Visits to Gymnasium #13 and 91

Students go to school six days a week so we had an opportunity to visit two more schools. The first class was a World Cultures class and the students were studying North Dakota and South Dakota. They first discussed why it is important to study other cultures and then the teacher randomly assigned the twelve students to two groups - similarities and differences. The students had been given an article to read for homework and they were now going to analyze the information in groups. After discussion, the students viewed pictures and tried to determine which state the picture was from. In showing Crazy Horse and the four presidents she asked then to hypothesize why the monuments were located together. The students asked me many questions about North Dakota, some of them I couldn't answer. I should have brushed up on my ND history. I forgot to say, this class was all in English.




The next class was Chemistry in Real Life. The teacher had written the textbook the
students were using. Her lesson this day was how to make colors for paint and then turn them into tempera or oil paint. She had copies of famous paintings for the students to study and then she conducted the experiment to make the color. The color was then mixed with egg (tempera) and oil to make the paint. Some students then painted pictures. I tried too but any of you who know me, know that I am not the greatest artist. This class is held once a week and is especially applicable in a school that emphasizes the humanities.


Onto the Gymnasium #91. We were served lunch first of salad, pirogies, and borscht. I will have to tell Perry Nako that I had borscht four times. It's very tasty. One thing that is hard for me to get used to, is Russians do not drink liquids during the meal. We always have tea afterwards but not during the meal. I think it is a habit that I think I should be drinking something.





This school was built in 1992 and has one thousand students. We first watched a music program with traditional costumes, dancing,singing and playing spoons. The children were delightful. We had other classes on the schedule so we couldn't watch the rest of the program which was too bad.