News-O-Matic

News-O-Matic is a daily newspaper for kids. It provides appropriate stories at their level. Each day there are featured articles. By scrolling down, students can view previous news stories, so there is always a ton of articles available!

As an example, I selected the "Team Time for with Kittens" article. Once in the article, there are many cool features. Simply use your finger to scroll through the article to see the entire thing. 

If you select the 'fact' button on the left side of the screen, a fact about something related to the article will appear. Click the red 'x' when you are finished reading it to return to the article.

There's also an 'act' button on the left side of the screen. If you select that, a similar box will appear, but instead of a fact, it will tell you to do something related to the article. 

Throughout the article, there are blue highlighted and underlined words. These are words that students may not understand. If they select these words, a definition box will appear, as seen below.

In the top right corner, there is a globe. If you select it, a map will appear. This will show where the article is talking about in relation to the students. It also provides facts about the distance and other things. Click the red 'x' in the top right corner to return to the article.

On the right hand side of the screen there is a 'play' button. If you select it, a video related to the article will appear. Click 'done' in the top left corner to return to the article.

Underneath the 'play' button, there is a 'plus sign' button. If you select that, additional pictures related t the article will appear and you can use your finger to swipe to the left to see them all.

And my favorite feature…. the read to me option! On the right hand side there is a button labeled 'read to me'. By selecting this, students can have the program read to them. This is awesome for younger elementary students who may not be able to read the entire article themselves.

Finally, if you select the blue button in the bottom right corner with a triangle in it, a few options will appear. The top one, with a person in it, allows students to learn about the author of the article. The other two options are only available if you create an account, which is not necessary.

Overall, this is a great tool to use in your classroom. It provides students with daily news that is appropriate and easy to access. There are many awesome features that this app offers - I highly recommend you try to incorporate this into your students' daily work.