During Osborne Elementary School's Storywalk on Saturday, Owen Galluzzo told school nurse Larene LaVoie about his cough. He tried on Navy Reserve Cmdr. Wesley Bell's hat. And he petted a dog.

It was all so much fun, he never suspected the Quaker Valley School District's ulterior motive: District officials want Owen and his peers to become hooked on learning -- and hooked early.

The 4-year-old from Glen Osborne called the experience a good day. When asked whether he wanted to go to school there, he answered with an enthusiastic "Yeah!"

Storywalk -- fashioned after a similar event in Frick Park in Pittsburgh -- gets preschoolers involved in reading and excited about school before they walk through the doors on the first day of kindergarten.

The walk -- a trip from classroom to classroom -- was held from 10 a.m. to noon and is in its sixth year in Quaker Valley. It is part of an overall initiative to encourage early childhood education, said Betsey Wilson, a kindergarten teacher and early childhood coordinator for the district. Mrs. Wilson used to attend the Pittsburgh program with her children years ago.

"Really, we are interested in spreading the word that early childhood education is important," Mrs. Wilson said. "Most of our children do come to school with early childhood experiences. And those who don't, they are behind when they come in."

The theme at Osborne this year was "everyday heroes." In each kindergarten classroom and outside, high school students read a story about an everyday hero, and an adult who holds that job was there to answer the children's questions.

"We really want to encourage the children to read and get them excited about reading," said Kristin Policastro, a kindergarten teacher at Osborne who coordinated this year's event.

Mrs. LaVoie, school nurse at Osborne, was in the room for the reading of "School Nurse from the Black Lagoon." She had a stethoscope and let the children listen to their hearts.

Cmdr. Bell teaches seventh-grade English at Quaker Valley Middle School. The book read in his room was "I'm the Flag We Love."

"I try to give them a little bit of what the Navy is, a little bit about the military," Cmdr. Bell said. "The hat is a big hit."

Another room had a police theme and another had a dog theme, with volunteers from Animal Friends -- Glorida Aiello and Joanna Shaw, who brought a West Highland terrier and a basset mix.

Outside, Sarah Scalerico, a sophomore at Quaker Valley High School, and her dad, Bill, both volunteer firefighters with Cochran Hose Co. in Sewickley, demonstrated the Jaws of Life, a device for extricating accident victims from wrecked vehicles. They also helped the children tour a fire truck. Their book was, "Stop, Drop and Roll."

Eighteen high-schoolers participated, district officials said.

John Larson, of Moon, was there with his children. "This is great. We come every year," he said.

"I like to see the dog," said his daughter, Gabrielle Larson, 3, who attends Creative Learning Preschool in Edgeworth.

Mrs. Wilson said they advertise Storywalk at the 12 preschools and day care centers in the school district.

"The kindergarten teachers are here, often the principal, the nurse, [and] others from the faculty," she said. "It makes [children] and their families a little more comfortable."

High school students and about a dozen Girl Scouts also helped with the crafts, and each child received a book to take home. The event is co-sponsored by the Sewickley Public Library, which is operated by the school district.

Storywalk is just one part of the early childhood initiative, Mrs. Wilson said.

Quaker Valley hosts an all-day workshop for preschool and day care teachers in the fall, and an evening event in the spring. During those workshops, Mrs. Wilson and other district educators talk about what skills they want children to have before they enter kindergarten.

"What they think we want and what we want, in reality, are not always the same thing," she said.

Teachers also provide evening programs at the library once a month to present tips to parents to help their children be ready for school.

"All of the teachers get involved, and we do a 'countdown to success,' " Mrs. Wilson said. A program called Mom and Me is held in the summer for children whom preschool teachers believe may need more time to get used to the kindergarten routine. The children come to the school for five half-days to get used to the routine and the teachers, she said.

All incoming kindergartners attend an orientation that includes riding a school bus and using the cafeteria.

The preschool initiative has had what Mrs. Wilson described as an "amazing" effect in the past five to seven years. "Some kids are coming in here reading," she said. "It's unbelievable. The kids are coming in extremely well-prepared, and there are very few children coming in with no preschool."

In the past, about 20 out of 130 new kindergartners had not been to preschool. Now, it's only about four or five, she said.

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