On the Road to Russia

We're happy to announce that we're taking our students on an interesting adventure that will take them from Russia to Israel, Canada, and even Brazil! Don't worry, we're not globe-trotting, it's our new After-School Enrichment Class: Go Geography!

On Fridays, our students will take imaginary trips where -- during two classes on each country -- they'll learn from native speakers, participate in class discussions, art projects, and songs. We'll be spending time on weather, the landscape, interesting or unusual native animals, history, customs, music, and food.

Our first destination? Russia!

We're busy decorating our travel hats.

Before venturing out, our students learned how to say Privet, Ja ...  ("Hello, I am ...), and then we took a look at the globe, pinpointing New Jersey in the United States and Russia. Finally, ready to travel, our students took a short train ride, followed by a trip by plane to Russia where they encountered brown bears and horses, Siberian tigers, the soup borscht, lakes and forests, and Russian children's games!

In two groups, students took on projects. One group colored their travel hats, writing Privet, and put handmade country-specific pins on them, while another group went "fishing" in Russia's Lake Baikal, which is the biggest fresh water supply lake in the world. The students also "visited" the caves of South Russia and got to play with some of the Russian toys, including matroyshka (nesting) dolls, and fishing bears. Next week, our groups will swap activities so everyone gets a chance to explore the fun of Russia.

We read a Russian story called "Repka," a folktale about The Great Turnip, and we also read a letter from Vladimir, a Russian boy, who wrote to greet the class and share interesting facts about the weather, animals, food, and flora of his native country.

After a busy class, we wrapped up with circle time, which gave the students a chance to practice some Russian, and we sent everyone home with a small plastic horse to remind them of what they learned.

We're excited to travel on to Israel, Canada, and Brazil! Until then, Poka! (That's "goodbye" in Russian!)