After studying early American history for the past several weeks, the 7th grade had the chance to bring the stories they learned to life this week when they wrote and recorded breaking news stories as though they were living in Colonial Times.

Split into four groups, students collaborated to write a script that included statistics and facts from their history textbooks and other sources that their teacher, Marty, provided. Groups interviewed well-known American figures such as Paul Revere and Samuel Prescott about the "shot heard around the world" and the Battles of Lexington and Concord that began the Revolutionary War. Broadcasts were two to four minutes long. Marty recorded each group on Tuesday, then the students listened to all of them in class on Thursday.

"I like when we do projects that take us beyond what's in the textbook," said Nile. Agreeing with her, Aaron noted that the project helped bring history class to life. "It's a great way to go over things we learn in class in a new way."

Students also had a lot of fun with the project, writing jingles for their news stations and ending their broadcast with "Now on to Cindy for the weather..."