Advertisement

For one day, past and present historical figures convened at the wax museum display at Willow Woods Elementary School in Sterling Heights on March 13. Students from Pam Lada’s fourth-grade class dressed in costume and sat on exhibit, depicting influential people as part of the yearly biography lesson. The students chose a biography to read, learned how to write a biography, and then created costumes and exhibits to represent their chosen notable citizens.

“They always do such a good job,” Lada said. “It’s a fourth-grade thing. They are always excited. They always talk about it a few months before, asking each other who they’re going to be. The kids always put a lot of effort into it.”

Erika Skenderas decided to research Mother Teresa, due to an affinity toward the same calling. “When I grew up, I wanted to be a nun,” Skenderas sad. After continuing in her research, Skenderas found out they both hailed from the same country of Albania. The best thing she learned about Mother Teresa, Skenderas said, was that she gave her money to help poor people.

On the other hand, Joey Marinelli chose his biography on someone who was a bit of a daredevil - Evel Knievel. “I think he’s, like, really cool,” Marinelli said. “He jumped all these cool stunts.”

Some of the students preferred to study the stories of people who invented things used in today’s world. For instance, Eric Schuenman decided to read about Henry Ford. “Because I like cars,” Schuenman said. The inventor was really important, Schuenman said, “because he invented the Model T.”

Similarly, Colin Rosni enjoyed learning about Benjamin Franklin and his contributions to society. “There’s so many inventions he made, Rosni said. “He’s just totally awesome. Like how he found out that electricity is in lightning.”