IN THE CLASSROOM:

Stiff and emotionless, Kevin Yahampath stands statuesque as he faces the oncoming hoards of adults, fellow classmates and teachers. They meet face to face and while others are chattering and starring, Kevin doesn’t waver.

And then they press a round red button located on his sleeve and presto: Kevin Yahampath becomes Lou Gehrig.

Third-, fourth- and fifth-graders at California Elementary School brought their history project to the school’s open house Thursday night. Each student was part of the school’s wax museum, a history project comprised of students from a number of classes that had the children choose a character from history, do a project of the person, and finally dress as the figure and recite a one-minute biography on command.

“It’s fun and you learn a lot about the person that you are,� said 8-year-old Yahampath. “[Lou Gehrig] was nice, hit a lot of homeruns, and he was a good hitter and fielder.�

Gehrig hit 493 homeruns, to be exact, as Yahampath recalled on command.

This year’s wax museum was incorporated as the biography project for the children’s end of the year language arts assignment. The eight classes that participated had different assignments corresponding to the history lesson, but all were part of the wax museum.

Each grade level got to choose their own historical figure, but each had categories they had to stay within: fifth grade had to choose a U.S. president or first lady, fourth grade had to learn about a famous Californian, and third grade picked a famous American.

The assignment incorporates the four components of language arts taught to elementary school children, said teacher Joseph Ledoux. Those components are listening, reading, writing and speaking, all of which are used in the wax museum project, Ledoux said.

“It helps shy kids get over stage fright,� said Ledoux, who brought the project over from a previous school he taught at.

Even though they have to do a lot of research, memorization and work on it for more than a month, the children enjoy the assignment because it gives them a considerable amount of time to use their imagination.

“We get to dress up in costumes of the person that we are being,� said 8-year-old Vivian Vu who chose to portray Anne Frank. “I hope we do more projects like it because it’s fun.�

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at [email protected].