How to Make a Classroom Newspaper

You can create your own newspaper. Students can be reporters, researching and writing newspaper articles. Topics for articles can include interesting things that have happened in the classroom or school, events that occurred in your town, family milestones (did someone have a birthday recently, or win an award?), a sports tournament, extreme weather, or an interesting local person! Before you begin, read and analyze some newpaper articles to see how professional reporters write.

You can put the articles of all the students in the classroom together to make your own classroom newspaper! You can even add advertisements for made-up products.
A newspaper is a daily or weekly publication that contains news articles, editorials, and other items. Newspapers are printed on large sheets of inexpensive paper that are folded. Ads (and to a much lesser extent, subscriptions) pay the costs of operating a newspaper. Synonyms for newspaper are paper and rag (this is a disparaging term).

The owner of a newspaper is called the publisher. The editor is in charge of the content. Reporters research and write the articles. Most reporters specialize in an area (like government, crime, or science) - this specialty is called the reporter's beat.
In the USA, the freedom of the press is guaranteed by the first amendment to the US Constitution.
Structure of a Newspaper Article
Each newspaper article has a title (called the headline) that is set in large type. The writer of a newspaper article is often not credited; if the author is mentioned, this credit is called the author's byline.
The beginning of each newspaper article (the first paragraph) is called the lead (one or two sentences long); the lead should summarize the main facts of the article, telling the 5 W's (who, what, when, where, and why) and how. The first paragraph should also contain a hook, something that grabs the reader's attention and makes the reader want to read the rest of the article.
The nut graph is the paragraph that contains the core information about the story and tells the reader why the story is important.
The remainder of the article contains supporting paragraphs that go into more detail about the topic, often including quotes and interesting facts. The less important information should appear later in the article, since the article may be cropped (shortened) by the editor (the person who puts the newspaper together) to make the article fit on the newspaper page.
The reporter's opinions should not appear in the article - only the facts. Use clear and simple language. Keep the article short and to the point. Use active verbs (for example: Man bites dog) and not passive verbs (for example: Dog bitten by man).
Each picture, graph or illustration should have a caption describing or explaining it.
Structure of a Newspaper

• First section - with major news, world news and sometimes, editorials (where the newspaper editors offer their opinions on various topics - published with the op-eds -- opinions written by other writers). The most important news articles are on the first page; the top half of the first page is referred to as "above the fold."
• Local news section -with local news and weather.
• Sports section.
• Lifestyle section - often containing feature articles (non-news general interest pieces, for example, an article on stamp collecting or visiting New York City), entertainment, travel, fashion information, cooking, useful household hints, advice columns, the comics, puzzles, and reviews of movies and books.
• Classified ads section in which people and businesses advertise items for sale and post job notices.
• Paid advertisements are scattered throughout the paper except on first pages (the ads generate most of the revenue that keeps a newspaper in business).