Fourth graders at Gatewood Schools in Eatonton presented the Famous American Wax Museum on March 31, led by Elementary School Director and 4th-grade ELA and social studies teacher Lisa McElhannon and 4th-grade math and science teacher Chandler Craine.
McElhannon said this event has become an annual activity at Gatewood, done right before spring break for at least the last four years.
Preparations for the Wax Museum take a couple of months, she explained. As students work on the different phases of the project, they have to create draft reports on their characters and then final reports. In addition to preparing costumes and any props they might need to tell their life stories, students also have to produce at least a one-minute speech and memorize it to tell museum visitors later.
“I think they benefit from it by learning how to do public speaking,” she said.
“Also, how to do research and write papers,” Craine added.
In choosing characters, the students also have to follow certain rules. They make three choices, out of which they select one with the help of their teachers. Their characters have to be famous for good, positive reasons and not bad, immoral or illegal reasons.
The characters also have to come from different fields and backgrounds. For example, there cannot be too many sports figures. Also, they cannot repeat characters from previous years.
By all appearances, the kids had a great time, but it looked like the parents and other visitors may have enjoyed their visit to the museum even more.