Every year, fourth graders at Randall Holden Elementary School end the school year by showing off their social studies skills. The students gathered in the all purpose room June 16 to put on a special presentation about the 50 states.

Smiling parents and family members watched while the group of 28 fourth graders led the room in the Pledge of Allegiance and then explained its meaning line by line. Then the music started and the children sang a song about the states and capitals. As they sang their way through the country, they waved paper cutouts of American flags and even showed off some dance moves.

But the focus of the presentation was the array of colorful poster boards that lined the gymnasium. Each student was randomly assigned a state to research and present to parents, teachers and other students. After about a month of research, the students were eager to share fun facts about their states, such as which celebrities are from there and the colors of the state bird.

“It’s a nice culmination to see them get excited about research,” said Susan Fusco, one of two fourth grade teachers at Randall Holden.

Fusco has been teaching alongside Betsy Riccitelli, the other fourth grade teacher, for 16 years and they have organized the end-of-the-year presentations for the past six years. The two are known as the school’s “Batman and Robin” and enjoy co-teaching every year. To celebrate the end of another year, Fusco made her own presentation of photos and video clips from throughout the year, including memories of a Save the Bay field trip and a shout out the class received from Mario Hilario on NBC 10 during Read Week.

“It was a good year,” said Riccitelli. “A lot of learning went on in fourth grade.”

For fourth grader Danny Comella, learning didn’t stop at the classroom. While Danny worked on his presentation of Massachusetts, he did computer research almost every night and practiced memorizing the states and capitals song.

“It was fun, but he really did learn about the states,” said Danny’s father, Dan Comella. “I’m very proud of him, he worked very hard.”

Danny was excited to tell his listeners about the capital of Boston, the train his dad takes from Rhode Island to Massachusetts for work, and the state flower – the mayflower. He also researched Mark Wahlberg, the Massachusetts native who stars in Danny’s favorite movies.

“It’s all he’s been talking about,” his father said.

Some students were so excited about the research they did that they want to visit their states this summer. Michael Totten, who presented about Pennsylvania, wants to ride roller coasters at Hershey Park. He also included facts about the Crayola Factory and Philadelphia-born comedian Kevin Hart.

“My favorite part of the project was the whole thing,” he said.