The twin fifth-grade students at Lakeside Elementary School have created their own monthly class newspaper, appointing themselves publisher and editor, respectively.

While reading comic books at his aunt's house in Pennsylvania this summer, Nathan decided he "wanted to do something for the school." His sister, Deanna, agreed, and with the help of their aunt, they launched a mini newsletter.

Once back in Los Gatos for the start of school, the twins decided to continue and expand the newsletter, issuing it as the fifth-grade newspaper, the Lakeside Kids' News. With approval from their teacher, Vicki Schmidt, the two began querying for submissions, using Microsoft Publisher to lay out and design the paper.

Now in its third edition, the two-page Lakeside Kids' News is issued the second Wednesday of each month and is a combination of short articles about the school, science and holiday interests, as well as jokes, brainteasers and decoding games.

Deanna and Nathan write and find most of the articles and jokes; however, other students are becoming more involved in writing and providing articles.

Lakeside Superintendent and Principal Joyce Salisbury says the entire class now works on the paper, picking areas that are of interest to report on or research to use in future editions.

"I think they are incorporating lots of things they learn from the paper and integrating that with the curriculum," said Salisbury, who was interviewed for a two-part question-and-answer series, the first of which ran this month. "I think the kids are pretty amazed at how professional it is becoming ... at least, I am."

Interest in the paper was particularly sparked when a classmate's parent who works as a freelance journalist came to speak to the class about the difference between newspaper and magazine writing.

"I think after that they became cognizant of what newswriting really is," Salisbury said.

Schmidt, who co-teaches with Kathryn Parkman, describes the fifth-grade class as "strong and very hardworking." She is enthused about the newspaper and involving the students in it.

"Nathan and Deanna are both excellent students who are very focused and committed," Schmidt said. "I think it's admirable, what they've done, and they have put a lot of hard work into it."

The children's father, Richard Devlin, said Nathan and Deanna put in roughly 12 hours of work per month to prepare each issue. "We help out sometimes, but they pretty much run it," Richard said, adding that the children are quite computer-savvy.

"The paper started as a fun, summer thing, but I think it is really good," Richard said. "I thought it would be more than just a writing exercise for them in that it's an organizing exercise in getting the articles, making deadline and just making it happen. I think it has been a nice project for them."

Although it has been a challenge to get a steady supply of articles, Deanna believes that "the kids really enjoy the paper" and that working on it has taken a lot of time but has been "really good." Deanna has written several pieces about holiday events and science, but enjoys editing the paper most of all.

Nathan, who heads up the brainteasers, decoding games and joke of the month sections, said working on the paper has been very fun and that his favorite part of the process is "getting to read the articles before they print."

Both students would like to expand their newspaper audience, which is likely to happen, as Salisbury said the school is hoping to distribute the paper along with its district newsletter, the Lakeside Letter, in December.