June 3, 2016 at 4:05 p.m.
Still life: Central Intermediate students delve into history with living wax museum
Still life: Central Intermediate students delve into history with living wax museum
By Kayla Thomason-
"They each picked out a historical character from the United States, and they did research on it," said teacher Susan Jackson. "They read a biography about their person and then created all the props that you see here, their nameplate, a timeline of the person's life, top five events of why the person has made history here in the United States and then they had to come up with their own props and costumes at home, so we kind of initiated a little parent effort there and here we are."
Jackson participated in a similar project at her last school and suggested Central try the unique concept.
"This is my first year here at Central and this is a project that we had done previously at a school where I had taught," she said. "So I said 'Guys, I have this great idea, it's been a great success' and they were willing to try it so here we are."
All six fifth-grade classes participated.
As the assignment was to portray the "wax figure" of the person they had chosen to research, the students had to stay as still as possible and were graded on their performance.
Abigale Johnson chose to portray artist Georgia O'Keeffe.
She created a piece similar to the artist's Series 1-No. 3, 1918 and had two paintbrushes on her desk.
"She's a famous female artist and she has sold six of her Calla Lily paintings for I think it was $26,000," Johnson said. "I think it was pretty cool because most of the famous artists are boys."
Johnson said she chose O'Keefe because they share a common passion for art.
"I like art a lot so I chose Georgia O'Keeffe," she said. "When the community sees this it will be like 'Oh this is so cool,' because they probably never knew these people before. So it's cool to see different people from different places and like all these other people getting to know them when they didn't before."
Abigale did find it a bit challenging to hold a single pose for approximately an hour, especially while members of the public inquired about O'Keeffe.
"It's hard enough (sitting still)," she said. "There's people coming up to me and asking questions and I can't answer them and I have to sit there and sit there but I know the answers."
Windi Saari chose to do her project on Helen Keller.
"I think she is a very inspirational, inspiring woman," Windi said. "She made her life worth living.
Windi said she was most inspired by Helen Keller's thirst for knowledge.
"The most interesting part about Helen Keller was probably the fact that she wanted to learn," Saari said. "The first word she learned was 'doll' and after that she wanted to learn more and she never stopped."
Saari said she thought the wax museum was a good idea.
"The most interesting thing about this is probably the fact that you get to see all these ideas come together and put into a presentation," she said.
Trayton Brzycki, dressed in a nice suit and sitting in a model Model T, chose Henry Ford.
"He made a car that worked and people could buy," Trayton said. "He made an engine called the V-8 engine."
He added that the first car was made in 1908 and it was the Model T.
He also found it interesting that an elementary school was named after Ford.
Like his peers, Trayton found it hard to sit still.
Olivia Gillen portrayed Annie Oakley, dressed in plaid with pigtail braids and holding a silhouette of a gun.
"She was just interesting to me and I knew about her, but I wanted to know more about her," Olivia said of her choice.
She found Oakley's skills to be impressive.
"She shot her first gun when she was only 7 years old, which I thought was pretty cool," Olivia said. "She beat one of the most talented shooters in the country and she was able to meet Sitting Bull and Sitting Bull adopted her."
Olivia enjoyed participating in the wax museum, even if sitting still was a challenge.
"It's fun because you get to experience what the other people have done in history and you're able to do it here in school," she said.
Olivia was surprised by the turnout.
"Nice, I wasn't really thinking that this many people would come really," she said.
Jackson was equally pleased with the turnout.
"(The community turnout is) phenomenal," she said. "We had to start even a little bit earlier because they started arriving earlier than we had expected."
Those who came to see the wax museum were impressed with the students research and their resolve to be still.
"I think it's amazing, you can really tell the kids that put the effort and energy into it and I'm still impressed they can hold still this long," said Terri Krueger.
Dolores Doucette enjoyed seeing what the students came up with.
"I think it's very wonderful, it's very educational and I'm learning stuff even," she said. "They did a very, very good job, very informative."
Kayla Breese may be reached at kayla @rivernewsonline.com.
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