From Moscow to Nizny Novgorod to Kazan, students are learning about the cities on their virtual journey across Russia, including the cultures, language, and industries of the regions. Did you know that the sturgeon fish which can be found in the Volga River produces the majority of the world’s black caviar? Instructor Ekaterina Myakshina showed a brief video describing the Nizny Novgorod area in Russia, including the Volga River with this fish that produces the highly coveted delicacy.
Students learned Russian words such as school (pronounced “etoh shkoela”), market (pronounced “etoh mar-kah-teh-zee-an”), bank (pronounced ‘bahnk”), and museum (pronounced “moo-zay-ah”). Myakshina would show the location, introduce the word in Russian, and have the class repeat the word.
After learning many new vocabulary words, she said, “now, I would like for two groups to create a city on the board.” Each group created the city based on the places they learned in the Russian language. Both teams had a few minutes to create their cities with the locations they recently learned such as a house, zoo, library, and market. Once the cities were created, campers would explain to the other group what each building or area of the city represented in Russian.
Myakshina would ask, “Shtoy-eh-tah?” (meaning what is it?) and campers would respond with the proper vocabulary for each place. On Day 2, campers were already speaking several Russian words and learning about many beautiful sights, food, and lifestyles of the amazing Russian culture.