Civil Rights Leader Wax Museum
Ms. Green’s 5th Grade Class
Project Date: February 18, 2010
In preparation of honoring the African Americans that have made contributions to our country we will
study Civil Rights leaders. Within this unit of study it will be your task to become a civil rights activist.
Once you have picked your person, you will need to start doing research. You are going to become that
person!
“But Ms. Green, how do I become my famous person?”
I am glad you asked that question. First, you need to learn all about them. Start from when they were a
child. Find out when they were born, where they grew up, what kind of education they received, and
were there any important events that influenced their life. Then focus on their adult life and learn about
anything important they accomplished. Gather all this information together and study, study, study!
You need to prepare a about a 60-90 second speech about your person. This speech needs to be told as
if you were them. I will be handing out a guideline for creating your talk later on.
“OK, I found my person and I learned about them, what do I do now?”
Well, now you need to start preparing your presentation props. You will be required to be in costume
for History Day, which includes an outfit that represents what your selected person might have worn,
and props or accessories that they might have used in their life. Next, you need to create a presentation
board. I will be handing out a guideline for creating this as well.
“Ms. Green, I have my presentation, my props, my costume, and my display board, am I
finished?”
That is a hard question for me to answer without knowing more. So let me ask you some questions…
 Can you become your person and perform flawlessly?
 Can you answer questions about their life?
 Does your display board have a timeline? Does it have pictures of your person? Do the pictures
have captions? Are the pictures of important places or times in your person’s life?
 Is your costume complete? From shoes, to hat (if necessary)?
 Do you have props your person might have used? Do you have at least three of them?
When you answer those questions with a “yes!” then you are probably done. I want you to take pride in
doing a good job. So do your best for this project. We will have lots of time to work on it throughout
the next few weeks, so when I give you time, use it wisely.
Guidelines for the Living Wax Museum
1. Choose your famous person
a. Research your person in books and on the internet
b. You will be required to have at least 4 different sources
(1) One source MUST be a book, the others can be from the internet
c. Save your sources, websites, magazine articles – you will need them to make a
bibliography
2. Write your biography paper
a. Refer to the handout that I gave you for instructions on writing your biography
3. Write your bibliography
a. Use the handout that I gave you to properly cite your sources.
4. Create a speech
a. Your speech will be in the 60-90 second range. In your speech include the following
(1) Who you are
(2) When and where you were born
(3) Who your parents were and what did they do
(4) Where did you get your education
(5) Tell a story or tale about your early life
(6) What did you do to become famous/important
(7) What was your greatest accomplishment in your life
(8) When and where did you die?
5. Create a wallboard
a. Standard size poster board is sufficient, or you may choose to buy a tri-fold presentation
board
b. The following must be present on your wallboard
(1) The name of your famous person
(2) Pictures of your famous person
1. put captions below the pictures telling when, where, and why the picture
was taken
(3) A timeline of your person’s life from birth to death, including important
moments
(4) Your research paper
(5) A bibliography of sources
c. Cover your board in color paper or something else, make it look nice.
6. Work on your costume
a. Look at the photos of your person
(1) Decide what kind of clothing they wore most often
(2) Look around your house, ask your parents and relatives for ideas
(3) Gather the items you need to dress as your person did
b. Hairstyle
(1) While I am not going to ask you to cut/dye your hair, I will ask that you make
some attempt to comb/style your hair in a way that reflects your person or the
styles of the time
7. Props
a. During your research and work, figure out three props that you will have on hand
(1) These can be simple objects that your person may have used daily or when they
made their accomplishments
(2) Stay away from items not appropriate to school (toy guns/alcohol/etc.)
1. if you have to ask, it’s probably not appropriate
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Biography Paper
As part of learning about your famous person, you need to be able to document their life. One of the
best ways to do this is by creating a short biography about that person. This biography should be about
two pages in length. Typed and double spaced using 12 point Times New Roman font. Below is the
format that you should use to create your biography.
Your first paragraph should include:
1. Begin by giving basic information about your person. Where they were born, where they grew
up, who their parents were, where they went to school (if they did), and other general
background information about them.
Your middle paragraphs should include the following:
2. Give a detailed account of why this person is famous.
3. Characteristics that helped make this person important.
4. Two or three things they accomplished in their life that made this person important.
5. Facts about what impact this person made on civil rights
6.
Your concluding paragraph should include:
7. The part of this person’s life you admire the most, and why you think so.
8. Tell whether or not this person was worth learning about. Explain.
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How to write your bibliography
What is a bibliography?
A bibliography is an alphabetical list of the sources - books, magazines, newspapers, CD-ROMs,
Internet, interviews, etc. - that we have used to prepare a piece of work.
Why do I need to write a bibliography?
Bibliographies are written for several reasons like; to acknowledge our sources, to give our readers
information to identify and use our sources to learn more, and to make sure our information is accurate.
What if we don't include a bibliography?
You may be accused of plagiarism (that is, stealing another person's ideas or writing). If so, you may
lose some or all of the marks for an assignment or a course.
What else should I know?
You will find it easier to prepare your final bibliography if you keep track of each book, encyclopedia,
or article or web site that you use as you are reading and taking notes.
Can you give me examples of how to write a bibliography?
Absolutely! Below you will find the format that you should use when citing your sources.
If you are citing a book





