidsday" advice column.

"Everyone was very excited to work side by side with a real editor," said Belfi. "They learned so much about the whole process of writing and producing a newspaper. They were surprised to realize how much work goes into it, but these students really rose to the challenge to create something our whole school can be proud of."

Their column is expected to appear in the May 23 edition of "Kidsday".