‘Wax’ students share history
Museum showcases challenges famous people have overcome
Between standing still for hours, learning presentations in both English and Spanish and repeating their speeches dozens of times, Darlington School’s third-graders had a full — and possibly exhausting — day on Thursday.
“This is probably the one day in the year they want to go to bed early,” laughed third-grade teacher Steve McConnell.
Darlington School’s Wax Museum is an annual event put on by the third-grade class. The students spend several weeks researching influential or popular individuals and writing a research paper on them. They also paint a portrait of their subject, find props to suit them and then, finally, dress up as them and talk about their lives during the museum set up in the Huffman Center.
Darlington students and multiple family members filed through the museum during the day, pushing the little “buttons” on each “wax figure” and hearing their story.
The third-graders affix
red buttons on each shoulder — one reading English and the other Spanish. Until their button is pushed, they must remain still and silent and in character.
The project has been part of the third-grade curriculum for six years, now, McConnell said.
“They are doing their first research report in third grade, which is great preparation,” he said. “They do a presentation and set it to run on iPads for their display table. They write the report in cursive, which is something they are taught to do in third grade. They learn their speech in Spanish as well. It’s really
an amazing cross-curricular project.”
This year’s theme was Embracing Challenges to Achieve Success. Students chose public and historical figures who overcame obstacles and challenges in their lives, whether something such as dyslexia or autism or being blind or losing a limb.
“We always try to find a way to expose the children to different things,” McConnell said. “This year, we wanted to show them that famous people deal with challenges too. Folks they’ve grown up seeing on television or reading about go through hard times. It makes them see that hard work makes things happen, that everything shouldn’t be easy.”
Marcus Jones, parent of Brysen Jones, who portrayed musician Stevie Wonder, said he was proud of what his son had accomplished.
“It’s hard work for the kids, especially getting through today,” he said. “It’s a wonderful project.”
Lauren Ledbetter, parent of Henry Ledbetter, who portrayed Steven Spielberg, said she was amazed by what the young students accomplished.
“These kids are only 8 or 9,” she said. “There is so much that goes into this, between the public speaking and the technical things and the research.”
Ledbetter said she loves the project’s focus this year.
“I think it shows them great examples,” she said. “They not only get to focus on their individual, but they get to learn a bit about all of their classmates’ subjects as well.”
Bryn Merritt, who portrayed Agatha Christie, said the project was a good experience for her.
“I love to read and write, so this was good for me,” she said. “I found out she had dyslexia. I plan to read her books when I get older.”
Brent Bell portrayed Olympic medalist Michael Phelps.
“My favorite thing I learned was that he was scared to even put his head in the water when he first started swimming,” Brent said. “He was one of my top choices to do, so I was glad to get him. He was fun.”
Myles Twyman portrayed Muhammad Ali.
“The hardest thing was finding all my props,” he admitted. “I liked finding out why he started boxing. He went to the store and parked his bike. Someone stole it and when he went to the police, the officer told him he should learn to box. He went to a boxing instructor and he loved it so much, he kept on.”
McConnell said he enjoys seeing his students shine with this project every year.
“Just last year, they were second-graders coming through as museum patrons,” he said. “They all had this wideeyed look like they couldn’t do this themselves. Then, we showed them it can be done step by step and this morning, I stood here with them and said, ‘look, you did it.’ You could see the light go on in their faces.”