Nokomis Elementary School fifth-grade students in Jennifer DeCarlo and Robyn Griecos’ class strengthened their writing skills by crafting creative stories as student journalists for the Kidsday program at Newsday.

In its third year at Nokomis, the Kidsday program helps students take their writing to the next level as they apply their skills in a unique way. Students wrote reviews on movies, books and other various activities to be published in Kidsday, a section in Newsday written by kids for kids. As part of the program students participated in three workshops led by Kidsday Editor Pat Mullooly. During the workshops students practiced generating ideas for stories, answering advice letters from other students and creating illustrations to accompany their stories. In addition to the reviews, students conducted interviews and focused on writing articles about fun activities for the summer months that will be published in the summer edition of Kidsday this June.  

The Kidsday program creates a complementary connection to the fifth-grade English language arts curriculum, reinforcing skills such as narrative and opinion writing.