Photo: Abby Fox

When Jennifer Fleming’s third grade class at Frenchtown School begins research for the annual wax museum project, when students are asked to learn everything they can about a person from history, dress up in costume as him or her, and give a presentation, they often choose people they feel an affinity for.
Alex Candow’s favorite golf player, for instance, is Tiger Woods. Naomi Shimberg chose J.K. Rowling, out of a fondness for Harry Potter novels.
But as the students look up information in books, online and even in museums, they often find they are developing an interest in the history behind the person. Seth Barney, who turned into Ringo Starr, says he would like to learn more about the 1960s, while Thomas Shaughnessy, who was Abraham Lincoln, said he’d love to go back in time to the Civil War era.
While they learn about history, students also get a sense of how important figures are able to break out of the cultural limitations of their time, and make change, such as Emeline Muoio, who said she appreciated Amelia Earhart not “giving up when people said she couldn’t fly, because she was a woman.”
Probably the most unusual museum piece in this year’s show was Captain Edward John Smith, portrayed by Rachel D’Ellena. Fleming said D’Ellena had a difficult job, because she had to go beyond the school’s library to learn who the captain of the Titanic was.
Josh Fazio, who was one of the few contemporary figures, Lance Armstrong, said, “We got to learn about someone we didn’t know much about.”  Caitlin Hureau, who played Tara Lipinski, said, “It required a lot of hard work, but if paid off.”

Photo: Abby Fox

Rachel Rossetti and other French II students listen to audiotapes in the high school’s language lab. The language department would like to introduce computers into the 30-seat lab

BY ABBY FOX 

The council approved the proposed CVS Pharmacy at Rt. 2, by Bank of Rhode Island, at a meeting Monday night – with a few conditions.

They include:

The pharmacy isn’t allowed to have a “minute clinic” for diagnosis purposes; it can’t get a height variance; a private educational facility [such as New England Tech] isn’t allowed; police detail is required until a traffic light is put in at Fairgrounds Way and South County Trail; and the developer would pay for the light, not the town.

  BY ABBY FOX

East Greenwich’s latest ugly duckling turned-into-a-swan story is right in the middle of town at Crestar, the wholesale commercial and retail picture framing and art reproduction business. Recently, it moved into an old warehouse off Main Street from its former home, since 1998, at the Ladd Street mills.

Owners Cathy Buchanan and Jason Dittelman put hundreds of gallons of paint into the makeover of the old garage, once belonging to New England Telephone.

By ABBY FOX 

The bulk of Monday’s town council meeting was taken up with a public hearing for CVS’s application to amend the town’s comprehensive plan and the zoning ordinance, changing the parcel it wants to build on Division and Rt.2, to the zoning designation of Commercial Highway.

BY ABBY FOX

Last Thursday, Kent Weber and his wife Tracy came from their Mission: Wolf offices in Colorado to introduce wolves to seventh and eighth grade students at Cole Junior High.

They were invited by science teacher Kelly Grennan, who wanted to bring “something they’ll never forget” as the students learn about the environment and organisms in class.