9 sources of news for kids that you may not know about

Newspapers have always been an excellent educational resource for teachers. Now with the Common Core's focus on reading non-fiction material, they are more valuable than ever. Many of the classrooms that I have visited have been using either Time for Kids or CNN Students News and with good reason as both are terrific resources. Below are nine additional websites to consider when incorporating news into the classroom.

Newsela
Newsela is an awesome site that I previously shared and it helps students develop close reading and critical thinking skills by offering current event articles with varying levels of text complexity. Lexile levels of an article range from 2nd grade up to 12th grade which allows for differentiation within the same classroom. The articles are categorized by war/peace, science, kids, money, law, health and arts. Many of the articles are accompanied by quizzes that provide quick feedback. Newsela is currently in beta and is free for all teachers.

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Science News for Students
Science News for Students features a collection of science related stories. Each week several new stories are added to the site. The stories come from a wide range of science disciplines as well as math and technology.

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DOGO News

Dogo News is a current events website designed for kids and teachers. For kids, the stories are interesting and written at appropriate level. For teachers, each article is identified for grade level and Common Core Standards and is accompanied by key vocabulary. An added feature is that each story is tagged for its geographical location which can be located on the site's "map" tab.

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Tween Tribune
Tween Tribune  posts age appropriate news stories found on the internet for students grades K-12. The stories are sorted by age group and there is spanish section as well. At the end of each story, students can respond by leaving comments or take a quiz.

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National Geographic News for Kids
One of the great features on National Geographic's Kid webpage is their news story section. Their stories range from science, people, animals, and even history. Each story is accompanied by additional resources related to the story which can be found to the right of the article.

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Our Little Earth
Our Little Earth is a free digital newspaper for kids that is published every two weeks. The news stories come from all over the world and are age appropriate for most learners. They do have "extra" activities that accompany each addition which do cost money. Their policy is "pay us what you want" and you get a one year subscription to their "extra" activities.

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Teaching Kids News
Teaching Kids News looks like a real newspaper and it read like one as well. The website shares stories from the areas of news, entertainment, sports, science, arts, and politics. Their content contains media literacy activities and is targeted to learners grades 2 - 8.

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Discovery News
Discovery News has a huge collection of stories gathered from a variety of sources. The topics range from science and tech to animals, history, and adventure. Each story ends with an area that allows students to react to what they have read. Stories can be search by category or by using the site's search bar.

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The Why Files
The Why Files is a website that I have shared earlier which helps students understand science through current events or maybe it helps kids understand current events through science. Each story explores is explored from a science perspective and includes pictures, diagrams, and charts to help students understand the topic. In addition to news, the site contains a classroom activities pages with discussion questions and quizzes from stories found on the web page. There is also an interactive section where students can learn about science based concepts through games and activities. Due to its focus on current events, the Why Files is just as useful to social studies teachers who may want to use it for current events and infuse some cross curricular science content.