hristmas Art Therapy at School No.22

Dnipro high school № 22 provides in-depth study of English; it’s a specialized school – one of the best in town. For many years it cooperates with DOUNB Library and "Window on America" Center.

The WOA’s Head Svetlana Usenko told students about American Christmas and New Year traditions. 3 lessons in which Svitlana participated flew like a flash. The students’ show was followed by slide-show presentation and demonstration of relevant videos. The students learned about the annual celebration in the USA.

The final Christmas activity offered to the students was coloring Christmas pictures. Many of the students left school with a lovely Christmas gift for their parents.

Number of participants – 75 persons.

Thanksgiving Day with teens

On 22th of November the head of Window on America Dnipro (Ukraine) Svitlana Usenko visited the local high school № 22.

Svitlana U. has presented to school students a popular American holiday – Thanksgiving – and the way it is celebrated in the United States. From the WOA’s slide presentation the students learned about the main symbols and characters of this holiday. They watched videos.

Students received a good mood for the day, new cross-cultural knowledge and additional motivation to study English.

Speaker, pictures: S.Usenko.

Participants number – 75 persons.

“Window on America” offers new partnership options

"Window on America" Information and Resource Center continues partnership with the Dnipro City Association of EFL Teachers (Chairman Ms. V.Shvydka).
The Center’s Head Svitlana Usenko was invited to greet the participants of the 3rd All-Ukrainian Conference of EFL Teachers that took place at School № 22. She made a brief presentation of the Center's free resources for improving English language proficiency and told about the unique visit by the NASA active astronaut Randolph Breznik to DOUNB Library. Colonel Breznik gifted to WOA Dnipro unique items –  a "Window to America - 2017 " calendar that spent 139 days at the International Space Station and made 22 221 turns around the Earth with the ISS crew.
S.Usenko  in detail  presented  the elements of cross-cultural presentations developed by WOA’ staff member Tamara Gavryliuk. The teachers and students were invited to visit the DOUNB library to discuss the topic such as "Historian Dmitry Yavornytsky", "Civil activist Oleksandr Pol", "Folk art – Petrykivka painting","Dnipro’s Heraldry ","The secret of T. Shevchenko testament", etc.).
The teachers responded to cooperation offer and are willing ready to bring students to the DOUNB library. Three schools invited WOA’s Head to take part in the "Week of English"
events.
Each conference participant received "Window to America" promotional kit – so WOA’s address and contact phones will be always at hand. They will be able to contact us directly or via social media.
Participants number – 30 people.
Have a look at more pictures, please

DOUNB Library welcomes a Peace Corps Volunteer

Today, the distance between a mining town of Vil’nohirsk and Dnipro city has shrunk due to the passion for English. Vil'nohirsk is a service place for Mr. Austin - an American Peace Corps volunteer.
The "Window on America" Dnipro Information and Resource Center hosted a meeting of high school students from school # 22 with Mr. Austin - a native-speaking English teacher. In a cozy library atmosphere, the students felt relaxed. They introduced themselves, recommended the US guest several attractions to visit in Dnipro and asked him a lot of questions about his mission in Ukraine. Mr. Austin paid attention to every student, encouraged them to study hard, gave valuable recommendations about web resources one can use for extra English practice.
All the students were happy to spend the first day of the unexpected school break with an American guest. We look forward to further visits of Peace Corps volunteer Mr. Austin to WOA Dnipro.
Participants number - 21 persons.

Have a look at more pictures, please

 

Learning English is Fun & Joy !

English Week with Librarian.
The partnership of the "Window to America" Information and Resource Center and Dnipro’s specialized School No. 22 with in-depth study of the English language continues. The head of the Dnipro city English Language Teachers’ Association Ms. Valentyna Shvydka invited the WOA’s Head Svitlana Usenko to visit the English Week at school No.22. For two classes S. Usenko made a presentation "Fundamentals of Academic Integrity for Schoolchildren". She introduced the types of plagiarism and rules of citation and tried to increase the media literacy of young people. Using the «O.B.A.CH.N.O" poster S.Usenko gave advice on correct assessment the questionable information reliability. 

In the second part of the visit the librarian S. Usenko as a guest of honor joined the students’ party "Romantic stories on the magic screen". It was nice to see that the students used the American authors’ works to create their musical numbers. The students were inspired by "Great Gatsby", "Hunger Games", "La-La Land". Senior students demonstrated outstanding creative skills, beautiful singing and dancing, script writing and sound engineering skills. Concert numbers were interesting, with good levels of music and choreography. Although the teams did not compete with each other, in the final word the librarian noted two best performances (by 9-A and 11-B classes). These teams received souvenirs with "Window to America" logos. We are looking forward to meet the school’s students again already at the DOUNB Library premises.
Number of participants – 250 persons.

