IQALUIT - For all the news that's fit to print, Nunavut News/North is going to have some new competition.

Grade 3 and 4 students at Nakasuk School in Iqaluit have entered the newspaper game with the Classroom Power Paper hitting newsstands soon.

Nakasuk school students, from left, Kevin Maatiusie, Shawn Lee-Baines, Ben Mikijuk, Jonathan Kingwatsiak and Amy Alainga-Pothier work on a story for their Classroom Power Paper. - Chris Windeyer/NNSL photo

"The idea is life experience and getting the kids writing," said teacher Tanya Saxby, as her students, wielding cameras and notepads, descended on nearby classrooms.

"It gets them taking responsibility for their own learning and that's exciting for them," Saxby said.

The Classroom Power Paper will feature stories on local issues, school issues, Inuit culture and environment issues. It will be distributed among the students at Nakasuk.

On Wednesday, Saxby's students were busy getting both sides of the story of two ferrets that had to be removed from a class because a student was allergic to them. That story is for a section called Classroom Journey.

"Every week we're going to pick a different class," said student Stephanie Bloor.

Newspaper time is part of Language Arts. Saxby said her students planned for themselves what they wanted to see in the paper and what kind of sections it would have.

But despite pleas from some of the students, work on the paper did not eat into time for math class.

"I find we just go until the kids aren't focused any more," Saxby said.

As Bloor asked questions of her bemused fellow students about the ferret case, photographer Nmesoma Umenwofor-Nweze grew frustrated with her fidgety subjects.

"Please stay still," she pleaded. "I don't want to get the picture blurry."

Amid the chaos that made Saxby's class seem eerily similar to a newsroom, editorial writer Jazmyne Perkins was forced to wait for stories before she could get to work.

"It's hard, challenging and confusing," Perkins said.

Caroline Nutarak, who serves as one of the Classroom Power Paper's publishers and layout people, was more optimistic.

"It's just fun," she said.