GR fourth graders turn into wax

The Jackson Elementary School gym was lined with students dressed like historical Wyoming figures.

The fourth-grade students, who were portraying the historical figures, were not moving because they were pretending to be made out of wax. Next to the students, were posters filled with information about the person, place, animal or thing they were dressed up to be.

Fourth-grade teachers Maria Anderson, Amy Gilmore, Joe Morgheim, Sarah Wright instructed their students look through their Wyoming history textbooks to pick out something they were interested in.

"This project gives students the opportunity to gather and organize research. They do the majority of the research at school, but the presentations are created at home," Anderson said. "They learn the responsibility of doing a project at home. They also work on public speaking." 

This is the second year the school has hosted the Wyoming Wax Museum, in previous years the school hosted a United States Presidents Wax Museum.

"Jackson teachers changed the idea of a presidential wax museum to a Wyoming Wax Museum to match our curriculum," Anderson said. "We are the only school that does this event."

Anderson said this particular program is important because students learn how to do research on a specific topic, how to organize that information and then turn the information into a presentation. She said it's also important for students to learn how to present their information in front of their peers. The presentations allows the students the chance to practice their speaking and listening skills.

Since the presentations are completed at home, students learn independence and a sense of responsibility.

During the actual wax museum, the entire school visits the fourth graders to learn about Wyoming history.

"We open it up to the community, parents and our school board members," Anderson said.

The children not only had to write presentations for the class, but a monologue to recite during the museum show itself.

"This is the first year that we had the kids do monologues. They had to prepare a small speech to tell people about their character or symbol," Anderson said. Visitors tapped the wax figures on the shoulder to hear a monologue about the exhibit. This was a huge success."

The museum was only open from 1-2:15 p.m. on Friday, so if residents missed it they will have to wait until next year.