Elementary School Students Los Angeles County

The Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District will add instrumental music to its grade school curriculum next week for the first time in six years. Beginning Tuesday, fifth-grade students at all Peninsula schools will be able to take brass and woodwind lessons during a 50-minute after-school program. Music lessons will cost $159 per semester. Over the years, budget cutbacks have forced the district to eliminate many programs, including music.

When Kathy Perini became principal of Emperor Elementary School eight years ago, teachers peppered her with complaints about ill-behaved, unkind students. These days, courteous sixth-graders at the school in San Gabriel volunteer to clean up the cafeteria and teach computer skills to younger pupils. Teachers fashion "integrity trees" to honor students' good deeds. And youngsters formally pledge to show respect and compassion for others.

A few months ago, they were just names in an art history book: Picasso, Chagall and Van Gogh. But for 18 fifth-graders at First Lutheran School of Northridge, their work has come alive via a unique classroom experience. "The kids love it," said teacher Wendy Jensen, describing a six-week instructional lesson that put her students to work transforming their classroom into a fictional museum filled with art. "It's very involved. It's a real-life experience."

Angela Bronson's third-grade class couldn't get enough static electricity. For nearly 30 minutes, the Balboa Magnet Elementary students huddled around the Van de Graaf generator, eagerly awaiting their chance to touch the silver, dome-shaped device and witness that miracle of science: strands of hair standing on end. "It tickles," said 9-year-old Mandy Yoshida as her hair floated 5 inches above her head, to the delight of her giggling classmates. "I'm having a bad hair day," she said.

A Pacoima elementary school has been chosen for a pilot project to bring low-cost health care to needy students, thanks to a coalition of charitable organizations and health care companies. The Familycare Initiative program will provide as many as 300 students at Vaughn Next Century Learning Center with medical and dental care from an on-campus nurse practitioner and nearby doctors and clinics. Most of the students come from families not eligible for MediCal or who are without medical insurance.

Teachers tried everything to help the 7-year-old control her temper, including punishing her when she was bad and rewarding her when she was good. They even tried sending her to counseling. But nothing worked. Finally, in frustration, they gave up. The all-too-familiar story demonstrates the need for a more structured approach to dealing with such youngsters, say Las Virgenes Unified School District officials, who hope to establish a special program to help troubled children.

Glenoaks Elementary School students have donated more than 1,000 pounds of children's goods to help Glendale Adventist Medical Center open a new "Kids Only" room for needy families, officials said Thursday. The services center oversees volunteers who run the hospital's Thrift Shop, which will house the new 15-by-17-foot Kids Only room. It is scheduled to open sometime next week.

The air is thick these days with talk of education reform, of adding exit exams and raising standards and providing tougher discipline. It's good to hear, as far as it goes. But there's one thing missing, one element more likely to come from Mister Rogers than from Bill Clinton or Gray Davis. Caring. "It's not talked about, not by teachers, parents, not by politicians," says Bruce Dickson, who in four years as a substitute teacher has been through 300 classrooms in more than 100 schools.

Most of us know the story of Little Red Riding Hood and her close call with the Big Bad Wolf. Or, do we? Next Wednesday, in a play called "And Justice For All," a group of fifth-graders at Shirley Avenue Elementary School in Reseda will stage a trial to determine whether the wolf is really guilty of the heinous crimes he'd been accused of for centuries.

Fifth-graders from Sheridan Street Elementary School raised $199 to buy a basketball backboard and hoop for a local homeless shelter. The basketball equipment was unveiled Monday afternoon at the Chernow House, in the 200 block of North Breed Street. The 36 children staged a performance of the opera "Alice in Wonderland" to raise the money, teacher John Cromshow said. Lack of funds had caused the basketball court to fall into disrepair, said Jeffrey Farber, assistant director of the L.A.

Sometimes dreams can become a reality. Yuliana Cabrera, 9, has won $10,000 for Burton Elementary School for new playground equipment. The fourth-grader was the grand-prize winner in a contest--sponsored by the Kimberly-Clark Foundation--in which she drew the playground of her dreams. "I was so excited to find out I had won," the doubtful artist said of her crayon masterpiece showing a tennis court, swings, slides--even a swimming pool.

From the first novel written in 1008 to the opening of the Holocaust Museum in 1993, fifth-grade students at Welby Way Magnet School have paid tribute to the millennium's most significant--although in some cases, obscure--events in a beautiful quilt. The 6-by-6-foot quilt sewn by 90 students is composed of 100 panels, documenting an event from each decade.

The air is thick these days with talk of education reform, of adding exit exams and raising standards and providing tougher discipline. It's good to hear, as far as it goes. But there's one thing missing, one element more likely to come from Mister Rogers than from Bill Clinton or Gray Davis. Caring. "It's not talked about, not by teachers, parents, not by politicians," says Bruce Dickson, who in four years as a substitute teacher has been through 300 classrooms in more than 100 schools.

Fifth-graders from Sheridan Street Elementary School raised $199 to buy a basketball backboard and hoop for a local homeless shelter. The basketball equipment was unveiled Monday afternoon at the Chernow House, in the 200 block of North Breed Street. The 36 children staged a performance of the opera "Alice in Wonderland" to raise the money, teacher John Cromshow said. Lack of funds had caused the basketball court to fall into disrepair, said Jeffrey Farber, assistant director of the L.A.

After a few awkward moments of shuffling feet, hands in pockets and side glances, the children who had never laid eyes on one another before Thursday acted as if they'd been friends for a year as they played games and read together under the midmorning sun at Lake Balboa Park. But then, the more than 400 students from Bay Laurel Elementary School in Calabasas and Telfair Elementary School in Pacoima have known each other for that long--as pen pals.

With her depiction of fluffy, pastel-colored clouds and encouragement to "Use Water Wisely," an Agoura Hills fourth-grader was named 1997 winner of the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District's Water Awareness Poster Contest. Jacquie Schaeffer, a student at Willow Elementary School, was one of 10 finalists whose artwork was chosen to represent the district in a contest to appear in the 1998 Water Awareness calendar, sponsored by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

From the first novel written in 1008 to the opening of the Holocaust Museum in 1993, fifth-grade students at Welby Way Magnet School have paid tribute to the millennium's most significant--although in some cases, obscure--events in a beautiful quilt. The 6-by-6-foot quilt sewn by 90 students is composed of 100 panels, documenting an event from each decade.

A pilot program to help prevent elementary school students from becoming dropouts by working with their families will begin this fall at Morningside Elementary School.

Eight fifth-graders from O'Melveny Elementary School will pledge hard work for the opportunity of a lifetime tonight as they are honored as the latest recipients of the O'Melveny Scholastic Encouragement Awards. The students will each receive $12,000 college scholarships when they graduate from high school on the condition that they remain in good standing and earn grades that guarantee them entry into the California State University system.

The Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District will add instrumental music to its grade school curriculum next week for the first time in six years. Beginning Tuesday, fifth-grade students at all Peninsula schools will be able to take brass and woodwind lessons during a 50-minute after-school program. Music lessons will cost $159 per semester. Over the years, budget cutbacks have forced the district to eliminate many programs, including music.