Thursday, May 29, 2008

Living Wax Museum Project

Ella Fitzgerald
Sacajawea
Leonardo DaVinci
Bill Gates

The living wax museum was a big success.  We presented 10 times on Tuesday and Wednesday.  We had all the classes come and some doubled up.  Parents/grandparents were welcome at any showing and I'd say close to 80% showed up.  Most of the kids memorized their 1 mn speech so that was very impressive too.  So now I have to decide how I can adapt this to first grade next year!  Other figures presented were Princess Diana, Benjamin Franklin, Mollie Pitcher, Sally Ride, Kirby Puckett,  George Washington, Pocahontas, Laura Ingalls, Amelia Earhardt, Wilma Glodean, Harriet Tubman & Helen Keller.   No class has ever presented a living wax museum in our school before so it was fun to have something new.  It was also fun to have something interesting at the end of the year and like my 4th graders said, "It's a lot better than doing work in the room!"  I agree.
In case you're not familiar with a LWM, the kids pick a person, research and write an autobiography, memorize if possible, pick props and then present.  To make the characters come to life you have to press their start button, then they freeze again.  Have you seen it done in any of your schools?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is so great! Very "quadrant D" as they'd say at my school. Rigor, relevance, audience, purpose. Nice work! Nancy

Anonymous said...

I'm feeling like there will be a living wax museum at my school next year. Your pictures are great. Your kids did a nice job. I have to imagine that it was a very satisfying project.

Shari

Anonymous said...

AWhat a great idea. Those 4th graders are very fortunate to have you for a teacher.

jen said...

My co-workers at the fifth grade level have done this performance based learning project before with great success. It's a wonderful way for students to showcase their learning beyond paper and pencil assessments:)

Anonymous said...

Laurie, This is so COOL. I wish my twins could have you for a teacher. What LUCKY students!
D.