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Campbell 3rd-graders portray 'living wax museum' figures
CAMPBELL
Campbell third-graders turned the Campbell K-7 school cafeteria into a miniature Madame Tussauds this week, taking on the personas of historical figures for the second annual student “living wax museum” presentation.
Dressed-up students stood along the perimeter of the cafeteria and wore buttons on their shoulders reading “press here.” When parents or other students pressed the button, the students would recite information about the figure that they were portraying.
One little boy dressed in a suit and sporting a moustache with a sign proclaiming “I have a dream” was Martin Luther King Jr. Another students with an unruly shock of gray hair portrayed Albert Einstein. A little girl dressed like a pilot from the 1930s was Amelia Earhart.
The students – two third-grade classrooms, 41 students in all – worked on the presentation for six weeks and performed twice, once for a group of their classmates and once for their parents.
Dominique Galleta and Lori Ladgil, both third-grade teachers, use the presentation as a part of the students’ biography curriculum.
“The kids absolutely love it, they were really excited to practice their characters,” Galleta said.
Kalotina Troumuliari, 8, was dressed in a brown western-inspired dress and wore a large, wide-brimmed brown hat for her portrayal of western legend Annie Oakley.
When visitors tapped her shoulder, she talked about Oakley’s life and accomplishments, sharing that the sharpshooter took her first shot at 8 years old.
Lania Thomas, 9, chose to portray civil-war era abolitionist Harriet Tubman. She said she chose Tubman because she created the Underground Railroad.
Galleta said the students seem to take to the project because they can choose their own subject for study.
“They enjoy it in part because it’s independent,” Galleta said. “They research someone that they’re interested in, and they form their reports from the parts of their lives that they find interesting. They decide what’s important.”
Galleta said she and Ladgil are planning to have another wax museum next year.