Parent Participation Best Practice Details

Parent Participation Best Practice Details

Educational Enrichment: Characters Come Alive

Description:

Characters Come Alive is year-long program for all elementary grades where we bring historical or fictional characters “to life” by having costumed parent volunteers come into the classroom for a lively 10-15 minute presentation. Characters are presented in the first person and the actor parents stay in character throughout their visit. Sometimes the research has already been done, but often these parents research the historical figures to prepare their presentations. At Cornerstone, most characters are different each year, and some link to the country we are studying (see multi-cultural studies). For example, this year we are presenting Pocahontas and John Smith for our DK-2 classes as part of the Jamestown anniversary, but some favorites we do each year include Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella. Past characters have included Rosa Parks, Madame Curie, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Betsy Ross, and many others. We generally have different characters for grades DK-2 and 3-5. Each class will get approximately 4-5 visits throughout the year. Presentations last about 10 minutes, with 5 minutes for questions at the end. Another volunteer acts as a docent and a timekeeper to keep the characters on schedule and lead them to the next classroom. Sometimes classrooms combine for one presentation, but usually each class is presented to separately so the volunteers generally present 5-6 times throughout the morning or afternoon. This program is a favorite of the children, teachers and parents alike!

Training Required:

None. Those with an interest or flair for acting may choose to be characters, but volunteers are also needed as researchers and docents.

Implementation Tools:

Costumes. We have a local resource sponsored by the PTA called the “Costume Closet” that will loan costumes free to schools, so there is no cost to us for this program.

Number of Parents Needed

Generally one chair, plus 2-3 docents/researchers, and 8-10 parents to act as characters.

Parent Time Commitment:

Chair: 40-100 hours

Helper Parent: 2-6 hours

Cornerstone Elementary School at Pedregal

6069 Groveoak Place • Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275 • 310-378-0324