Fifth Grade Students Bring Famous Figures to Life

For one day in February, Albert Einstein, Eva Peron, Levi Strauss and Georgia O’Keefe roamed the cafeteria.

That’s when fifth graders from team 5E created a living museum in the school cafeteria by assuming the roles of important people from history.

The five-week project began as a book report assignment, where the students read a biography of their choice on a living or deceased person who made an impact on government, politics, history, arts, social justice, education or science. Once finished, the students wrote book reports highlighting that person’s life.

For the final part of the assignment, each student shared a short presentation on their important person while dressed in costume. Students first performed in front of their classmates. On February 10, family and friends were invited to school to experience the presentations via the Living Museum. When visitors stepped in front of the performing student and pressed a display button, the student came to life in character. Each performer shared reflections and quotes from their famous person’s life and also advice based on the person’s philosophies. The assignment was designed to touch on several content standards of the curriculum including reading comprehension and writing.

“The students jumped feet first into this project,” said Mary La Placa and Nicole Brameyer, fifth grade teachers at ARIS. “The students found the variety of biographic characters interesting and were excited to be performing in an interactive exhibit for their family and friends.”