NEWS PHOTO JEREMY APPEL
Cayden Young and Rylan Usher depicted soldiers in the First World War at Roy Wilson Learning Centre's live wax museum Wednesday, April 17, 2019.
jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel
Grade 5 students at Roy Wilson Learning Centre brought history to life Wednesday, with their live wax museum project.
Students each dressed up as an historical figure or event and memorized a speech outlining why they’re important, which they delivered when prompted by attendees pushing a button.
Teacher Sarah Werre says the project is a great way to get the kids engaged with Canadian history and identity.
“We find when they have to embody a person, or an event in this case, they really take ownership of having to learn a lot about that, because they know that no one else is going to learn about that,” she said.
The teachers made a timeline of some of the most important events and figures in Canadian history and the students chose what they wanted to cover from it.
Werre estimated the students would speak to 800 people throughout the course of the day.
“My main hope from this is that they have memories from Grade 5 forever and hopefully that they learn something about Canadian history along the way,” she said.
Students Easton Danroth and Theron Bensler dressed up as British soldiers, complete with bayonets and tall hats, to depict the War of 1812.
Danroth said he was interested in the War of 1812 because it’s discussed far less frequently than the First and Second World Wars.
“The poppies from the world wars are famous and they represent so much, and there isn’t really anything (from) the War of 1812 that represents anything,” he said.
Danroth said he learned that the Brits burned the White House down and that both sides spent $105 million in that war.
Bensler said he discovered the U.S. National anthem – with reference to “the rocket’s red glare” and “bombs bursting in air” – was written about the War of 1812.
Emerson Clausen did her assignment on women’s rights activist Emily Murphy, leader of the Famous Five.
“If it wasn’t for her, women could not vote and they had to ask their husbands if they could do stuff,” said Clausen. “It would still be like that if she didn’t come along.”
Niklas Harrison depicted the First Nations’ perspective on Confederation, which he said has been historically neglected.
“It’s not recorded and (the settlers) lied about some stuff, and they tried to hide the things that they did wrong,” said Harrison.
Some Blackfoot family friends helped him with his costume, he added.
Cayden Young and Rylan Usher dressed as soldiers from the First World War.
Young said he didn’t know that the war was provoked by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which set in motion a chain of events that lead to the Great War.
“I didn’t know Germany helped Austria declare war on Serbia, which resulted in everyone else declaring war on each other,” he said.
