It was a tight squeeze, but seven adults and one child crawled into “The Reading Bubble” to hear Monfort Heights Elementary first-grade teacher Betty Murphy weave tales ranging from monkeys and peddlers to Native Americans.

        The Reading Bubble is Ms. Murphy's invention of shower curtains and duct tape, kept inflated by a fan. She uses it in her classroom to motivate her students to read.

        “From a parent's point of view, it pumps up the level of excitement about reading,” said Andy Barlow, who listened to the stories Sunday with his wife, Jennifer, and their daughter, Bethany, a first-grader at Monfort Heights.

        “You could have 1,000 books in your classroom, but if you didn't do anything to get them excited about reading, they'd never touch them,” Ms. Murphy said.

        The Reading Bubble was just one sample of Northwest Local School District's Snapshots 2002 on Sunday at Northgate Mall. The school and community expo showcased student performances, demonstrations and exhibits, along with displays by area police and firefighters.

        “It's important for the school district to make sure the community has an opportunity to see what's going on in the schools,” said Cheryl Gabe, communications coordinator for Northwest.

        “The schools belong to the community, whether you have students in our schools, in private schools or your children are grown,” Ms. Gabe said.

        Many exhibits were interactive, ranging from candle dipping by Monfort Heights Elementary students dressed in Colonial costumes to “Miss Loosen's Wax Museum,” a project of Beth Loosen's Colerain Elementary fourth-graders.

        In the wax museum, students chose a famous Olympian to research and then transformed themselves into that person. Dressed the part and carrying ice skates, hockey sticks and basketballs, the students shared their presentations.

        Nearby, 10-year-old Erin Geideman, a fifth-grader at Monfort Heights, helped children do Marshmallow Math. They made shapes out of marshmallows and toothpicks, then counted the number of sides, vertices, edges and faces.

        The hands-on geometry lesson beats book learning, Erin said.

        “It's fun,” she said. “When you're done, you can eat the marshmallows.”

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