WWWWW: The Five Ws WHO: Judy Moody
WHAT: Learning about newspapers
WHEN: 8:19 a.m.
WHERE: Virginia Dare School, Class 3T
WHY: It’s important to understand the
big wide world we live in.
Mr. Todd, World’s Best Teacher, took out his guitar. He did not sing the good morning song. He sang a song about the Five Ws—who, what, when, where, and why!
“Welcome, Class 3T. Today we are talking about news stories. True stories. Remember, every good story has the Five Ws.”
Then Mr. Todd wrote two magic words on the board:
scavenger hunt. Scavenger hunt! That was just a fancy name for treasure hunt. Judy Moody thought of five Ws, too.
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! “Big news!” said Mr. Todd, chuckling to himself.
Here it comes. Treasure hunt! Third grade just got way more interesting.
“The world is a big place, and when we read the newspaper, it’s like we’re one global family. It’s important to understand people and events beyond our own neighborhoods and communities. With an understanding of the world, we have a chance to make it a better place.”
“My mom and dad read the news--paper online,” said Paisley.
“I read the funnies,” said Frank.
“Our puppy pees on our paper,” said Maddie. Giggles went through the room.
Judy popped out of her seat like a toaster waffle. “What about the treasure hunt? Are we going outside to find stuff like rocks that sparkle or three different kinds of leaves? Or is it inside and we have to find a pencil sharpener, some--thing purple, and the letter
Z?”
“Hold the phone, Judy. I’m getting to that.”
Phone? What phone? “Let’s start with the parts of a news-paper.” Mr. Todd pointed to a list of words on the board.
Headline Byline Article Jump line Photo Caption “Who knows what a headline is?” asked Mr. Todd. “Frank Pearl?”
“It’s like the
head line,” said Frank. “A line at the top in big letters, so you know what the story is about.”
“Very good,” said Mr. Todd. “How about a byline?”
Jessica Finch’s hand shot up. “It tells you who wrote the story. I mean the
article. Like if I wrote an article it would say, ‘By Jessica A. Finch.’ ”
“Thank you, Jessica,” said Mr. Todd, “for telling us about a byline
and an article.
How about a jump line?”
“Ooh. I know,” said Bradley. “It’s when you cut in front of somebody in line.”
“Is it a jump rope?” asked Paisley.
“No, it’s when you jump over a line like this,” said Rocky. He got out of his seat and jumped over a pretend line. He landed in a squat with his arms out.
Mr. Todd shook his head. “I’m afraid that’s a line jump, Rocky. Remember, class, we’re talking about
newspapers.”
And treasure hunts, thought Judy.
“A jump line tells you where to find the rest of the story,” Mr. Todd told them. “It might say turn to page A-nine. That’s Section A, page nine.”
Judy Moody looked at the board. The last two words were
photo and
caption. Judy knew all about photos and captions from the time she tried to get famous by getting her picture in the newspaper.
Judy’s hand shot up. “A caption tells you what’s in the photo. Remember that time my almost-famous elbow got in the paper, the caption said I was Judy Muddy, not Judy Moody.” Class 3T cracked up, remembering.
“Sorry to hear that, Judy,” said Mr. Todd, smiling behind his glasses. All of a sudden, Mr. Todd started ripping up the newspaper! He passed out a page of the newspaper to each third-grader.
“Are we going to make paper hats?”
“Piñatas?”
“Paper airplanes?”
“Each one of us will get a page of the newspaper,” said Mr. Todd. “Start the scavenger hunt by looking at your page. Try to find the six things on the list.”
The third-graders got busy circling headlines and photos and captions.
When they were done, Mr. Todd said, “Now I want you to pick one story to read, and try to find the Five Ws.”
Class 3T got super quiet as they read their newspaper pages. Judy looked over her own paper.
murder hornets attack honey bees
freak blizzard blankets east coast
plane crashes in indian ocean “Okay, class,” said Mr. Todd. “Let’s share some of the headlines you’re finding in your papers.”
The third-graders read aloud some of their headlines.
ice shelf collapses deadly virus sweeps country stranded ship spills tons of oil Judy wiggled and wriggled in her seat.
She tried to keep reading her newspaper. But something was not good. Something was bad. Judy could not keep quiet one more second.
“Mr. Todd!” said Judy, raising her hand. “Bad news.”
“What is it, Judy?”
“Something is wrong with my news-paper. Blizzards and plane crashes and murder hornets. It’s all
bad news. Who, what, when, where, and why is there no
good news?”
“My page is bad news, too,” said Rocky.
“Mine, too,” said Hannah K.
Judy flipped her page over and back, over and back. There just had to be good news here somewhere. “Why is the newspaper all bad news?” she asked.
“There is a lot of bad news in the world, I’m afraid,” said Mr. Todd. “But bad news can inspire us to do something about it. Bad news can be a call to action. For example, take the oil spill. It might motivate the oil company to adopt better practices and to pollute less. It could spur people to rescue sea birds, or help with the cleanup.”
“Like we’re going to do on our field trip?” asked Jessica.
“Yes, exactly,” said Mr. Todd. “Next week we’ll be going to the aquarium at Sunrise Beach for our beach cleanup. Don’t forget to bring gloves, a water
bottle, and a bucket.”
Field trip! At least
that was good news.
“Tell you what, Judy,” said Mr. Todd. “When you go home today, look through your family’s newspaper and try to find one
good-news story. Then bring it in tomorrow and we’ll talk about it.”
“Is there a prize?” Judy asked. “Like, I mean, if I find one?”
“Finding good news will be its own reward,” said Mr. Todd.
“Or an A-plus-plus,” Judy teased, and Mr. Todd laughed.
Copyright © 2024 by Megan McDonald; illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
