Greenwich Elementary third graders created their own Wax Museum recently.
William Randall, 9, portrayed Elvis, wearing the iconic hair and sunglasses and holding a guitar. While the historical figure was chosen for him, Randall was still excited about the history project.
‘I think it’s exciting, and I bet everybody’s excited about it too,’ said Randall. ‘I like that he was a musician. He had this really weird hair style.’
For this annual project, teacher Amy Young said third graders had to read a book and conduct research about a famous historical person and write a report and drew a picture about that historical figure. The wax museum on May 22 was their oral presentation portion of the project, which included full costumes and props.
Parents, students and school district officials walked up to the individual student portraying a wax model of a historical person. Visitors pushed a ‘button’ taped onto the back of the student’s hand and the student read their report about their historical figure, as if they were that person.
‘I hope that they remember this,’ said Young. ‘The whole process of this is fun. They loved dressing up for this and presenting to their parents.’
‘They’re excited to see each other in costume,’ said third grade teacher Allison Scheidt.
They hope the 43 students gained research skills, communication skills and oral communication skills. There were about 24 historical figures presented.
Helena Hoffman, 9, portrayed Amelia Earhart, wearing the flight goggles, hat, jacket and scarf as Earhart had worn. She also held a cardboard cutout of a red airplane. Her favorite part of the wax museum was ‘dressing up and telling people our stories.’
Madison Cramer, 9, portrayed Harriet Tubman. ‘I liked that I got to dress up and act like the person. Because you get to search things up about that person and then you get to write about it. You learn stuff you never knew. It taught me stuff I never knew about her.’
Cramer said she learned that Tubman had married twice and had died at age 92.
Kolby Engle, 9, portrayed King Tut. ‘I think he’s a pretty interesting person. There’s a lot of history in Ancient Egypt so it’s pretty fun to discover that. The thing that made this a fun project was that I got to dress up in a pretty cool costume. And it was a fun story to write. I liked drawing his picture, too. It was a pretty fun thing to do.’
Superintendent Kathy Metrick visited the Wax Museum. ‘I think it’s so much fun and the kids love it. It’s one of the times when they really enjoy researching.’
Metrick said she asked the students, after their oral presentation, about their favorite part of the project and what was the hardest part. ‘The answer is always interesting. Sometimes they really love their character. Sometimes they wish they had a different character but they learn so much about that character. They know more than they’re telling which I think is really cool.’
She found the experience neat to see the students go into depth on a subject instead of memorizing facts; they’ve actually done the research to learn about the person.
‘They seem to really love it,’ said Metrick. ‘They are so eager to have you push their button so they can start to talk.’
The wax museum is an annual project for Greenwich Elementary third graders. They also presented to the kindergarten classes.