The second graders at Pleasant Valley Elementary School researched a notable person — either living or dead — and created a poster for a living wax museum last week during the Academic Fair at the school.

Each child dressed up like the person they had studied and sat or stood by their poster. When someone pushed on the light on beside them, they would give a quick monologue about who they are portraying, a fun fact about the person, and what they did to make the world a better place.

There were so many children involved that they overflowed into the school’s gymnasium. Among those in the gymnasium was Thaddeus Nodyke, who portrayed George Washington.

Nodyke said he chose the first president of the United States because he became interested in him after reading the book titled “Patriots, Redcoats and Spies.”

It is the first book in a series of three books in the historical fiction series American Revolutionary War Adventures. The series is written for children ages 9 to 12.

Nodyke’s family also has made trips to a variety of historical buildings and battlefields from the Revolutionary War period in New Jersey. At Christmas, they went to Washington Crossing Historic Park for the reenactment of the crossing of the Delaware River.

“They looked so real life,” Nodyke said about the reenactors.

Dahlia Kosciuczyk portrayed Marie Curie. She said she picked the renown scientist “because I’m Polish and she’s Polish, and I really want to do science because I really like it.”

Her parents, Paula and Lance Kosciuczyk, added that she also wants to be a teacher, maybe even a science teacher.

About the project, Paula Kosciuczyk, Dahlia’s mother, said, “We wanted to stick to her roots. We wanted to pick somebody that was significant. Her grandmother’s an MRI tech, so this kind of hits close to home.”

In her speech about Marie Curie, Dahlia Kosciuczyk said Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, the only person to win the prize for both chemistry and physics, and was the first woman in Europe to earn a doctorate in science finding the elements — radium and polonium. Her discoveries made x-rays possible.

“She made the world a better place by paving the way for women in science,” Dahlia Kosciuczyk said.

Both Olivia Soodeen and Arielle Polanco picked the singer and actress Olivia Rodrigo, because they like her music. Rodrigo is known for her hit song “Driver’s License” and has won three Grammy Awards.

A fun fact that Soodeen said was that Rodrigo “has synesthesia, which allows her to see different colors when she hears music.”

Kiernan Cleary also picked a singer for his report — country music star Zach Bryan. Cleary said he really likes his song “28,” which has a theme about gratitude.

Bryan came to fame while serving in the Navy when his talents went viral on the Internet.

He served our country for eight years in the Navy, Cleary said in his report.

Madison Sprintz chose Ruth Handler, the creator of the Barbie doll, for her report.

“She’s obsessed with Barbie dolls,” Madison’s mother Amy Sprintz said.

A fun fact Madison gave was that Handler got the idea for Barbie dolls when she watched her daughter play with paper dolls.

“She’s so inspirational to all little girls,” Amy Sprintz said. Handler was the president of Mattel.

Dobrila Vagiunic chose another notable woman, Queen Elizabeth II. Vagiunic was impressed that the queen knew how to drive a race car and was a skilled mechanic. Her dad, Dave Vagiunic, was impressed by his daughter’s work on the project.

“It’s great. She really took this and really went with it. She did the research and got the pictures,” he said.

“The second-grade students did an amazing job with their Wax Museum projects,” said PVE Principal Roger Pomposello. “I loved seeing the American historical characters. It was nice to see so many represented and it fits nicely with our America 250 celebration.”

Pomposello said the fair also gave the Kindergarten and first-grade students an opportunity to show off their work. The book fair in the library highlighted STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects.

“The turnout was amazing, over 1,000 people attended,” he said. “I was thrilled to see the tremendous support from the PV community supporting education, here in the West End of Monroe County. We are also grateful for our PTO for their support of the events at PVE.”