CANFIELD — First- grader Palmer Marlowe, who was posing as a giraffe in the C.H. Campbell Elementary version of the wax museum, asked the crowd of family and friends Friday morning: Did you know that a giraffe’s tongue is so long they can clean their own ears?”
This bit of amazing facts was part of the project devised by first-grade teachers Brogan Todd and Alyssa Carbon as they prepare their students for an upcoming visit to the Akron Zoo later in the month. Carbon, who used to teach first grade, said she came up with the teaching tool with the older students by asking them to pose as a historical character.
“We had to adapt it to their grade level, and who doesn’t want to know more about animals?” Carbon said.
The new wrinkle in this presentation, which students made by themselves with carboard background and through research from their school-issued laptops plus a book provided by their parents, was that the dressed-up “animals” could strike a pose when viewers pushed a button in front of their stations.
Nora Koenig — who became a snow leopard — devised her own leopard yoga pose that other students picked up on, Carbon said.
“You know that snow leopards can go two weeks between meals and no two of their rosettes (spots) are alike,” Nora said.
Declan Chrystal, a student in Todd’s class, posed as a shark.
“They are super cool,” Declan said, assuring the reporter that he wasn’t inspired by the “Baby Shark” song.
Croccodile Drew Scrocco said his mom helped him craft a green crockodile cap with teeth sticking out of his brim.
“Do you know that the Nile (River) crock has more than 60 teeth?” Drew proudly announced.
Each of the first graders got to come to the microphone to recite a fun fact for the gathering. Carbon said the two first-grade classes had a chance to practice their presentations before kindergarten classes and each other the day before.
“This was a good lesson in independent research. While first graders usually get a wide berth of knowledge of a lot of things, this is the first chance to get them to get a depth of knowledge into one particular topic,” Carbon said.
Todd said she has done the wax museum project with her first- graders all five years she has been at the school.
“It is a fun day and a way to show off what they have learned,” Todd said.