[Pattys86]

At our school, we are constantly looking for fundraising activities. I had an idea to do a Poetry Wax Museum. Students would memorize a poem and stand in the gym. They stay frozen until someone drops money in their jar. Then they would recite their poem.

I have a few questions though...
How young is TOO young to do this project? (Our school is K-8)
Should the poems be original poems or Shel Silverstein type poems?
Do you think we should allow them to work with a partner?

[1956BD]

I would ask the kinder, first and second grade teachers if their students can memorize poetry. My bet is that most will be at least second graders, but every child is different.

I would use poems from other authors.

I would allow students to work in two and threes.

Check out Mary Ann Hoberman's book series titled You Read To Me, I'll Read To You. They are poems written for two voices and are very cute.

I would have a copy of the poem for parents to look at while the child recites the poems. A visual will be nice if the speaker moves too quickly or does not enunciate clearly.

I would not use glass jars for collection because one might get broken. That would be a big distraction while cleaning it up. I would use plastic containers of some sort. Maybe just plastic cups.

I would help children to add simple costume pieces, props or movements for more dramatic presentations.

Let us know how it turns out.

[Pattys86]

Great idea on the copies of the poem! I'm thinking we could even have/help the students make a poster with their poem behind them. And dressing up/props would be a GREAT addition! Thanks for your ideas

[BBRox]

We did this instead of Poetry, but it would work also... It went very well!

[Lalli82]

Do you let the kids pick which poem they want to recite in the wax museum or do you assign the poem?? I teach 5th grade, so I was thinking it would be a great ending to a poetry unit to have the kids pick their favorite poem out of the ones studied to recite. Just curious as to how you all go about that issue. Thanks for the idea though! I love it!!

[isomtw]

I taught 2nd for 5 years & did a huge wax museum with our poetry unit. The kids loved it! I selected tons of shorter/easier to memorize poems that were appropriate for 2nd & the kids selected from that list. Occasionally a kid had a personal favorite that they did that wasn't off the list.

I tried to pick poems that would be easy to use props with. Bruce Lansky, Jack Prelutsky, & Shel Silverstine were among the kids' favorites.

Some can't help but get stage fright & freeze. To help ease this, we pasted a copy of their poem on the back of their "sign" (kids had an advertisement sign in from of them so the visitors knew what they were listening to).

Good luck!

[maree]

This is a wonderful idea...I would like to use it for an ending poetry as well. We will be raising money for an end of the year field trip to an actual museum....I have use one that was similar using refrigerator boxes as the back drop that highlighted the life of the chosen peron on inventors. It was not a fundraiser but I think I will adjust that ths year to help with the cost of the trip...how much are you charging....