Mars Area student ‘Wax Museum’ brings history to life
Mars Area Elementary School third-graders explored American history by taking on the roles of past presidents and first ladies at the annual Wax Museum event Friday.
The program, a Mars Area School District history education mainstay for the past 18 years, involves students dressing up as assigned historical figures of the Oval Office and giving presentations in-character to visiting parents, family members and other students passing by.
The third-grade classes of Kim Thomas and Jennifer McClelland filled the Mars Area Elementary cafeteria and shared the results of their own research, some in creative costumes.
McClelland said the project combines a number of different subject areas into one activity.
“This is just a super good cross-curricular activity,” she said. “We’re learning about the government, so we decided to let them research presidents and first ladies. They had to then take that research, form it into a speech, and now they present it to the kids or to their families.”
The project helps bring history to life for the students, McClelland explained.
“It is history, and writing and reading, and they don’t realize they’re learning so much,” she said. “At the end, they’re going to thank everybody in sign language. Mrs. McClintock is a sign language teacher and she helps them.”
This year’s iteration was the Wax Museum’s first return since 2020, as the project was canceled in 2021 due to COVID-19. Previous versions of the project have taken place in individual classrooms, but as the event’s scope grew the museum expanded into the cafeteria.
“They love doing it,” McClelland said. “Researching — and some of the research, is hard — but they love the facts they learn. They love finding those little facts about it, so that’s always fun. They were very excited about today.”
Mars Area Elementary School principal Todd Lape said the Wax Museum gives students the chance to explore parts of history they might not have otherwise.
“Everybody hears about President Biden, Trump, even Obama, at these kids’ age, they might remember who that is, and George Washington or maybe Abe Lincoln. But they don’t hear about all of these other folks, usually,” he said. “It gives them the chance to learn about presidents they really don’t hear about.”
