Halloween & US Elections

This afternoon the Gabfest Club members in Dnipro Window on America center talked about the Halloween celebration again. The club members shared their stories of Halloween celebration/non-celebration in Dnipro. Apparently the holiday is still to gain the scale of popularity it has in the USA. But we practiced the vocabulary that was introduced at the first Halloween session.
The highlight of the session was the conversation about Halloween celebration at the White House. We started with the description of the photos from 2016 decorations. The group was amazed with the WH building decorations, especially the mechanized skeletons of rabbits at the portico, the webs and spiders on the lawns, the scary pumpkins on the balcony. The group managed to guess what was the theme for the year 2016 – it was “Alice in Wonderland”. The illustrative videos showed the work of floral designers and chefs who prepare the presidential treats for the WH trick-or-treaters.
 

The videos that stole our hearts was the one with President Obama and the children in costumes. We have learned a lot about the popular US characters for Halloween costumes as well as some unusual terms – POTUS (President of the United States), FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) and others.
 
The second part of the session was dedicated to watching the videos that explain the US Presidential Elections 2016.
The WOA’s Ukrainian language video with the same topic explained the things that were too complicated for auditing.
Participant numbers  – 43  persons.
#УкраїнаSpeaking #americanspaces #DniproWOA #Dnipropetrovsk #library #DOUNB #ДОУНБ #Ukraine #EducationalActivities #LearnEnglish #Gabfest

 

Halloween party

"American TEEN club" hold the Halloween party at the "Window on America" center (Dnipropetrovsk / Ukraine).
The session was prepared and moderated by the FLEX (Future Leaders Exchange) program graduate Sasha, who is a new WOA’s friend and volunteer.
 
During the session the group was involved into educational activities: watching videos, answering questions of the moderator, playing fun games.
Number of participants – 11 persons.
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HALLOWEEN at Gabfest

This Saturday the Gabfest club ("Window on America" (Dnipropetrovsk / Ukraine) was visited by a private English-speaking Club from Novomoskovsk (a town 40 km away from Dnipropetrovsk). The visit of the teenage group was a pleasant surprise as the girls arrived dressed in Halloween costumes, with appropriated make-up and with carved pumpkin “jack-o-lanterns”.
Both clubs were lucky to have our two American volunteers – Mr. Jason and Mr. Kelly. Their presence motivated the club members to demonstrate the best of their English skills. The Novomoskovsk teenagers introduced themselves to the Gabfest club and demonstrated their costumes. The task for the Gabfest club members was to guess what was the name of each girl’s costume. The teenagers also recited rhymes and poems about Halloween and sang a Halloween song.
The second part of the session was dedicated to the introduction of the Halloween vocabulary to the older generation and watching of a Discovery Channel video about the history of the Halloween celebrations. It introduced some popular games (apple bobbing) and pranks (gate stealing, etc).
 

Wrapping up the session we allowed the club members from Novomoskovsk to put questions to our volunteers and to present the major attractions of their own town to them.
After the session the Gabfest Club activists had a Halloween tea party with assortment of local treats: chocolates, cookies and a pumpkin pie home-made by the Club member Valentina. All the participants liked the warm atmosphere of the tea party.
The session had many funny moments and was quite challenging for the Club members as it required knowledge of cultural trivia.
Number of participants – 38 persons.
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Holidays with WOA

On October, 26-27th – 

Window on America center in Dnipropetrovsk was visited by a two groups of primary school students from school 141.

The Library staff told them about the resources available for them and the procedure for enrolling into the library.

The students study two foreign languages, one of them is English. The WOA staff member checked what American autumn holidays the children know about. It turned out they are well aware of the Halloween and Thanksgiving. The new topic for them was celebration of Columbus Day. Some kids even knew who Columbus was.

The groups were shown a number of animated cartoons including excerpt from the movie “Bamby”. While watching the movie the kids had to make a list of animals they saw and give their equivalents in English.

The session was educational for the kids and promoted library services to the primary school students.

Number of participants – 47 persons.

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Halloween preparation

Today’s session of the American Teen Club (at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) was dedicated to the Halloween preparation.

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