Towamensing students portray ‘wax museum’ characters

earning came to life on Friday morning at Towamensing Elementary School.

Under the guidance of sixth-grade teacher Jackie Ivancich, the school held its inaugural living wax museum. Students portrayed notable figures of their choosing, from athletes to astronauts.

Each year, Towamensing’s sixth-grade students focus on biographies as one of the genres in their reading groups, but this year Ivancich wanted to put a new twist on things to get more in depth.

“We let students choose whoever they wanted, but I did want a variety such as athletes, singers or past presidents, for example,” she said. “The students had time to read a book on their individual. They then created a poster showing facts about their life, and developed a 30-second speech about them. The last part was creating a costume so they could get into character.”

On Friday, the students, in costume, lined up in or just outside the gymnasium, with each class in the school paying them a visit over a nearly two-hour period. When someone pushed the button placed near a particular character, that student would give a brief speech as the person they were portraying. After the speech, the student would go right back to standing still as if they were in a real wax museum.

Kylie Mattrazzo chose J.K. Rowling as her character, but had you asked her before she read the author’s most well-known series, her choice may have been different.

“I’ve always been into reading, but when I started to read the Harry Potter books, I didn’t think I would like them,” Mattrazzo said. “Within the first few chapters, however, it quickly became my favorite series and I think that led to my choosing J.K. Rowling to be for this project.”

The living wax museum drew rave reviews from the younger students and Towamensing’s staff, who had a chance to view it. For the first year, Ivancich said, the results were inspiring.

“This is the first time we’re trying it and I even told the students, let’s just see how this goes,” she said. “They set the bar very high for future years. The smiles on the faces of the kids let me know this has been a success.”

Most of the students memorized their speeches, including Mattrazzo, who said she had hers down pat in 10 minutes. She said the different style of learning was well-received by the students.

“It’s fun and when you do something fun, I think you tend to remember it more,” Mattrazzo said. “I loved seeing how everyone developed their character and dressed up. It was a great way to learn about so many people.”

Other characters spotted at the school Friday included Neil Armstrong, Walt Disney, Harry Houdini, Mary Lou Retton and Bruce Springsteen, just to name a few. The event brought an end to what has been an enjoyable process for both students and staff.

“It has been so much fun in class to have them understanding that learning comes to life and that books are more than words on a page,” Ivancich said.

“The way they have supported each other, giving each other advice with their posters, has been amazing. There was so much excitement in the room this morning. It has exceeded my expectations in every way.”