Mary Munford’s Wax Musuem=Teaching+Fun

Note: This story was updated on June 22, 2009.

Mary Munford’s 2nd grade, and my daughter’s good friend Charlotte,  were featured in today’s Times-Dispatch.  One of Munford’s many brilliant teachers, Erin Flanagan, borrowed the idea to teach kids about historic figures by creating a “wax museum” where the children choose a person from history, and recite some basic facts about their life when someone presses their button — a large circle with a red center, and their name.

My played daughter played sharpshooter Annie Oakley — America’s first female superstar, whose parents, interestingly enough were Quaker — or as my daughter typed “quackers.”

Not only did she get to dress up as a cowgirl, but she got to research Annie Oakley on the internet  and learned about all her friends historic figures as well. Plus the Kindergarden got to go “button pressing” and learn about historic figures as well.

For the third straight year, the school’s second-graders put on the historical showcase as a fun way to cap their year of Standards of Learning-based lessons. Dressed in costume, the students represented famous people from Cleopatra to Napoleon to President Barack Obama, with a healthy dose of writers, musicians and sports stars sprinkled in.

Each student wore a round sticker with a character name and a big red button. Push the button, and the character would offer details about his or her life.

“It’s great,” said teacher Paula Katz. “Everybody gets to be someone. They all get speaking parts.”

She said the idea came up a few years ago as she and other teachers were looking for ways to get students excited about historical figures beyond the usual stars such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.