It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year {Wax Museum!}

We are starting our research for our 3rd grade wax museum and it is literally the MOST wonderful time of the year!

I LOVE this project.  The kiddos LOVE this project.

This is what my classroom looked like last week...

 Neil Armstrong found a video...

 Bessie Coleman and Laura Ingalls Wilder share new knowledge.

 Caroline Herschel works on her timeline.

My "Anne Frank" found a virtual tour of the home she hid in... everyone wanted to know if their person had any virtual tours too!  :)

Rosa Parks finds pictures.

Kids everywhere using the iPads to research the historical figure they have chosen... watching videos, searching images, reading websites... I LOVE IT!

Last week we researched dates for our timelines.  This week we'll be gathering info for our speeches.
If you have never done a wax museum, I'd highly recommend you look into doing one.  It covers SO many standards for starters... and it's just plain fun and full of learning.  Like literally SO much learning!!!!!

Here's a rough outline of how ours breaks down:

*gather dates for timeline (8 important life events)- 2 days
*gather info for speeches (students use a specific outline for notes)- 2 days
*write speeches using notes (4 paragraphs, following a specific plan)- 3 days
*We spend about a week in class working to memorize our speeches, though memorization isn't required.  Then all students will give their speech to the class the day before we do our for real wax museum.

We also make "buttons" that people can push to activate the speeches.  Last year we made them out of paper, but this year we're going to have students use PicCollage on the iPads to make their button.  Some of my kiddos have already started and one had the GREAT idea of including a quote from her person on the PicCollage, so I'm going to have my students all do that too!

Students make their timelines at home using the info gathered at school.  They can e-mail me pictures and I will print them at school or they can print at home or they can draw images for the timelines.  We supply paper for the timelines- it's an 11x18 piece of construction paper cut in half lengthwise and students attach the two halves.  But lots of students make their own timelines out of science fair boards, poster boards, etc...

Students also put together a costume at home.  I teach in a high poverty district and, the past two years that we've done this, students haven't had trouble with this.  We've seen everything from a George Washington wig made by gluing cotton balls to a baseball cap to Michael Jordan's jersey made by drawing the logo of his team on paper and taping it to a t-shirt!  The students and families have been so creative!

Did I mention I LOVE this project???!!!

Will the Real Ben Franklin Please Stand Up? {3rd Grade Wax Museum}

The past month has been an exciting time in 3rd grade... we've been researching, writing, and prepping for our 2nd annual Wax Museum!

Each 3rd grader chose a historical figure to research and become for our Wax Museum Open House, which we did on Friday for about an hour during school.

After researching their chosen person, each 3rd grader created a timeline of their person's life and wrote a speech as that person.  They were responsible for coming up with a costume, *hopefully* memorizing their speech, and we had an Open House on Friday where families and other students came to listen.

It was pretty amazing!

Check out these pictures from our day...

These are my Presidents... George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, and George W. Bush!

Amelia Earhart...

Betsy Ross...

Neil Armstrong...

Sacajawea and Pocahontas...

George Washington Carver, Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, and Dr. Seuss!

And... the most realistic Ben Franklin ever (aside from the actual Ben Franklin!)

We LOVE Wax Museum... can't wait for next year!

And... did you see this???

Save 20% at my store and get an EXTRA 10% when you use the code TPTXO!