Mission 25
The Neighborhood Newspaper
A wren in the mailbox, a cat who came home, a fountain running again: Plum Lane has had quite a week, and its one-page newspaper goes to the copier on Friday. Put the pictures in order, sort what was seen from what was guessed, find the facts in the notebook, and make every line say just what happened.
- 5 parts
- 15 to 22 minutes
- Grades 6 to 8
Who is playing?
Each age gets its own version of the story. Any of them is fine to play.
Grades 6 to 8
The Piano at the Bus Stop
The job: Decide what the Page may print about the mystery piano as fact, what is opinion and what must wait for another source.
- Three Trays With a PlayOwl plan
- Who Would Know? With a PlayOwl plan
- Whose Opinion? With a PlayOwl plan
- Sixty Words With a PlayOwl plan
- The Tallest Sunflower? With a PlayOwl plan
For grown-ups: what this mission practices
Telling an observation from a guess and a fact from an opinion, and writing clearly: ordering events, matching words to a picture, building sentences, finding who, what, where and when in notes, counting instead of estimating, putting the most important thing first, cutting to a word limit and checking quotes. Older children decide what a source has earned and justify it.
- Ages
- Five versions, from Preschool to Grade 8. They are different designs, not the same task with other numbers.
- How it is checked
- Every answer is checked by rules the child can see at work on the screen. Any answer that meets them is right.
- Help
- Olly can read any line aloud, give a hint that points at where to look, or show one way. A report says where help was used.
- Time
- Nothing is timed. A part takes a few minutes and progress is saved after each one for a signed-in child.