Historical Reporter

Historical Reporter

For: Kids 10 - 14
Required: Reference sources.

Ask your child to research an historical event (or begin with one he or she has been studying in school). Then, assign your junior journalist a news story, based on the happening. The piece should answer these questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how. It can even be illustrated by a family "photographer" (the reporter or a younger sibling).

As a variation, encourage your child to embellish the facts. He or she can exaggerate or invent details, or speculate about how or why something occurred. Other players must then separate truth from fiction. Each correct guess earns, say, five points. The listener who racks up the most points gets to spin the next tale.

So isn't it interesting that, just before Cornwallis was about to wave the white flag, he decided to give the battle just one more try, and he ended up a war hero? Good thing that one never made it into print!