RESEDA : Elementary Students Put On Special Play

Dressed in costumes they made and surrounded by props they painted, the special education students at Shirley Avenue Elementary School in Reseda impressed their peers by making soup out of stones.

The class of 10 students with developmental disabilities performed a play based on the story “Stone Soup” at a recent assembly as part of the school’s observation of National Disabilities Awareness Month, which was October. In addition to the show, the special education teachers are visiting each classroom at the school to educate children about disabilities.

“I learned that they can learn too,” said 10-year-old Alex Lopez after watching the students perform. “They could be the same as us.”

On the stage of the auditorium, the students danced, recited lines and sang songs, telling the story of three soldiers who could not find anything to eat. Into a paper caldron they placed three stones to make “soup stock.” Villagers who smelled the soup cooking brought cabbage, carrots and other vegetables to add to the soup.

One of the performers, 8-year-old Daniele Skinner, said the best part of the show was the audience.

“It was so much fun because all the kids clapped for me,” she said.

Cathleen Martinez, the special education teacher who organized the show, said that seeing the children perform helps other students relate to them better.

“A lot of the kids in the school make fun of them. They discount them,” she said. “This way, they can see them doing something well.”

Jean Bryan, who was at the school to watch her son, Christopher, perform, said he was so excited about appearing in the play that he woke up an hour early for school.

“These children don’t get to participate in a lot of things other kids do,” she said. “This gives them something of their own.”