Living Wax Museum

Hi. I'm still tying to learn how to do all of this blog thing stuff. Tonight I want to share one of the projects I did with my students this year. This class was the bestest class. I've had lots of great classes but this bunch was sweet, caring, funny, smart, etc. Of my 20 students, 12 of them are gifted.

This project was for my gifted students although I opened it up to all of the students and 2 more of them wanted to do it. In Texas, our gifted students have to complete a big project. Since my class was totally awesome, I decided to do a Living Wax Museum/ Living History Museum.

We began preparing back in January when we studied penguins. We did a shared writing of penguins. Then in February, we studied Abraham Lincoln and did a shared writing of him. The students were finally ready to choose their own person to learn about. I checked out biographies from different libraries and let them browse. We went over the expectations of the project (research, a research paper, a timeline, and preparation for the museum) and they began. They did a lot of research.

 In April, I purchased iMovie for our iPads. I learned how to make movies and trailers and taught the kids. They were all on board to add this element to their projects. They learned quickly and in no time, they were teaching me. We removed the timeline so that they would have time to finish everything. They needed to be ready to present May 29. It was tough, but they did a fantastic job. 

Here are some pics of GT night. The students posed behind a table. If the audience wanted to bring them to life, they pressed a button on the table and the person would come to life. After they spoke, they played their movies and trailers. It was so cool. I will be doing this project again and again.

Tony Hawk

Janet Jackson

Babe Ruth

Wilma Rudolph

Helen Keller

Alexander Graham Bell

Jesse James

Jane Goodall

Minnie Mouse talking about Walt Disney

Benjamin Franklin

Roberto Clemente

Cleopatra

Albert Einstein