AROUND THE WORLD ENCINO ELEMENTARY STUDENTS TRANSFORM CLASSROOMS INTO FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

Byline: MARK KELLAM Valley News Writer

Students at Encino Elementary School recently went around the world -- without ever leaving campus.

The elementary's PTA coordinated a Multi-Cultural Day at the school on June 14. Each classroom represented a different country, including El Salvador, China, Kenya, France, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Madagascar, Argentina and Guatemala.

The teachers and students decorated their classrooms to look like the countries they'd chosen.

In the morning, half the students visited the decorated classrooms, while the other half hosted the ``tourists,'' said Resa Congdon, chairwoman for the event and a PTA officer. In the afternoon, the students switched roles, with former tourists serving as hosts and vice versa.

Second-graders in teacher Angela Huff's class dressed in tribal outfits and did a tribal dance in portraying the country of Madagascar.

Teacher Brandi Price's first-grade classroom chose Italy, and students had a large replica of a gondola on display.

Second-graders in Nancy Scharf's class decorated their room like Egypt and made mummified apples that had little faces drawn on them.

Teacher Carol Palato and her third-graders created a Brazilian rain forest in their classroom. Their elaborate forest included tall trees and leaves made of colored paper and cardboard, and cutouts of monkeys and other animals. All the students wore light- green ponchos with ``Brazil'' written across them.

All Encino Elementary students had mock passports and each country featured in Multi-Cultural Day had a spot in the document. As the students visited each country, they received a stamp, which they placed in the corresponding spot in the passport to indicate they'd visited that foreign land.

In almost all the classrooms, low-denomination coins from the respective countries were distributed to the young tourists as souvenirs. For countries where Congdon couldn't get coins, the students were given pieces of minerals found in those particular countries. For example, students received pieces of yellow quartz, called citrine, when they visited the Brazilian classroom and rose quartz when they checked out the Madagascar classroom.

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(color) Encino Elementary third-graders stand in the midst of a Brazilian rain forest they created in their classroom as part of a Multi-Cultural Day at their school. They are: (front row, from left) Audrey Der, Afsaneh Pouraghabagher and Colin Travaglini. (Middle row, from left) Alfredo Gaytan, Chloe Castanada, Pumai Subanakyot and Natalie Moore. (Back row, from left) Ian Buenafe, Brett Hoskins and Brandon Gilden. They are students in teacher Carol Palato's class.