Newport Heights Elementary School goes global with its annual Parade of Countries.

Tim Salvino wants his students to know that the world is a diverse place. So when his class had to represent a nation for Newport Heights Elementary School's annual Parade of Countries, Salvino chose the most obscure one possible.

"Every year we've been doing this, I've tried to pick a country that's not well known," Salvino said, "to remind people that there are countries other than the big superpowers."

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While other classrooms around the school studied Canada, France, China and other well-known entities, Salvino's fifth-grade class learned the history and fashion of St. Kitts and Nevis, a pair of microscopic islands in the Caribbean, which together form one sovereign state.

No one in the class knew quite how residents of St. Kitts and Nevis dress, but Salvino told them simply to wear tropical-style clothes to school.

In preparing for the parade, students learned a number of fun facts about St. Kitts and Nevis: for example, that Christopher Columbus named the second island after the Spanish word for "snow," and that the British and French co-owned St. Kitts for nearly 100 years.

St. Kitts and Nevis are so small they're not even marked on Salvino's classroom map.

"I was surprised that it was not on the map, because I have a map and it has a lot of stuff on it," said student Antonio Ortiz. "I thought it was interesting that it was ruled by the French and British."

On Friday, then, the tiny island country joined the annual parade on the field of Newport Heights. On a rain-slicked ground, 26 classes proceeded under a red, white and blue balloon arch, with students and teachers dressed in foreign outfits that left Newport Beach far behind.

Each class dressed in the garb of its chosen country and also carried construction-paper flags.

Teachers were in charge of their classes' costumes, and some found creative means of obtaining them. Second-grade teacher Eleanor Dickson has an Indian student in her class whose mother, Ivy Persichini, provided traditional dresses, complete with jewelry.

"We're learning how all children are the same as Newport Heights children and how they're different," Dickson said. "One theme is that everyone in the world has feelings, needs to learn, loves to play and needs love."

After the parade, the school held its annual "Olympic" jog-a-thon, in which students raised over $27,000 for the PTA -- an all-time record -- in pledges and sponsorships.

Wilson Lubeck, a kindergartener, raised $1,128 from family, friends and neighbors.

Students wore their regular school clothes to run around the track.

"It really is a huge multicultural celebration," said principal Kurt Suhr, who began the day's festivities by carrying a torch onto the field.

* IN THE CLASSROOM* is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education writer Michael Miller visits a campus in the Newport-Mesa area and writes about his experience.