Readers Play the Part to Boost Books

It may have looked like a rehearsal for Halloween at Garden Grove Elementary School last week, but the costumed students--dressed as Snow White, Cinderella and characters from the “Goose Bumps” novels--were actually assuming the identities of their favorite literary heroes. The dress-up day was one of several activities in the Blast Off With Books program underway at the Reseda school.

Los Angeles School Board member Julie Korensteinand Deborah Leidner, cluster administrator for Birmingham, Cleveland and Reseda high schools, helped kick off the week’s events by reading aloud to the young book enthusiasts, who are tallying up points for reading rewards that will be handed out later in the year.

The highlight of the week’s events was an evening pajama party, at which parents, teachers and students donned sleepwear of all stripes. The students walked around the auditorium--teddy bears in hand--to join small reading groups led by the adults.

“The whole week was fantastic,” said third-grade teacher Marilyn Anderson. “The program has spurred the students on to do more recreational reading.”

PROGRAM NOTES

Impressionable: With Picasso in town and Van Gogh on the way, Pinecrest School’s art students have been inspired to produce an impressive canvas of their own: a 3-by-4-foot representation of Renoir’s “Le Moulin de la Galette.” The 20 aspiring artists each painted one section of the famous scene, which hangs in the Northridge school’s main office all month. The popular Impressionist study--an extracurricular art class open to all interested students--runs for 10 weeks.

EVENTS

Finely Tuned: The award-winning Pacoima Singers Musical Theater Group will show off their vocal skills at 12:30 this afternoon at the opening session of the annual National Assn. of Partners in Education Symposium in Los Angeles. The Pacoima Middle School singers, who performed last year for Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Democratic Governors Conference, are also busy raising funds to attend next spring’s “America Sings”program in Washington, D.C., where they will perform with vocal groups from around the country and also participate in community service projects.

Helping Hand: About 100 Madison Middle School Teen Outreach Program volunteers will head over to the Children’s Hunger Fund offices in Pacoima on Saturday, where the North Hollywood students will assemble care packages and wrap holiday gifts for disadvantaged children served by the agency.

KUDOS

In the News: Pierce College’s student newspaper, Roundup, picked up the General Excellence Award at the Journalism Assn. of Community Colleges Southern Section Conference held at Cal State Northridge recently. Editor-in-chief Jason Hait of Simi Valley took first place in on-the-spot editorial writing. Stacy Long of Encino won the first-place award for feature writing, and Kyung In Kim of Van Nuys won first place for news photography.

END NOTES

Prospective seventh- to 12th-grade students and their parents are invited to attend an open house at Los Angeles Baptist Junior/Senior High School Sunday at Lassen and Woodley avenues in North Hills at 2 p.m. . . . Viewpoint School celebrates an all-class alumni reunion Saturday from noon until 3 p.m. at the Calabasas campus at 23620 Mulholland Highway. For information, call (818) 340-2901.

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Class Notes appears every Wednesday. Send news about schools to the Valley Edition, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Or fax it to (818) 772-3338. Or e-mail them to diane.wedner@latimes.com