Have a look at more pictures, please

Project ‘Space capital on the Dnieper’

Today Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk staff and WOA’s American volunteer Mr. Jason were invited to the local high school No. 22 to presentations during the school’s “SPACE WEEK”.
The school events coincided with the observation of the Global Astronomy Month (April) and the International Day of Human Space Flight (April, 12).
The WOA staff has prepared for senior students a presentation and big screened YouTube videos in English about astronomy and the Solar system planets.
A custom-made quiz about space toponyms in Dnipropetrovsk was offered to the students. The children had to guess the names of Dnipropetrovsk streets that are connected with the topic “Space”. The eligible streets and buildings were named after planets, space objects, space heroes, space engineers, astronomic phenomena, etc. They had to tell where in Dnipropetrovsk one can provide space research and touch space equipment. A set of questions dealt with the space connected monuments located in Dnipropetrovsk. Besides the name of the monument the students had to explain to Mr. Jason what the monument symbolizes. Sometimes it was a tricky task.
The topic was illustrated with the NASA videos about the International Space Station (ISS), the Space food Industry and its influence on modern food technology.
The WOA’s presentation provided a lot of educational information in several subjects (physics, astronomy, literature, local history).
Number of participants – 135 persons.
Have a look at more pictures, please

УкраїнаSpeaking and ДніпропетровськSpeaking

Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk was invited to participate in the English Language Week at the local high school No.22. The school is a long time WOA’s partner and focuses on the foreign languages study. During the school visit the WOA staff interacted with 7 groups of students of different ages.
The WOA’s Head S. Usenko presented the WOA resources to the youngest children. They were informed about the #УкраїнаSpeaking project and the recent addition to the WOA’s children’s book collection – “Little House in the Prairie” by Laura Ingalls-Wilder. The book was translated into Ukrainian by Eugenia Kononenko and published with the support of the US Embassy in Ukraine. To present the WOA’s collection of kids’ movies the students were offered big screening of popular films trailers – Robot and Frank (2012) and Bee Season (2005).
 

The WOA’s speaking club moderator T. Gavryliuk and WOA’s American volunteer Mr. Jason had conversational sessions with several medium and high school classes. The format of the sessions was ‘Question and Answer’ and gave the students an opportunity to interact with a native speaking American. The students appreciated the visit of the guest who demonstrated the American variant of the English language. They have presented him with authentic Ukrainian souvenirs – locally made chocolates, folk crafts and an illustrated book on Ukrainian culture and traditions. The high school students invited the American guest to the school’s local lore museum and arranged a speedy tour for him during a break.
Number of participants – 125 persons.
Have a look at more pictures, please

Christmas bells jingle - 3

"Window on America" information and resource center held the 3rd meeting of its cultural project "Christmas bells jingle". The head of "Window on America" Svetlana Usenko visited students of the specialized school №22 for talking about the Christmas season in USA and Ukraine.
The WOA staff introduced the group to some less known symbols of American Xmas. The American flower symbol of Xmas was presented – the beautiful red poinsettia. The nativity scene as a Xmas tradition in the USA was presented and several images were discussed. Several popular Xmas songs were offered to the group and the teenagers happily sang along.
The group listened to the globally popular “Carol of the Bells” A.K.A "Shchedryk" by the Ukrainian composer Leontovich. The iconic song was offered in traditional and modern variations. The group was eager to sing along other Xmas hits – «Jingle bells», “Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer”, “Santa Clause Is coming to town” and others.
Young DOUNB Library friends enjoyed the music. For the teenagers US Christmas is a start of the bright and merry Winter Holiday season! They will remember new facts about the Christian culture, and will learn more about the culture of the friendly American people.
We hope that this presentation will be an extra motivation for the students to learn English.
Number of participants – 65 persons.
Have a look at more pictures, please

International Games Day - 1

Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, actively uses resources freely available on the American English web site recommended for English teachers and learners by the US State Department.
This year we were invited to participate in the “Activate Ukraine” event for the International Games Day observed on November, 21. WOA Dnipropetrovsk decided to present the event and the resources to the local long-time partner – high school No. 22 (with focus on English study). The school helped us to arrange game sessions for 5 groups of senior students.
 

