Create a Historical Newspaper Front Page

Build historical empathy and understanding through creative publishing.

Teaching context:
Excellent for history projects when students need to engage with events from the perspective of the time.

Basic AI Prompt:
Write a newspaper article about [historical event].

Enhanced AI Prompt:
Generate a 1929-style front-page newspaper covering the Wall Street Crash. Include a dramatic headline, article excerpt, and short sidebar on public reactions, formatted for Year 10.

Spice it up:
Ask for layout suggestions or printable templates with space for student artwork or captions.

Lesson implementation:
This task suits major assessment projects or term-end presentations. Begin by reviewing real historical headlines and comparing them to modern reporting. Use the AI-generated article as a model and ask students to draft their own front pages for key events. Scaffold with sentence starters and vocabulary banks for students who need support.

This activity fosters empathy, creativity and historical understanding. You can link it to Book Week (as a creative publishing task) or History Week. Tools like Canva, Piktochart or Google Slides are ideal for formatting. Display the finished products in a classroom gallery or publish them digitally for the school community.

Got ideas on different ways to use this prompt? Share them with the class in the comments below!

Also, if you liked this, you'll love 250 AI Prompts for History Teachers in our books section!