Highland Park Elementary’s Wax Museum of American History

By Alana Moehring Mallard

Early this month Highland Park Elementary fifth graders turned the halls of their school into a museum of American history. A wax museum, if you will, because the costumed students remain motionless before their hand-painted backdrop until a visitor pushes a red button on the wall. OK, it’s a picture of a button, but still.

This is the eighth year that fifth grade teachers Lauren Mitrani and Kati Dean have worked with their students to present the Wax Museum of American History for parents and students. Mitrani brought the idea with her when she came to Highland Park to teach social studies, and she partnered with language arts teacher Dean.

“Covid put a kink in it,” said Dean, of wax museum performances for classmates and parents, “but this year we’re back in full force.”

Mitrani said 97 kids in fifth grade worked on the crosscurricular projects, which included detailed research, writing a research paper, writing a script for the wax museum performance, creating a backdrop, and developing a costume to represent the topic. And the students chose a wide range of topics, from national parks, to indigenous ballerinas, to soccer players, Olympic swimmers, painters, landmarks, and writers.