Activate is a set of games that offer practice with vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and interaction skills in a learner-centered, low-stress environment. When playing the games students are motivated to talk informally and to think creatively.
As the students of school No. 22 are advanced students “Activate” games were offered for them as a warm up round for speaking skills practice. The activity was enjoyed by all students.
In the second round of games the WOA staff introduced board games from the WOA Dnipropetrovsk collection – Apples to Apples, Taboo, The scrambles States of America. The games popular among the native-speaking Americans were a challenge for the students as they required a big vocabulary, ability to describe the notions, objects, verbs as well as good knowledge of US geography. As a bonus for the fastest winning teams we offered a round of “Jungle Speed” game which urged the gamers to think and react fast.
The most enjoyed game for senior student was Apple to Apple – the game of crazy combinations.
At the end of the day the gaming session was offered to the middle students. They used WOA’s iPads to play word game “Futaba’.
Have a look at more pictures, please

Celebration of the Columbus Day in the USA

The "Window on America" Center (Dnipropetrovsk / Ukraine) staff was invited to visit local high school No. 22 and present a letter on US traditions and holidays. Due to the date of the school visit it was natural to select the topic “Celebration of the Columbus Day in the USA”.
The presentation was offered to three groups of students the 6th, the 9th and the 10th graders. All groups were offered the slideshows with fun facts about the Columbus trips to the New World. The senior students already new many facts about Columbus, but they appreciated the new vocabulary that was introduced during the presentations. The focus in the presentations for senior students was on the impact the Columbus’s trips had on the European countries and the population of America.
 

The junior students were excited with less complicated presentations that involved cartoon materials and were illustrated with songs about Columbus in English. The students had to demonstrate their auditing skills as the songs were offered without sub-titles or lyrics.
Both groups were interested in the video-illustration of the topic- a video about the Columbus Day parade in New York in 2013. The students were informed about the Italian community active participation in the parade. In year 2013 the highlight was a show of Italian cars in the streets of New York. The tricky task for the groups was to enumerate the logos of the car brands shown in the illustrative video.
The teachers were grateful to the WOA staff for a lecture that increased the students’ knowledge of American traditions.
Number of participants – 85 persons.
Have a look at more pictures, please

Movie Afternoon

«Movie Afternoon» and WOA’s free resources presentation
The Window on America Center Dnipropetrovsk was visited by the 8th grade students from the local high school number 22, it provides in-depth study of English and is one of the best in town the school is a longtime partner of the WOA Center and the DOUNB library.
The Center’s free resources for learning English were presented to the group. The activities most popular among library patrons were presented to the group - the theme book displays, weekly Movie club and weekly English-speaking clubs for different age groups (for teens and adults).
Then students watched the family movie “Mr. Popper's Penguins” (2011). 

It’s a funny story about the life of a businessman, which begins to change after he inherits six penguins, and as he transforms his apartment into a winter wonderland, his professional side starts to unravel.
After the movie WOA’s Head Svitlana Usenko offered to play “Apples to Apples”- the game of hilarious comparisons. It's as easy as comparing apples to apple: just open the box, deal the cards and you're ready to play. Select the card from your hand that you think is best described by a card played by the judge. Each game round is filled with surprising and outrageous comparisons from a wide range of people, places, things and events.
 

The students have inspected the book and image display «VE-Day – the 70th Anniversary», a paper display «Music Scene and Heard», and a «New arrivals» display. The focus of the paper display was on the panels that deal with American jazz and other genres of music that Ukrainian audience associates with the American music. Pop/Rock, Musical theater and religious music complemented the information about Jazz. The panels represent collages with the images of the American stars in the above-mentioned genres and provide comments to the images.
The highlight the new arrivals display is pop-up book «Ice Age».
Number of participants – 25.

Have a look at more pictures, please

Easter Art Therapy at School No.22

Dnipropetrovsk high school № 22 provides in-depth study of English; it’s a specialized school – one of the best in town. For many years it cooperates with DOUNB Library and "Window on America" Center.
On the Orthodox Easter Eve the WOA’s Head Svetlana Usenko was invited to take part in the festivities and to tell the students about American Easter traditions.7 lessons in which Svitlana participated flew like a flash.
Each lesson began with a story in English about Easter traditions presented by students. The most creative school students performed musical numbers. Most impressive were gospel type lyrical religious songs, the girls sang and played on the piano, flute and saxophone. One boy performed a violin number; another girl recited a funny Ukrainian Easter story.
 

The students’ show was followed by S. Usenko’s slide-show presentation and demonstration of relevant videos. The students learned about the annual celebration at the White House in Washington. A popular activity there was an Easter Egg Roll, which involved a large number of American children and their parents. President Barack Obama read a story to the children, played tennis and basketball with American athletes. The First Lady Michelle Obama demonstrated her dancing skills and encouraged the audience to lead healthy lifestyles.
 

Another Easter activity offered to the school children was egg decoration, they were encouraged to hand-paint the eggs. Cartoons about Bunny rabbit raised the students’ spirits - they sang and danced along.
The final Easter activity offered to the students was coloring Easter pictures. Many of the students left school with a lovely Easter gift for their parents.
Number of participants – 255 persons.

Have a look at more pictures, please