Youngsters Share Words of Wisdom

Balboa Gifted Magnet students are once again published writers, thanks to the Northridge elementary school’s annual Young Authors Fair.

This is the sixth year students have experienced firsthand the pain and joy of putting pen to paper with deadline pressure, overcoming writer’s block and dealing with editors.

But with all that work behind them, about 660 students in first through fifth grades gathered last week in small groups of mixed-grade levels to enjoy the best aspect of their finished and bound work--reading it.

“It’s a celebration of literacy and how reading and writing go hand in hand,� said third-grade teacher and event chairwoman Janice Paul. “If you don’t read a lot, then you can’t be a very good writer.�

The students wrote and read folk tales, biographies, poetry, even fairy tales with a twist.

Consider Alejandra Munoz’s 10-page story, “The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Troll,� a fresh take on classics “The Three Little Pigs� and “Three Billy Goats Gruff.�

“I like both of the fairy tales, so I thought I would just combine them,� said the Granada Hills third-grader.

In her version, the pigs try to outsmart a troll who is preventing their safe crossing over a bridge to attend a festival.

Alejandra developed a character--the pig’s grandfather--who has magical powers and puts the troll to sleep for the pigs’ safe passage. She also took creative license, writing out the big bad wolf. And her pigs don’t even bother building houses.

The students have been brainstorming, rewriting, illustrating and editing their works in class for over a month. They’ve solicited feedback on plot and character development from their peers. Finally satisfied, the students made layout decisions and illustrated their stories into hard-bound blank books.

Some typed their text during computer lab or on home computers. Others wrote their stories by hand, using a pen or pencil.

Third-grader Bryan Hoffer said he liked reading his own work, “The Leopard and the Monkey,� the tale of a monkey who uses coconuts to fight off a hungry leopard. But he said he enjoyed hearing other stories too.

His favorite was “How the Turtle Got Its Shell� by his brother, Mitchell Hoffer, a fifth-grader.

Great minds think alike. Both boys set their stories in the jungle and both used coconuts. The younger Hoffer especially liked his older brother’s practical solution to a turtle getting flattened by the falling fruit--build a hardtop shell.

“That one was my favorite,� he said.

KUDOS

Honored Duo: In what organizers said was “extremely rare,� Jennifer Lorraine Farah and Christopher George Khoury, both eighth-graders at St. Francis Xavier School in Burbank, have received the California Junior Scholarship Federation’s Marian Huhn Memorial Award.

The organization is part of the California Scholarship Federation, which fosters scholarship, service and citizenship for junior and senior high school students.

Mother’s Day: Evelyn Callister was recently presented with a PTA National Honorary Service Award--for more than 30 years of volunteerism--by faculty, staff and parents from La Crescenta’s Lincoln Elementary School and Glendale’s Crescenta Valley High School.

All eight of Callister’s children went to the two schools, including Kaylynn, her youngest, a graduating high school senior. Callister has developed a summer enrichment program at Lincoln Elementary and serves on numerous committees and boards at both schools.

Winning Tunes: Calabasas High School took first place in choir, wind ensemble and jazz band categories last month at the Music in the Parks Festival in San Francisco. Jazz band and wind ensemble were also recognized with a judge’s choice award. The competition pitted music and vocal programs from schools across the state.

PROGRAM NOTES

Helping Kids: The Huntington Learning Center in Encino has donated 100 hours of testing and teaching of phonics, reading, studying and writing skills to three students from Portola Middle School in Tarzana and the Valley School, a private kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school in Van Nuys. The students will work with specialists throughout the summer.

END NOTES

Higher Education: Valley University Women recently awarded 15 San Fernando Valley high school male and female graduates with scholarships of $1,500 each. The organization of college-educated San Fernando Valley women has bestowed scholarships to area students for 51 years. This year’s recipients plan to attend USC, UCLA, Stanford University, Princeton University and UC Berkeley, to name a few.

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