By Elise Coyle, Community News Service, for the Waterbury Roundabout
A young Norman Rockwell sits at an easel, reciting a speech to people as they pass by. But the artist at work is not Rockwell – it’s fourth grader Addie Kenyon.
[Brookside Primary fourth grader Addie Kenyon is in character as Norman Rockwell at the class Wax Museum presentation on June 12 in Waterbury. Photo by Gordon Miller/Waterbury Roundabout]
“I painted pictures of Americans at work,” she said, dressed in a gray wig and surrounded by tubes of paint and brushes.
Kenyon joined more than 60 of her classmates at Brookside Primary School to participate in the annual live Wax Museum last Thursday, their final project before going on to middle school.
Students spread across the school field in costume, a sign in front of each naming the Vermont-tied figure they had chosen to research and represent. As visitors walked up, the students began reciting lines from their reports.
Brookside Primary School fourth graders in their Wax Museum characters include (center) Electra Havemeyer Webb and Bernie Sanders; (left) Shirley Muldowney, Billy Kidd, Ethan Allen; (right) Ken Squier, Alexander Twilight, George Dewey, Ben Cohen, Jake Burton. Photo by Gordon Miller/Waterbury Roundabout
“You can still find me fighting for equality every day,” said a student dressed as U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who stood at a podium in front of the field.
Nearby, visitors could find John Deere, Clarina I.H. Nichols and several pairs of Bens and Jerrys.
Fourth-grade teacher Camille Anderson called the project the brainchild of fellow teacher Chris Costello, who is retiring after teaching for 38 years, 34 in Waterbury. Costello started the wax museum 16 years ago, wanting to expand upon his students’ traditional end-of-year written report.
Unsatisfied with the way a paper would die after he and the student had read it, Costello set out to produce a more engaging assignment.
“Students change that person from a dead person on paper to a real, alive person,” he said.
The wax museum this year was a culmination of over a month of work. Each student chose a figure to research with strong connections to the state. Then they wrote a report and a speech about the person’s life. For the museum event, they memorized the speech and put together a costume to complete the transformation.
“In the end, they do something they are proud of,” Costello said. “They see it all come together.”
Kenyon’s parents, Holli and Gary Kenyon, were impressed by the fourth graders’ dedication.
“I am blown away by how much everyone memorized,” Holli Kenyon said.
Challenges became chances for collaboration. The parents recounted the struggle to find props for their daughter’s costume, ultimately completed with the aid of a teacher.
Throughout the course of the project, students became immersed in the history of Vermont and the person they chose.
“I love when they start calling each other by their wax museum names,” said Anderson.
She hopes the project illuminates just how many historical figures have roots in Vermont.
The fourth graders graduated this week, marking an end to their time at Brookside Primary.
