MandalayElementary School

Join us for an interactive session for parents and caregivers on nurturing social connections for young people. Learn about the importance of feeling connected for mental health and explore strategies to strengthen family bonds and help children build important social skills.

World Compliment Day was celebrated on March 1, and at Mandalay Elementary School in the Wantagh School District it served as a reminder about the kindness that should spread year-round. Every student in the school was tasked with a writing compliment to a classmate.

It was a special day for kindergarten and first grade students at Mandalay Elementary School on Feb. 9. They reached the 100th day of the school year, making them that much smarter.

They may still be pretty young, but fifth graders at Mandalay Elementary School have lots of stories to tell. They recently wrapped up their memoir writing unit by publishing personal narrative pieces.

A day before the big balloons and floats traveled through the streets of Manhattan, students at Mandalay Elementary School put on their own Thanksgiving display. The morning kicked off with a float parade outside of the school.

The Helping Hands food pantry at Mandalay Elementary School in the Wantagh School District has been freshly stocked thanks to the generosity of students. The first food drive of the year was held from Oct. 3-14, with students donating non-perishable items.

International Dot Day is a celebration of creativity, and students at Mandalay Elementary Schools showed just how powerful their imaginations can be. To kick off the school year, students in kindergarten through fifth grade worked on dot-themed projects during STEAM classes with teacher Alexa Del Piano. Each grade had a specific task.

Kindness is a valued virtue at Mandalay Elementary School and 17 students were recognized for being kind and considerate throughout the 2021-2022 school year. Near the end of the school day on June 2, Principal Marie Pisicchio announced the winners of this year’s kindness awards.

Third graders got to explore their roots at Mandalay Elementary School while also improving their technology skills. Each student selected a country reflecting his or her ancestry and created a digital book using Google Slides.

Treating others with kindness is an important lesson, and at Mandalay Elementary School, students also learned to treat themselves kindly. Mirror Talk Mondays is a new initiative to help children build confidence, be proud of who they are and understand all that they can offer.

Students certainly know how to give it their all at Mandalay Elementary School. Principal Marie Pisicchio presented perseverance awards to 28 children on Jan. 31. Ms. Pisicchio explained that the awards are presented annually to students who never quit and give “110 percent.”

The winter Olympics are being held about 6,000 miles away in Beijing, but children at Mandalay Elementary School are still getting in on the action. Students are taking part in Olympic-inspired games during their physical education classes throughout February.

By putting their engineering skills to the test, students at Forest Lake and Mandalay elementary schools got to make themselves part of popular holiday tale. Children were tasked with a fun building project to aid in the escape of the Gingerbread Man.

Veterans Day served as a reminder for students at Mandalay Elementary School about the sacrifices that have been made by countless Americans through their service in the different branches of the military. Children showed their appreciation to those who have served, past and present, by wearing red, white and blue attire to school on Nov. 10.

Kindness was the message at Mandalay Elementary School in the Wantagh School District on Oct. 20, which took part in the national Unity Day initiative. Students and staff showed their solidarity by wearing orange.

It was a brief but impactful ceremony for students at staff at Mandalay Elementary School in the Wantagh School District, who came together at the flagpole to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Mandalay Elementary School Student Council hosted an ABC Countdown to Summer for the last 26 days of school. For the letter N, the students hosted Nationality Day and asked that the student body wear clothing that represents their heritage. Students also discussed their nationalities with one another and where their ancestors may have come from. Most importantly, students discussed their similarities and some of the different customs they celebrate.

The Wantagh School District’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts is pleased to announce that 24 students represented the district in the annual Art Supervisors Association All-County Art Exhibit from their respective schools. Additionally, Wantagh High School senior Francis Peretti was selected as one of 42 ASA All-County Senior Scholarship winners.

Cards of gratitude were crafted by Mandalay Elementary School students for local law enforcement officers during National Police Week, held on May 9-May 15. The activity was sponsored by the Town of Hempstead’s Thank a Law Enforcement Officer program in the spirit of recognizing the contribution of law enforcement officers.

The return to school after the spring break on March 6 took on a festive atmosphere as Mandalay Elementary School students prepared to welcome back fourth grader Nico Lombelino to the classroom. Balloons and a large, colorful welcome sign decorated the front entrance and music filled the air as students, debarking from the bus, rushed to the hallway and waited for Nico’s entrance.

Mandalay Elementary School students and faculty are demonstrating their passion for reading during March’s You’ve Been Booked schoolwide activity, designed to spread a love of reading and to provide a fun way for classrooms to interact with one another.

Mandalay Elementary School’s Student Council spread the magic of reading to those in need by collecting gently used and new books for the Book Fairies. The local organization’s mission is to provide every child in the New York metropolitan area with a book to read. To mark the occasion, the students dressed up as their favorite book characters.

Mandalay Elementary School kindergarten students in Kristine Rogate’s class celebrated the first 100 days of the 2020-2021 school year with an array of activities to commemorate this momentous occasion. Divided into stations, the activities were designed to bolster English language arts, mathematics and art skills the students have acquired since the fall semester began in September.

First grade students in Arlene Berman’s class at Mandalay Elementary School in Wantagh participated in Code.org’s Hour of Code and celebrated Computer Science Week (Dec. 7-12) by learning how to program Ozobots.

Wantagh physical education teachers have been utilizing their creativity to design fitness units that not only allow for social distancing but keep students engaged and improving fitness skills. At Mandalay Elementary School, one such unit called the Turkey Trot, was designed to improve balancing, underhand tossing, jumping and balance, in addition to making young bodies healthy and strong.

Mandalay Elementary School designated the month of November as Gratitude Month. Prior to Veterans Day, students focused on “Grateful for the USA” on which they reflected on the sacrifices veterans have made for this country’s freedoms and safety.

During the month of October, the Mandalay Elementary School faculty and staff ramped up school spirit by embedding additional spirit days and hosting the school’s first Halloween door-decorating contest. The project was an artistic collaboration between students and their teachers and each grade-level participated with an assigned theme which included pumpkin patch (kindergarten), scarecrows (grade 1), trick or treat (grade 2), monsters (grade 3), haunted house (grade 4) and mummies (grade 5). The students were given a Google Form survey to vote on which grade should receive each of the available awards.

Halloween and its symbolic bright orange gourds were the background for learning punctuation for third grade students at Mandalay. The students have been learning about the four types of sentences (statement, question, exclamation and command) and each type’s corresponding punctuation.

Classroom space is prime real estate for school districts complying with New York State social-distancing regulations, but Mandalay’s PTA organization had the foresight to redevelop internal courtyards prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the start of the 2020-2021 school year, the courtyards have been a valuable asset for teachers and students who take learning outside on a daily basis.