International
Day has been a part of Wichita Collegiate since its early
beginnings. All of our divisions have celebrated International Day in
their own special way. The early years included special guest speakers from a
foreign country, students researching their ancestral home or a country they
wanted to learn more about, pen pals from other countries, enjoying an
authentic meal from a foreign country, and many other activities.
In the late '80s, third grade began celebrating International Day. Our theme was
"Taking a Trip Around the World." It started with the Open
Court Basal, Cities Around the World. By the end of third
grade, students had an amazing geography background and an appreciation of
different cultures. After reading many different non-fiction and fiction
books about different countries students would pick a specific country to do
research on over a month's time. Students might share their information
with posters, maps, photographs, travel brochures, music, food, and many more
creative ideas. Our goal was for our students to leave third grade with an
appreciation of different cultures using all of their senses.
In the spring of 1990 we had our
first International Day Assembly. After a few years this assembly
became a Thursday evening performance as well as a Friday morning
assembly. It was such a magical eveningI The students would parade
into the Rounds with their gorgeous costumes and stirring music.
Thanks to the help of our music teacher and P.E. coach, the students would
learn songs and dances to add to the magic. Each student would memorize a
short paragraph about their country and share with their audience. It
might be about a favorite holiday, place, tradition. fairy tale, inventor,
famous person. or animal. Every year we would choose a different theme. Not one year was ever been the same. For
me, this is one of my favorite traditions shared in third grade!
Wax Museum
What do Princess Diana, Thomas Edison, and Michael Jordon
have in common? In any given year they are part of our wax museum.
The Wax Museum has become a very important part of the third
grade experience over the past decade. It became our January book report. The
students choose a biography or autobiography to read. We tell them, ”Imagine
that the person you read about walked into our classroom and introduced himself
or herself. What would he or she say? You will prepare a short presentation as
if you are the subject of your biography.”
Students are given questions to answer that are then put
in paragraph form, written on note cards, and memorized. They are given a timeline so they have a few
days to practice their speeches with their very supportive classroom audience. Parents
help create the students amazing costumes. The first several years of our
museum we shared in our long hallway
upstairs. As our classes grew the hallway became too warm and crowded. Last
year we moved our museum to the MPR. This worked out great!
Of course, third grade teachers knew we could make it
even better. We decided to move our
museum to the Rounds Fine Arts Center. We shared the museum at night with the
parents, family and friends, and the next morning with our Lower School
friends. Wow! What a transition! We covered aerobic step benches
with black fleece, bought 21 spot lights, used red velvet ribbon to separate
our “Famous Wax Museum Artists” from their audience. The Rounds really looked
like a magical wax museum!
The very best part was our amazing students and how they
come alive as the famous people they portray. Many could not believe these were
our very talented third graders who worked to make their parts seem so real.
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