Second-graders at Bethpage’s Kramer Lane Elementary School celebrated their biography, welcoming visiting family members to the school’s annual Wax Museum. Each student had chosen an important and influential person, whether living or from history and the arts, and then researched on their own in class, gathering facts and writing about their selected person’s important accomplishments. In preparation, the second-graders then practiced their summaries, both at home and at school. Dressed as their historical figures, the students stood like statues at the Wax Museum, inviting parents to push their “buttons” so they could recite a short blurb about their chosen famous people, who included Cleopatra, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Mary Poppins, Betsy Ross and more than a few astronauts and athletes.
“It was really a lot of hard work, and all of the students are really proud,” teacher Margaret Schmidt said. “A lot of them find out so much information about someone who might be brand new to them that they chose from our list, or someone that they knew about but didn’t really know all of the things that come with a biography. The writing and reading aspect of it was how to pull from a biography and read about what their historical figures were like when they were little, or certain experiences that might have led to their big accomplishments, and then how they influenced others and had an impact on society. I think it was pretty cool for them to see more than just the headline of what the person was most famous for.”
—Submitted by the Bethpage School District
