Elementary students learn how to research, present interesting topics

All the planning and hard work is wrapping up quickly, as the annual Museum at New Morning School takes place from 2 to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 11. All students — from preschool to middle school — are preparing in various ways for the big event.

“We spend the whole month of January on museum,” said Christine Jansen, an elementary teacher. “Our reading groups are spent reading about our topics, writing group is spend writing about our topics, and math group is spent doing our graphs.”

The elementary students begin with six basic questions, for which they learn how to research the answers.

“They make a graph, diorama, and papier-mâché model. We help them do a slide show as a way to present what they have learned.

“Museum is a huge undertaking. We always ask parents to get books from the library so that our students can read about their topic. Each step is broken down so that the tasks are manageable. Dioramas and papier-mâché are fun so we use those as motivation to help them get their questions done.”

The week before Museum is spent practicing presentations.

“By the time museum comes they are ready and feel confident,” Jansen said.