Garbed in red, white and blue, Joseph DeMello Elementary’s first grade classes banded together to sing and teach their parents about American history as part of the annual Patriotic Program.

The annual event, held on June 12, brought together the school’s four first grade classes to teach the audience about history. After beginning the show with the Pledge of Allegiance, students sang five patriotic songs, each punctuated with facts about American symbols, presidents or famed people from the country’s past.

Sharon Oliveira, a first grade teacher at DeMello, said the idea for the performance originated about five years ago. The teachers aim to bridge social studies with the arts.

“We really work hard with our support staff, and we collaborate on many different things throughout the year,” said Oliveira. “Since we study American symbols, and the children are very familiar with them, it seemed to be the perfect blend.”

She said that, by the day of the performance, the students are well-versed in the information covered during the show. Children dressed as various historical figures walked on stage between songs, and each read a passage about the person he or she was representing.

Costumes, which were a new addition to the show, included Abraham Lincoln, Sacagawea and Sally Ride.

“They come away with an understanding of how important it is to be patriotic and love our country and what our flag means to us. Hopefully, it will carry through their whole lives,” said Oliveira.

The students begin practicing for the show in early May, soon after April vacation.

“My job was to talk a little bit about what is a patriotic song. What does the word patriotic mean?” said music teacher Shirley Guerreiro. “We learned about songs and marches that are patriotic and learned a couple of them so we could include them in our program.”

The kids put on two shows throughout the day: one for DeMello students and one for parents in the afternoon.

“This morning, they performed their show for the whole school,” said Principal Cathy Maccini. “It was a great reminder for the rest of the school to remember these dates, these people and to sing along with the songs.”