Name of author/s (surname, first names)
year of publication,
Title,
publisher,
place of publication.
McLarty, Ron 2005, The memory of running, Time Warner, London.
Butler, M., Hopkins, D. & Willis, J. 2001, Physics 2, Macmillan Education Australia, South Yarra.
If you are citing an encyclopedia article








'Title of article',
Title of Encyclopedia
year of publication,
edition,
publisher,
place of publication.
volume number,
page numbers.
'War of 1812', The World Book Encyclopedia 2006, 2006 edn, World Book, Chicago, vol. 21, pp. 2833.
Magazine Articles
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





Name of author/s
year of publication,
'Title of article',
Magazine name,
Month/volume/issue number,
page number/s.
Low, Tim 2006, 'Sweet country', Australian Geographic, January-March, p. 68.
Nolch, Guy 2006, '21st century food', Australasian Science, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 14-19.
Internet
 Name of author/s
 year of publication,
 Title of webpage,
 date accessed,
 URL
Weart, Spencer 2005, The discovery of global warming: timeline of milestones, viewed 24 February
2006, http://www.aip.org/history/climate/timeline.htm
Dickson College home page 2006, viewed 3 March 2006, http://dicksonc.act.edu.au
How do I put it all together?
When assembling a final bibliography, list your sources (texts, articles, interviews, and so on) in
alphabetical order by authors' last names. Sources that don't have authors (encyclopedias, movies)
should be alphabetized by title.
When you write the bibliography, use the format that I have given you. If you have any
questions, please come and see me so that you understand what you need to do. Below is the
alphabetized list of all the information I citied for you in this handout. This is what your bibliography
should look like.
Bibliography
1. Butler, M., Hopkins, D. & Willis, J. 2001, Physics 2, Macmillan Education Australia, South
Yarra.
2. Dickson College home page 2006, viewed 3 March 2006, http://dicksonc.act.edu.au
3. Low, Tim 2006, 'Sweet country', Australian Geographic, January-March, p. 68.
4. McLarty, Ron 2005, The memory of running, Time Warner, London.
5. Nolch, Guy 2006, '21st century food', Australasian Science, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 14-19.
6. 'War of 1812', The World Book Encyclopedia 2006, 2006 edn, World Book, Chicago, vol. 21,
pp. 28-33.
7. Weart, Spencer 2005, The discovery of global warming: timeline of milestones, viewed 24
February 2006, http://www.aip.org/history/climate/timeline.htm
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How to create your speech
It is important that you ‘become’ your famous person. When you give your speech, you will not be
saying ‘he’ or ‘her’. You will be talking in the first person. Below is an example of a speech.
Molly Pitcher
Hello I’m Molly Pitcher. I was born October 13, 1754. As a child I was known as Mary Ludwig. I grew
up on my parent’s dairy farm in New Jersey. My parents were German emigrants.
In 1769, I left for Carlisle, Pennsylvania to work as a servant for a physician. I then met and married
John Hayes, and became Mary Hayes. I soon returned to New Jersey to be closer to my family and my
husband. At age 16, I was carrying pitchers of water to my husband and other soldiers during the
revolutionary war at the battle of Monmouth. They gave me the name Molly Pitcher.
When my husband became exhausted from the heat, I took his place loading the cannon for the duration
of the battle. I was one of the few women that were able to fight in the war for independence. My
husband died in 1789 and I remarried once afterwards, but that did not work out. In 1822, I received a
pension from Pennsylvania Legislature for recognition of my heroism during the American Revolution. I
died January 22, 1832.
Use the above speech as a guideline only. Be creative. You have certain requirements to meet which
are outlined in the guidelines on page 2.
Have your speech memorized long before the wax museum day, because you will not have note cards or
paper with you to read from. Remember – you are supposed to BE the person.
The Costume
From the start of the wax museum to the end, you are expected to be in your costume. Make sure that it
is not uncomfortable to wear. Make sure that the shoes you choose are comfortable as well, because you
will be standing for a good part of the day.
One part of your costume will include a ‘press to talk’ button. This button can only be ‘activated’ by
visitors to the wax museum. If they do not activate it, then you are frozen in time and cannot talk to
anyone else.
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How you will be graded
Below you will find the grading rubric that will be used to assess how well you do on this project. Make
sure that you do the required tasks to get the best grade you can on your project. Missing parts will be
graded with a zero.
/ 20
Research saved and documented (what websites / books / other info did you use)
/ 10
Rough Draft of biography turned in to me (Date TBA)
/ 25
Final Draft of biography (date TBA)
/ 15
Character speech checkpoint (I will announce when this is – speech should be written)
/ 15
3 props for your exhibit – not including your costume
/ 20
Costume that reflects something your person might have worn
/ 25
Presentation of your mini-biography speech (will be with me – away from others)
/ 10
Creativity of your backboard / wallboard (colorful and interesting)
/ 15
Bibliography & Biography paper present on your backboard / wallboard
/ 10
Timeline of your person’s life present on backboard / wallboard
/ 10
Pictures and Captions of your person visible on your backboard / wallboard
/ 25
Performance and Behavior during wax museum exhibit – stay at your exhibit.
/ 200 TOTAL
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