By Brendan Rees
Pinocchio and Leonardo da Vinci were among some Italian icons who roamed the corridors of Tooradin Primary School on Friday 15 September, where they even ate pasta made by students.
Prep to Grade 6 students dressed in colours or anything Italian-related to celebrate Italian Day.
Tooradin Primary School Italian teacher, Leanne Fechner said the day was successful – their first, but by no means last Italian Day.
She said there was a sea of Italian colours across the school: “If the kids didn’t have any costumes or colours they wore their school uniform because we’re red, white and green.”
“They loved it. I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Ms Fechner said.
“Kids were stopping me in the corridor just saying how great the activities were and the food.”
With a year to plan the day, Ms Fechner said some of the activities consisted of drawing upside-down on paper stuck underneath tables – Michelangelo style, making pasta collages, pasta necklaces and bocce, building the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and Italian badge making.
“We had multi-aged groups rotating among a variety of wonderful activities.”
“We also had a picture of the Mona Lisa and I cut her face out and I put the kids’ photos behind it and they made a frame out of pasta for the photos.”
“The Grade 3-6 kids have a cooking class every week for an hour an half. For the last three weeks they’ve been cooking the pasta and drying it,” she said.
Ms Fechner said the students cooked the pasta with sauce for lunch, but not forgotten was 44 litres of gelato that was served for dessert.
“Finally to end a magnificent day the students enjoyed a one-hour show by the performers from La Comicia Variety Productions called I Due Carabinieri – The Two Policeman.”
“The comedy show is about to policeman looking for the stolen Vesper as they travel around Italy trying to find it,” she said, adding: “That was hilarious.”
