Fifth-grade reading students at the Allen County
Intermediate Center
(ACIC) shared with parents last week what they had recently learned about
famous leaders—past and present---in a very unique way. The parents were
invited to visit a “wax museum” exhibit during which their sons and daughters
shared facts about a wide range of historical and current leaders.
“The Live Wax Museum is something we have been doing for several years
now,” explained ACIC teacher Cheryl Miller. “It is something I was able to
witness years ago while visiting other "Leader in Me" schools.
So, a few years ago, when we began planning for Common Core Standard
"Finding Information using Multiple Sources", we decided to roll with
it and see what would happen. We have done a wax museum ever since.”
Students were asked to choose a leader and use multiple methods to
research their choice. Once gathered, the information was put together on
display boards that were used for the wax museum presentation. In addition, the
students portrayed their character---complete with dressing in authentic and
realistic costumes to adequately portray the time frame from which their
character lived. Parents visiting the museum could press a button at which time
the “wax” figure would come to life and share a brief narrative on their
character---characters that spanned centuries.
“Instead of researching only historical
figures, we decided to incorporate The Leader In Me and allow students to
research leaders from past and present,” Miller noted. “We had wax figures from
past historical leaders to leaders in sports. This year, we had at least two
students choose leaders that no one had been before. We are so proud of the hard work and effort that these
fifth graders have put forth. They were fully engaged in the research and
parents really got involved too.”
Last week, students in all fifth-grade reading classes were attired in
costume as parents visited and learned more about a wide variety of
leaders---many of whom represent historical individuals typically studied in
the fifth grade classroom.