As community editors, part of what we do involves local outreach. In addition to fielding phone calls about putting stuff in the paper, that often includes meeting with local groups and schools to develop relationships and spread the word about not only what we do but, more important, the cool things you all do.

These meetings have been pretty popular, and we’ve gotten great feedback from groups saying it has helped guide their submissions to the paper. Many of our new columns and features have also come out of them, including stories by high school journalists. (For more information, email us at times@theday.com.)

Lee is usually the one to talk with community groups about the Times, and I usually take on the high school crowd; I make regular visits to Old Saybrook and Ledyard, for example. When we got a request from a local preschool to have someone come in and talk about the newspaper, he told me to give it a go.

This was a challenge because I don’t often interact with kids ages 3-5. My usual presentation is geared for ages 14-18, and the youngest kids I hang out with on a regular basis are 7 and wearing roller skates.

I can break down what I do to a pretty basic level (I talk to people and write stories), but how do I make that engaging for a preschooler? Sometimes it’s like pulling teeth even with the high schoolers.

Through the power of social media, I casually know enough people who have small children and/or education experience, and they were able to guide me in the right direction. I also Googled “journalism activities for kids” and found an outdated but really cute picture book about woodland animals making a newspaper.

I went to Groton Head Start March 22 with “The Furry News,” a bunch of Times clippings, a make-your-own front page template and a good bit of anxiety. Did I plan too much? Did I not plan enough? What if it’s too easy/hard? What if they get distracted by my Christmas hamburger socks?

One kiddo did comment on my socks, and it turns out the Five W’s is a little too technical for that age group, but overall it went well. They loved the Pet Pal photos and had a good time drawing their front pages, which ranged from watermelons to superheroes to Chester the pig from the March 7 edition of the Times.

I’m still not 100 percent sure what the kids understood from my presentation (hats off to all you early childhood educators out there), but it was an interesting change from the glazed looks of overtired high schoolers.

Amanda Hutchinson is the assistant community editor.