Correspondent photo / Susan Wojnar The staff of West Wisdom, a school newspaper created by third graders at West Boulevard Elementary School, are front row, from left, Jack Lorenzi, Brooklyn Cook, Kevin Price, Selena Farragher, librarian / editor-in-chief Sabrina Berardino and Evelyn Durse. Back row, from left, are Adeline Candella, Alena Nichols, Charley Westrem, Emelia Ingram and Peighton Baco.

BOARDMAN — The staff of West Wisdom, the name of the newspaper compiled by 10 third graders at West Boulevard Elementary School, is ready to go and is working on the first edition for the school year.

The cub reporters give up recess once, sometimes twice, a week to create story lines, conduct interviews, create artwork for comic strips, seek out “fun facts” and conduct opinion polls.

Their leader and editor-in-chief is librarian Sabrina Berardino, who proposed the idea for an elementary school newspaper a little over two years ago to principal Alphonse Cervello.

“Mr. Cervello was supportive, but cautious, warning it would be a lot of work and students might lose interest. I wanted to give it a try anyway. Now we are in our third year, and the students, staff and parents all love the paper,” Berardino said.

Students apply in the spring of second grade by submitting an application that includes three paragraphs explaining why they want to work on the newspaper. Berardino said she consults with their teachers before selecting the best candidates for the staff.

West Wisdom is published five times per year.

“We usually publish the week of Halloween, just before winter break, the week of Valentine’s Day, just before spring break and the week before summer break,” she said.

She added that parents look forward to reading the paper as much as students.

Students write their articles using Chromebooks in a Google Doc that Berardino monitors, giving feedback as needed. She takes care of the layout and adds the pictures for the 500 copies that are stapled together. The newspaper also appears on the school’s website.

All of the young reporters expressed a great love and interest in reading and writing. Sabrina helps them develop those interests and skills by learning how to choose topics to write about, create outlines or draft interview questions, writing in full paragraphs and learning to seek out the answers to Who, What, Where, When and Why when conducting an interview.

They also learn about the parts of an article (headline, byline, lead, body and ending,) proofreading and making corrections, researching information, organizing thoughts so they flow and the importance of being creative to make writing interesting while not straying from the truth.

Twice a year, Sabrina collaborates with Dana Safarek, the adviser for the Boardman High School newspaper, The Bugle, to enlist high school students to mentor the elementary students.

“It’s a wonderful experience, and all the students enjoy it,” Sabrina said.

The 8- and 9-year-olds who comprise the staff recently fielded questions about their experience as reporters.

Jack Lorenzi said he valued time spent with friends and all the encouragement that they give each other. Of learning to meet deadlines he also quipped, “It’s kind of stressful.”

Brooklyn Cook said she was working on a story about the history of Halloween and learning to do research online.

Adaline Candella said she recently interviewed high school principal Mark Zura to highlight BHS’s position as one of the Top 100 high schools in Ohio.

Curiosity drew Alena Nichols to reporting. She wanted to know what it was like to write a story.

Selena Farragher chose to report on the recent trip to BHS to see the Spartans Marching Band.

Evelyn Durse said she liked the experience of interviewing the schools’ behavior analyst, Brendan Gambrell.

Time spent with friends while writing was high on Charley Westrem’s list of reasons to like working on West Wisdom.

Peighton Baco was able to hone her interview skills while working on her article “Ask Cervello,” principal at West Boulevard.

Emilia Ingram is reviewing the movie “KPop Demon Hunters” for the upcoming edition.

Kevin Price wrapped up the staff interview by saying, “West Wisdom gives us a chance to show what we are capable of.”