DALLAS TWP. — Wycallis Elementary fifth-grader Braylee Walsh was surprised to learn Adolf Hitler wanted to kill all Jewish people when she researched Anne Frank.
Walsh chose the Holocaust victim as her historical person for the for the school’s Living Wax Museum event held Thursday, Oct. 20, in the gymnasium of Wycallis Elementary School.
Walsh, wearing a simple floral printed dress, became animated when the sticker on the back of her hand was pressed.
“Hello, My name is Anne Frank,” she said. “I was born in Frankfort Germany on June 29, 1929.
“On Aug. 4, 1944, I was arrested and taken to a concentration camp. I died in March 1945 at 15 years old while in the concentration camp. In 1947, two years after my death, my dairy made me word famous.”
Frank’s story, as well as the stories of other historical and famous people, were incorporated into a lesson that involved reading, researching, writing and public speaking into the fifth-grade curriculum, said Caitlin Cooper, a reading specialist at Wycallis Elementary School.
At the end of the project, students devised a skit using three props about their person, Cooper said.
“We hold one (Living Wax Museum) every marking period,” she said.
Parents, caregivers and fellow students all had an opportunity to tour the Living Wax Museum to learn three facts about each person, Cooper said.
Twenty-one fifth-graders waited for someone to press their sticker so they could “come to life.”
“They were told to stay in character,” Cooper said.
People of interest included Amelia Earhart, Johnny Appleseed, George Washington, LeBron James, Walt Disney, Bill Gates, Helen Keller and Paul Revere, to name a few.
Cooper said this time they have some new people of interest such as George Lucas and hockey player Sidney Crosby.
“We had more Olympians chosen this year,” she said.
Ronald Ungvarsky picked his favorite author, R.L. Stine, who writes the chilling popular children’s book series, “Goosebumps.”
“I like reading about him (Stine),” Ungvarsky said. “His books are scary but not too scary.”
Brady Rosencrans, wearing a pot on his head and held an apple to his mouth, did his best to portray John Chapman, who is better known as Johnny Appleseed.
After pressing the sticker on his apple, Rosencrans revealed that Chapman, a pioneer, never wore shoes and traveled the United States and Canada planting apple trees.
