Bedford Village Third Graders Take on Famous Personas

“I guess you’re wondering why I’m so famous,” a Bedford Village Elementary School third grader dressed in a black shirt and glasses made out of tin foil said to fellow students and their families. “I invented the iPad, iPhone and Apple.”

Like all of his third-grade peers, the Steve Jobs impersonator was dressed as a famous person he had researched and was presenting as part of the “Wax Museum.”

“The Wax Museum ties into both our reading unit on biographies and our reading and writing units on research skills,” third-grade teacher Nicole Meinel said. “An additional benefit for the students is helping them gain experience with and improve their public speaking skills.”

Dressed in outfits that paid an incredible amount of attention to detail — from a bald cap and tattooed torso t-shirt for The Rock to John Lennon’s trademark glasses and New York City t-shirt — students in each of the third-grade classes regaled their audiences with the life stories and fun facts about famous people throughout history.

“I have been in more than forty movies – that’s crazy!” a student dressed as The Rock said.

“I had a crush on Tarzan,” said another who was dressed as Jane Goodall.

Students were full of excitement before the event started, slowly slipping into their adopted personas as they huddled together in a group to the side of their audience of family members.

“It brings me joy seeing how much fun the students have throughout the experience,” said third-grade teacher Daniel Levy. “From choosing their historical figure from the world of sports, politics, education, science, and more to finding out more and writing about their chosen figure, to dressing up and creating a different persona to present information about ‘themselves,’ the students were totally invested and excited throughout the process.”

The excitement helped to keep students engaged while they strengthened a variety of skills.

“We hope students have increased their comfort level with speaking in front of a group and presenting information with good volume, expression and eye contact,” said third-grade teacher Carolina Susa. “We also hope that they’ve gained good experience researching both via books and online sites. This involves reading, taking notes and homing in on key details prior to culling all this information into their own words to create a concise and informative presentation.”