When I read the assignment description to my first grader she didn't get very excited about it until the word "costume" came into play. Apparently, that's the only thing she heard. The kid has selective hearing just like her father.
Once again, choose a person from history and find out all about that person. "History? Does that mean a long time ago?" "Yes." Cue the flailing of the arms, stomping feet and the extra loud whining. "I don't wanna dress up like an old person! I wanna be a princess!" I decided to just let her get it out of her system and I didn't press it further.
She settled down and said, "Mom? Were there any princesses in history?" "Yes." She bolted up from her super slouchy position to sitting on the edge of her seat with wide eyes. "Really?" "Yes!" "Was Cinderella a real princess from history?" "No." "Were any Disney princesses real?" "Yes: Pocahontas and Mulan. But there were a lot of real princesses." "Any real princesses in history named Gracie?" "Yes."
Exuberant jumping up and down and happy squeals. I think we found our historical figure! "Mom! Let's google her right now!"
I helped guide her through picking out important facts about Grace Kelly that she could use for her presentation. She just needed some talking points, not an essay, but she needed to know about her life and so we read all about her. It was kind of fun.
Gracie made her list of "clues" and I made her costume. Ready!
Gracie chose the dress that I would replicate for her; to my delight she chose the black and white gown from "Rear Window". It's so pretty! Since my Gracie is a child, I made a few alterations to the design of the neckline. I didn't think she needed a swooping Vneck exposing a lot of bare back, nor did she need to have her dress barely hanging off of her shoulders. Don't get me wrong, I love the dress and it's lovely lines! But, the costume needs to stay on an active six-year old for an entire day.
To finish the costume, we purchased long white gloves from the Halloween aisle at Target, and topped her head with her sister's tiara that she bought at Claires years ago for prom. Perfect! In the movie, Grace Kelly did not wear a tiara with that dress, but it added to the princess aspect of the character. In total, the entire costume cost around $10.
I omitted the detail work on the hips of the movie star's dress. I desperately wanted to add it, but I ran out of time. The dress looked great without it, and so I just let it go at that. Not a perfect copy, but close enough.
The event at school was great! Organized costumed chaos at its best. There are four classes of approximately 30 kids each. The teachers had all of the kids stand in a large circle and one class plus all of the parents were to mingle around as if they were at a wax museum. The museum subjects stood still (supposedly) and gave the museum guests clues as to who they were. The museum guests then tried to guess who the mystery history figure was. And, on to the next. Every now and then, the teachers would switch the mingling class for a standing class. But, with all of the mingling, the kids standing still found this a great opportunity to talk amongst themselves as did the parents. Wandering through the crowd, the conversations were all about the kids history characters, so even though it seemed like chaos, the purpose of the event was right on. There were a lot of great historical figures in the room, very cool! In fact, it reminded me of the movie, "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" when they gathered so many people from history together.
The teachers: Cleopatra, Albert Einstein, Maria Montessori and Mona Lisa
Historical characters acting as wax figures waiting to give clues to the museum guests.
Educational Chaos
Betsy Ross, Princess Grace, and Amelia Earhart
Walt Disney, Shirley Temple and others try to guess Princess Grace's name
I think that's a great idea! So much for interesting than a boring speech to the class.
ReplyDeleteThat Rear Window dress is in my top 5 favorite dresses. You did a great job of replication/adapting for a little girl!