Anne Hutch 'Wax Museum' Sees Students Explore Lives of Historical Figures

There was no shortage of exciting personalities at Anne Hutchinson on Wednesday morning, as the gymnasium and auditorium were filled with notable figures from the worlds of athletics, politics, medicine and beyond.

But this gathering wasn’t part of an elementary school career day, it was part of the long-running Wax Museum event at Anne Hutch that sees the school’s fourth graders research, then embody, famous historical figures who have made significant contributions to the world. 

Students chose figures whose contributions came in a wide array of fields—ranging from New York Knicks legend Walt “Clyde” Frazier to famed explorers like NASA hero Neil Armstrong and Sacagawea and aeronautical pioneers including Amelia Earhart and Wilbur Wright—something that speaks to the varied interests of the fourth graders across all historical eras.

Even though the Wax Museum project has long been a part of the school’s list of popular events, there were notable changes to the project this year that helped connect the exhibition more closely to classroom curriculum—most notably the recent Deep Reading of Biographies study unit. 

“They all studied specific people for this unit that included Sally Ride, Malala Yousafzai, Simone Biles, Steve Jobs and others, and while they studied these figures, they practiced their research and writing skills and how to analyze those characters,” said fourth grader teacher Francesca Carlo. “Then they chose their own historical figures, and  applied those same skills to the wax museum project.”

Anne Hutchinson Principal Laura Cappiello noted that students didn’t just focus on the contributions of their historical figures, they also dove deeper to better understand their figures’ motivations and the challenges and setbacks they overcame to make their marks on the world.

“The students weren’t asked to talk about why a person was famous, but about all of the choices they made in their lives,” she said. “It was about the secrets to their success, but also the challenges they faced and how they overcame those obstacles to make history.”

“We did a few lessons that focused on ‘secrets of success’ and how it doesn’t  just happen by snapping your fingers,” added Carlo. “We spoke about how it could have been luck for some of these people, it could’ve been hard work, it could have been a product of how it ‘takes a village’ to help you reach your goals and how sometimes you need to fail before to get to where you need to be. 

“Hopefully, students can apply that to their own lives and say ‘I may not get everything right away, I may not be the best at everything right now, but I’m not going to give up,” she added.

The Wax Museum project incorporated many of the skills students have been developing this year, including research, writing and design—students crafted poster-board displays highlighting the major achievements of their figures, and it also challenged students to develop good public-speaking habits, something Cappiello says will serve them well throughout their lives. 

“It’s something they are working on from second grade on,” she said. “We have the big fifth grade debate event every year, and projects like this, where students work with a partner ahead of time, practicing and doing oral prep, they are getting training on how to be comfortable speaking to an audience.”

Carlo admitted the end result was a true thrill for the fourth grade teachers, adding that watching students excitedly discuss their characters with fellow Anne Hutchinson students who dropped in on the exhibit on Wednesday was especially powerful for the educators. 

“It definitely makes you emotional, honestly; I’m looking at my students with their finished work and I’m thinking ‘I can’t believe they did this,’” she said. “I went to Anne Hutchinson myself, and even though we didn’t have the Wax Museum when I went here, this event is what Anne Hutch is all about, it’s what learning is all about, and it really allows for both creativity and critical thinking.” 

Cappiello thanked her fourth-grade teachers for their work in helping to align this event more closely to the curriculum, noting that the pre-event discussions were fruitful and instructive. 

“We spent a long time meeting, planning and prepping, and I am so grateful to how open our team was,” she said. “When I was going around the gym, I wasn’t asking students to read their speeches, I asked them about what the most exciting things they learned were throughout this project and I heard so many meaningful answers. We got such great feedback.”