Newtown High School Italian students came into the school’s lecture hall to celebrate Italian Day on Tuesday, October 29.

The event was coordinated, as it has been for many years, by NHS Italian teacher Laura Battisti. She has worked hard to make the event a long-standing tradition for NHS’s Italian students by preparing fun activities for them every single year. This year marks the school’s 21st annual Italian Day, and Battisti was excited as ever to treat her students for the special occasion.

Students from her five different Italian classes cycled into the lecture hall over the course of several hours to celebrate. Italian Day is a culmination of all their work in class so far, and Battisti made sure that carried over into the decorations and activities scattered throughout the room.

At the back of the lecture hall was a table topped with an Italian flag table cloth and a wide variety of Italian food. This included dishes such as bruschetta, penne, lasagna, and gnocchi, as well as desserts like cannoli, Italian cheesecake, biscotti, and more. Battisti said that all of the food was prepared by the students — especially the freshmen — and that she was incredibly grateful to all the Newtown families who helped contribute to the event.

Students from every class were excited to dig in and try all of the Italian cuisine. Battisti served out the food alongside several parent volunteers who helped her run the event.

Colorful poster projects made by Italian students also lined the white walls of the lecture hall. Each Italian class level focused on a different aspect of Italian culture for their project. Italian II students researched Italian sports and compared them to American sports, Italian III students researched Italian scientists, while Italian AP students researched Italian writers.

Freshmen did their projects on Italian cuisine, with each student picking an Italian recipe and researching the importance of the dish in Italian culture. The food served during Italian Day reflected their projects, according to Battisti.

The goal of the projects and of Italian Day, Battisti said, was to give students something to do outside of the classroom and to apply what they learned in class to the real world.

“October is also Italian-American Heritage and Culture Month, so it’s the perfect time to celebrate Italian culture and heritage,” Battisti said. “It gives everyone a chance to have some fun while still doing research and learning about the culture, the language, and the traditions.”

Each class kicked off their Italian Day experience by singing the Italian national anthem, but there were several activities for them to enjoy beyond that. Students could go to the temporary tattoo station at the side of the room and dig through to find their favorite one to wear. A scavenger hunt had students looking around the room for clues, and when they got all the right answers, they were rewarded with an Italian-themed notepad.

Another long-standing tradition is the Italian Day T-Shirt Contest, where students could show off their creativity by designing a white T-shirt themed after Italian culture and their research projects. Students designed their T-shirts before Italian Day, but competed against each other on the day of the event for the best design. Battisti, along with her parent helpers, picked out the top three designs in each class, with the winning students winning Italian flag buttons.

The event finished with an Italian-themed Kahoot quiz. It was not a serious graded quiz, so students could take it easy as they tested their Italian knowledge and wrapped up their celebration with another fun activity.

Battisti said that she was just happy to see her students happy. To her, nothing is better than seeing her students having fun and staying engaged.

“As long as they do it nicely, I don’t care. Just seeing them having fun is enough for me,” Battisti said.

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.