Living History museum

Gabi's school does something really neat with the second grade. It is called the living history museum. The kids work on this for a couple of months. In school they research and write a report on a person who has made their name known in history. The kids were assigned their subjects based on the teacher's opinion of the child's interests. Gabi was assigned Miley Cyrus. I know, surprise surprise. The funny thing is she is too cool for Miley now and has moved on. Of course she let the teachers know this. UGH.
Anyway, the kids all write a report on their subject. They work on this in class by reading books and taking notes. They work on this in the computer lab, by researching on the web and typing their reports. They also work on this project in art class. The art teacher traced each student and the kids then colored themselves to look like their character.

Michelle Kwan, Tony Hawk, Mia Hamm

Daniel Boone, Paul Revere, Helen Keller

Ann Lindbergh, Albert Einstein, Madame Curie, Jacques Cousteau

Bob Vila, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Tony Romo

On the day of the Museum, the kids all dress up like their assigned characters. They stand around the edges of the gym in front of their respective posters and written reports. They each have a button (sticker) on their hand and try to look like wax statues. When you walk up to one of the statues, you push their button and they tell you a speech. It was really crowded and loud in the gym, but all the kids did an amazing job standing tall and giving their speeches.

I can't wait to do it again in two years.

A funny little side note. Since this is my first second grader I didn't realize that this was a family event. I thought they just presented their reports in class. So about a month ago a note came home that they would need costumes for the report. I guess I didn't read it very carefully. But I made a note of the date of the presentation, 4/16, and thought about what I might dress her in to be Miley. Each weekend Gabi brings home a VIP folder. This has all the Very Important Papers for the week for us to sign. We have asked her repeatedly not to wait until bedtime on Sunday nights to show it to us. Well the Sunday before the presentation, Gabi gives me her VIP folder at 8:30 at night. In it are two papers explaining that we as a family are supposed to come see them during school for the museum and that her costume was due on Monday (the next morning) for dress rehearsals. And Oh yeah, could I please provide refreshments? So I quickly threw together an outfit with sparkles and denim. Signed up to bring food and looked at my calendar. At this point it clicked that on that Friday I had all of my parent teacher conferences scheduled from noon to 6:00. So on Monday I had to reschedule five conferences so that I could make it to the school for the museum. Thankfully my students' parents were very understanding.