Teacher's Guide for FACES ^® Ukraine

On a world map, locate the Ukraine. Find Kiev, the capital city. Name the countries that surround Ukraine. Which of them were once part of the Soviet Union?

The following words are listed in the order they appear in the issue. Use the context in the articles, or a dictionary, to determine the meaning of each word.

phenomenon, lavish, persevere, confiscated, exiled, resources, rites, persecution, denominations, turmoil, agrarian, bountiful, radiation, radioactive, contamination, sarcophagus

1. What kind of government does Ukraine have today?
2. What five languages are spoken in Ukraine?
3. Why have the bodies in the Monastery of the Caves not decayed? What has happened to them?
4. Why did Joseph Stalin limit the use of the Ukrainian language in the 1930s?
5. What is a collective farm?
6. In 1991, how did the Ukrainians feel about nuclear weapons?
7. In 1988, what did the Ukrainians celebrate with regards to religion?
8. Why is Ukraine known as "the breadbasket" of Europe?
9. What are some of the traditional foods of Ukraine?
10. What popular dishes are made with cabbage?
11. If your family lived in an apartment in Ukraine, what size might the apartment be?
12. How do Ukrainians feel about cultural events?
13. Where in Ukraine could you see the luxurious palaces and villas built by Russian nobility before the Communist Era?
14. What else of historical significance happened in the same area?
15. Why was the radiation from the Chernobyl reactor explosion so disastrous?
16. How did it affect the people and crops that were nearby?

Read the story, "Natalia's Hunger." If you had lived at that time:

1. How would you have felt about religious freedom?
2. What would it have been like to be as hungry as Natalia? Mku

Imagine that you are a member of a Kobzari group. Describe what your life might be like if you were a part of one of these groups.

Follow the directions in the magazine for making Pysanky eggs. Sharpened white crayons work well. If you don't want to spend any money on dyes, boil some onion skins and use the brown water as a dye. Berries will work, too. At the school or local library locate even more traditional symbols and their meanings, then use them to decorate your eggs.

Locate some tapes or CDs of traditional Ukrainian music, or a video tape of a dance group. Much Ukrainian music is choral.

1. What kind of instruments accompany the singers?
2. Do the same musical instruments also accompany the dancers?
3. Name, then describe, the appearance of the different musical instruments, or draw illustrations of them.

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Updated: 9/7/08 07:02 pm
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