About 70 fifth grade history students at Sonora Elementary took part last Thursday in the school’s annual Wax Museum event, in which each youngster portrays a person who became noteworthy in history.
“Our fifth graders created a wax museum to share their research on historical figures,” said Christina Craig with the Sonora Elementary School District superintendent’s office. “Fifth graders are asked to choose a historical figure, research their lives and accomplishments, and then show up in character to share what they have learned.”
Craig shared photos of some students during the Wax Museum event. Amelia Brennan portrayed Marie Curie, a Polish-French physicist and chemist; Galilea Garcia portrayed Parisian fashion designer Coco Chanel; Christopher Campbell portrayed actor-wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson; Isaac Renteria portrayed Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., and Carter Rollinson portrayed astronaut Neil Armstrong. Jackson Brune and Levi Ellenberger portrayed athletes Babe Ruth and Muhammad Ali, respectively.
Fifth graders Charles Greenway, Carter Jacobs, Cort Wylie, Zoie Miloradovitch, and Punboon Mula portrayed writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and political philosopher Benjamin Franklin; labor leader Caesar Chavez; industrialist Henry Ford; architect Julia Morgan; and Cleopatra, queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 BC to 30 BC, respectively.
Adalyn Eslick portrayed Hellen Keller; Bosco Feng portrayed Napoleon Bonaparte; Antonio Rodriguez portrayed Isaac Newton; and Bentley Smith portrayed George Washington. Victoria Leal portrayed Queen Isabella I; Avianna Brandsted portrayed Mary, Queen of Scots; and Victoria Anderson portrayed Queen Victoria.
Teachers Michelle Bicknell, Duncan McFarland, and Ron Jannuzzi helped guide and prepare Sonora Elementary’s fifth graders for their presentations Thursday.
“We have been working on the 2025 Wax Museum since January,” Jannuzzi said. “Students have been researching and note-taking in order to write rough drafts of their speeches, then go through all of the writing steps and produce their final written versions. Each student had to reference their notes by building a bibliography. Once this was done, students had to write and practice their speeches for the oral presentations that happened at the Wax Museum.”
The learning activities involved in the annual Wax Museum event are intended to comply with California fifth grade standards in social studies, language arts reading, and language arts writing, Jannuzzi said. The challenge for students was also designed to be a task that allowed students to apply learned skills from the first two trimesters of the current academic year.
“It really makes a great learning experience for the kids that they get to share with the school and community,” McFarland said. “We’re very proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish during this activity.”
The event is staged each year in the Sonora Elementary gymnasium. Parents, teachers and other students are invited to see the fifth graders’ costumes, displays, and other efforts to bring their historical figures to life.
Each fifth grader is tasked with preparing a concise speech to deliver to visitors. Students are assigned to read at least one detailed biography of the figure they choose. They also spend weeks doing additional research and rehearsing their presentations. In the process, students learn about note-taking, organizing information, public speaking, props, backdrops, and developing confidence and creativity, all in pursuit of historical knowledge.
