Back in January, Steve McConnell and Alice Clements sat down to plan a unique experience for their third-grade classes. Steve brought a project from his former school, Saint Paul’s School in Clearwater, Fla., whereby students created an interactive walk through history.
Alice and Steve involved Librarian Ann Glass in the research, art teacher Jennifer Moore in creating artistic portraits of historic figures, and fourth-grade teachers Flo Anthony, Rebekah Kinney and Byron Dacy to help with Keynote presentations on the iPads. Each third-grader was paired with a fourth-grader, creating a unique experience in which art, acting, research, library skills, technology, writing and collaboration were integrated to create one more success story for the Lower School. This project will become an annual event and a new tradition for our third-grade students
On March 6, the first-ever Third-Grade Wax Museum was introduced to Lower School faculty, students and parents. Each class had a specific time to walk through history. Alice and Steve created a timeframe that modeled their Social Studies curriculum, starting with Greek civilization and continuing with historic presidents, the Civil War, Civil and Human Rights, Women’s Suffrage, Georgia in the White House, a New Deal, the First Lady of the World, WWII, Education and the Law, the Space Age, and finally the Computer Age (focusing on the work of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs).
Each third-grader dressed in character and had props to emphasize the importance of his or her historic figure. Keynote presentations were displayed continuously on the iPads, along with a “self-portrait” of each figure.
As with any big undertaking, "it takes a village." Our parents stepped up to the plate to set up and dismantle the presentations at the end of the day. A heartfelt thanks goes to Kim Price for her leadership in organizing our talented and generous moms Misty Carlton, Sherry Cash, Christi Cates, Illy Good, Lowery May, Beth McRay, Chris Morgan, Katia Pesce, Scarlet Roberts, Maureen Shealy, Gwen Sirmans, Sheila Watkins and Laura Zobel. Thanks also to the parents who came at the end of the day to help take down the projects.
This was a wonderful example of 21st Century learning and collaboration. Our third-grade students learned a great deal about their subjects, about themselves as students, and about the quality of success that one can achieve working together as a team.
