Second-grader Fernando Garcia wanted to impress his teacher and classmates with his biography project.

After spending two weeks researching U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong, Garcia wrote a report detailing facts along with bits of information he found interesting about the first man to walk on the moon.

“He was an important man and a good astronaut,” Garcia said.

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But the best part of the assignment was getting to make a replica of Armstrong out of a two-liter bottle, Garcia said. He made sure to include details, such as a space helmet, an oxygen tank and an American flag.

“I made the head out of clay,” he said. “My sister helped me because she was an artist. She painted the hair and the eyes and the skin.”

Garcia said he liked learning about Armstrong and thought the assignment was fun.

All four second-grade classes at Seymour-Jackson Elementary School completed Bottle Buddy Biography projects this month.

Teacher Kristi Burbrink said the point of the lesson was for students to learn what a biography is and how to write one.

Making the bottle figures was an added activity that had to be completed at home with help from family members. Teachers provided bottles, printed pictures of the famous person and other materials if needed.

Students selected a famous person from a list provided by Burbrink and researched them on the internet during class time.

“They learned about sequence of events and a timeline and had to write the information in the order it happened in their person’s life,” she said.

Rusty Harris said the project was fun because he was able to work on it with his dad. Together they turned his bottle into Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James

On March 4, Burbrink’s students read their reports aloud to the class and explained how they made their bottle buddy and why they used specific items.

Burbrink graded the projects on involvement, creativity, writing, accuracy and neatness.

She said the idea for the bottle buddies came from Pinterest, a social media website where people share recipes, decorating and craft ideas and other projects, including classroom lesson plans.

The project is similar to one fifth-graders at Jackson have done in the past, where they research a famous figure, write a report, complete a display board and then dress up and act like a famous person, bringing the figure to life in a living wax museum.

Students chose historically significant people, such as Armstrong, First Lady Laura Bush, Jane Goodall, who devoted her life to studying chimpanzees and gorillas in the wild, Wilma Rudolph, the first American woman to win three track and field gold medals in a single Olympics, Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, Thomas Edison, who invented the telephone, and President Abraham Lincoln.

Others chose more contemporary figures, such as James and fellow NBA star Kevin Durant, pop singers Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande and Olympic gymnasts Aly Raisman and Simone Biles.

For her project, Kayce Underwood wanted to find out all she could about Kacey Musgraves, the country music singer who shares her name.

“Kacey Musgraves is a famous singer. I love country music. She is awesome,” Underwood said.

Underwood learned Musgraves began writing songs and playing the guitar at an early age and has won Grammy awards for her music.

“She is a great songwriter,” Underwood said.

To make her bottle buddy version of Musgraves, Underwood used a Styrofoam ball and Model Magic clay for the head, pink Play-Doh for the lips, long brown strands of yarn for the hair and dressed it in a purple fabric fringe skirt and even made a felt guitar.

Underwood said she got a little help from her mom to get the hair just right.

Lilly Molinaro chose aviator Amelia Earhart for her project and said she liked adding details to her bottle replica including goggles and a small toy plane.

She chose Earhart because of the trail she blazed for future women pilots.

“She changed the world for girls,” she said.

Burbrink was impressed by her students’ creativity and proud of their work.

“They put a lot of thought into it, and I’m glad to see they enjoyed it,” she said.