GARDEN GROVE : Elementary School Class Gets in Focus

In a typical kindergarten class, “cut” usually is the signal to begin creating paper dolls, and mastering “colorization” means guiding a blue-green Crayola within the lines.

But at Mitchell Elementary School in Garden Grove, those terms take on a very different meaning. At an age when most kids are making mud pies, students there are making movies.

The youngsters have piled up local, regional and even international honors for their work. But teachers say the biggest benefit is the improved self-esteem of the students.

“Have you ever seen yourself on video? It’s not that big a thrill for adults, but for a child to see themselves . . . ,” said Jeanne Cassesso, one of three kindergarten teachers involved in the project. “By the end of the year, they gain confidence. They learn by looking at themselves. If a kid’s standing there with his finger in his ear, pretty soon he learns that’s not such a neat trait.”

The school’s first film project was 20 years ago when kindergarten teacher Marlene McConville took out a Super-8 camera and recorded “Snow White” to lure parents to back-to-school night. McConville and another teacher, Patricia Purcell, decided to start a film program after that night.

The film work is “above and beyond” regular classroom work, and teachers donate time and money toward the project. They also provide many of the technical skills, including camera work and editing, but students write the scripts.

“We start with brainstorming ideas,” McConville said. “For instance, once we brought in a bunch of hats, and the kids could pick any hat and then tell what they would do if, for instance, they had a policeman’s hat. It’s from this that we glean our stories.”

One video, “Kaleidoscope of Dreams,” began with the study of colors and ended up winning third prize in the drama category of the International Student Media Festival held in February in Anaheim. Another Mitchell production, “Hocus Pocus,” won first place in the comedy division for its tongue-in-cheek magic tricks.

The “Mitchell Stars,” as the 90 or so kindergarten students involved are called, have also won $4,500 in community service grants from Disneyland and a 1982 award from Filmex, Los Angeles’ international film exposition.