"Hold that pose" was the name of the game recently at Jefferson Middle School as sixth-graders from Team Challenge participated in the school's annual Wax Museum of Literature.
According to Gina Hess, Team Challenge teacher, students spent the last two months researching different books, the characters in them and the authors who wrote them, in order for each student to compose a research paper.
Once the papers were complete, students dressed up as the main characters of the book they studied and presented themselves and their research to community members and their student-peers - anyone interested in seeing the display.
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Jefferson Middle School sixth-graders Gunnar Carlson and Samantha Braley pose as the Phantom and Christine, two main characters from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “The Phantom of the Opera,” during the school’s annual Wax Museum of Literature that took place in the school’s auditorium last Friday.
"It's a school-wide function that we invite everybody in the school and community in to see our presentation," said Hess. "The wax museum is the culmination of a two-month research project students have been working on. They research their book, the author, the different characters, and they just have a good time with it."
Hess said that she and fellow Team Challenge teacher, Ruth Kriese, along with members of the school's special services and programs teams, Stephanie Wilson, Amber Promber and Olivia Nelson, came together to coordinate the project.
"I think as a whole this project is extremely important," said Hess. "It teaches kids first the writing process and how to conduct research on a specific topic, and how to put it all together. The writing and the research is the main part of it all, and the wax museum is just a fun way to celebrate their work."
Hess added that students at Jefferson have been participating in the literary research project and wax museum for about 15 years now, and that local community member, Wendy Kum, has been a great help in providing some of the students with very detailed costumes.
"I would like to thank Wendy Kum, who donated about two-thirds of the student's costumes for today," said Hess. "She's been a great help."