A Hundred Year Snooze, Teeth Talk, and a Live Wax Museum

The Hundred Year Snooze at Zeh: The 26 first through fifth graders who belong to ’s new Drama Club were doing anything but snoozing as they had their red carpet moment when they rolled out their first production last week.

The cast rehearsed their parts of The Hundred Year Snooze, a fresh new musical version of Sleeping Beauty, for 14 weeks after school. The comical script includes several songs and solos. Co-directors, music teacher Allyn Phelps and first grade teacher Tracey Loconto, were ready for opening night.

Although this was the debut of acting skills for some of the cast, many were surprisingly involved in other productions previously.

The talented cast included the following Zeh students:

Ian Anderson, Kayla Albers, Cassidy Brannon, Sarah Cassidy, Edward Cooley, Ryan Connelly, Kenneth Cox, Naomi Drew, Zack Entwistle, Elliot Fang, Joyce Fang, Eliza Gordon, Joe Gordon, Emma Gorham, Shaylie Johnson, Miriam Johnson, Shannon Judge, Jennifer Lambert, Jessica Lambert, Chris Martin, Colin Miller, Justin Moyer, Anna Myakushina, Chloe Ricard, Matea Rowe-Bond, Maya Sagarin.

All About Teeth: Kindergarteners through second graders at recently attended a dental program led by Alesia Gleason, a hygienist at The Dental Place in Westborough.

School nurse Diane Gage has been coordinating this program for years to emphasize to the students the importance of brushing teeth and flossing, as well as why regular dental check-ups are recommended.

Gleason introduced the tools of the trade to the students and discussed what a routine dental visit involves to help students feel less anxiety about their next visit.

An upbeat, animated video with many catchy phrases and fun lyrics and music was also shown and enjoyed by the students. It wouldn’t be a dental visit without the goody bag, which each student received at the end of the presentation.

Live Wax Museum at Lincoln: The cafeteria underwent a transformation last week—it became the display area for the live wax museum starring the school’s fourth graders.

As part of the month long biography study, each student chose a book to read about a famous person in history and had to research that person. With the guidance of their teachers, Marci Bostock and Michele Vulcano, each student knew their biography subject as if they were that person.

Being that person is exactly what the students did for the wax museum as each student had to dress as their biography subject would have dressed and then become a motionless figure, statue-like, until activated by a push of a red button by a museum visitor. At that time, students would come to life, introduce themselves to the visitor and act, speak and answer visitor questions as their subject would have done. Each student had several question cards that visitors could ask the famous statue and then the statue would freeze again and wait for the next visitor.

Vulcano commented on how impressed she is on how much the students learn for this project; a project that the fourth graders have been doing for five years.

“It always surprises me,” Vulcano said. “It is more than you can hope for as a teacher.”

Included in the almost 50 student statues were subjects such as Albert Einstein, Abe Lincoln, Pocahontas, Dr. Seuss, Martin Luther King, Jr., Princess Diana and Neil Armstrong.

Students were able to be as creative as they wanted to be as portrayed in their costume, and even as some spoke in the appropriate accent of their subject.

Vulcano estimated that over 200 visitors attended the program.

Mark Your Calendar: Some dates to know include March 14, which is a half day for elementary schools for parent-teacher conferences and March 16 is a teacher professional day, which means a day off for the students.

This column highlights some of the schools’ many special programs, speakers, events, and community service projects. If you are aware of a program that you would like featured in this column, please email Liz Nolan at lizard211@gmail.com.