Contributor:
Lynn Pinkney
I did this with a year 1 class, but I think it would suit any age. It’s suitable for after Easter to share the news of the resurrection.
Two children are news readers, and one is a weather reporter. The first newsreader gives out bad news. This can be anything, e.g. interest rates are going up, the price of petrol is extremely high, etc. As each piece of bad news is said, a member of the class stands up and says how it will affect them, e.g. losing their house, selling their car, etc. The last piece of ‘bad’ news is that Jesus died on the cross, to which all the class say, “Oh no, that’s really bad news”.
The newsreader hands over to the weather reporter, who carries on with the bad news… rain, gale-force winds etc. Again, other members of the class can stand up with suitable responses. The weather reporter hands over to the second news reader. They say something like “we have just received this statement from Downing Street… “interest rates are down, the price of petrol is to be capped at 50p a litre”, and so on. With each piece of good news a class member stands up and says to the person from the bad news section “good news” followed by the name of the child “your house / car / etc is safe”.
This is followed by the news reader saying, “I have just been handed a news flash… Jesus is risen”. A child from the class stands up and shouts, “Good news everyone”, to which the whole class stands up and cheers. This can be followed by a simple upbeat hymn.