Kid Scoop, a weekly page of learning activities for children published in more than 300 newspapers and a monthly news magazine for children in “print deserts,” is one of 12 international laureates awarded the Global Youth and News Media Prize. Among the other laureates are NBC Nightly News Kids Edition and The Canadian Broadcasting Company Kids News.
Kid Scoop was created some 30 years ago by Vicki Whiting, a former third-grade teacher in Sonoma, California.
The prize, begun in 2018, honors organizations that innovate as they strengthen engagement between news media and the young while reinforcing the role of journalism in society. This year’s prize was devoted to journalism that explained the coronavirus to children. The director of Global Youth & News Media, Dr. Aralynn Abare McMane commented on the Kid Scoop Pandemic News for Children entry:
“This latest, deceptively simple innovation from Kid Scoop comes as no surprise. For more than 30 years since the company first created activity pages as a means to develop community newspapers into a valuable teaching tool for children, Vicki Whiting and her tiny team has persuaded hundreds of community newspapers in North America to answer the call to provide at least a page a week of entertaining activities that teach the basics. Kid Scoop News, the organization’s own newspaper, provides an oasis of calm for its young readers who face an increasing array of bewildering realities. Bravo on your fine work!”
When the Coronavirus struck last year, Whiting went on full alert. “I knew children were puzzled and even frightened. People were wearing (or not wearing) masks. It was all very mysterious,” Whiting said.
So, this former third-grade teacher in Sonoma, California, schools set out to explain the virus and how to combat it — with explanatory journalism in child-friendly vocabulary and lively, colorful, interactive illustrations by her graphic designers, Jeff Schinkel and Eli Smith.
The information answered kids’ questions such as “What is Coronavirus and how does it spread?” “How to stop the virus? By joining the Kid Scoop Scrub Squad!” and coloring the “Bubbles Prevent Troubles” page — the 5-step hand-washing plan. “What to do if you are worried about the virus? Talk about how to overcome worries with a family member.” The word search puzzle helped children learn vocabulary words such as sneeze, spread, cough, distance and more.
Whiting’s company distributed all the materials at no charge. They included:
Children colored the outline of a mask on published Kid Scoop pages, then local businesses displayed them in their windows, even though stores were closed. Simple sentences explained why to wear a mask.
The Kid Scoop newspaper feature was inspired by curious questions from her third-grade students in Sonoma. They led Whiting to create and publish her weekly Kid Scoop page nearly 30 years ago. She was teaching the required unit on “Community” and found the required textbook boring and generic.
She asked her students, “How can we learn about our community? The children responded: our community newspaper!”
So, one day after school, she sat down at her kitchen table and created a newspaper-size page of puzzles and games on the theme of “our community.” She took her prototype to the local weekly newspaper, the Sonoma Index-Tribune. She explained to the editor that school children were an important part of the Sonoma community and a page in the weekly would help them find out about it. The newspaper editor loved the idea of children reading the weekly newspaper for their own page titled Kid Scoop.
Reading and writing activities on the Kid Scoop page guide young readers to many parts of the newspaper. Classroom teachers use Kid Scoop to increase reading and mathematics skills, expand knowledge of geography, history, science, current events and governance, learn the difference between fact and opinion, and discover local community events.
For more information, contact Vicki Whiting: 707-287-4018 or vicki@kidscoop.com.
