Story Time at the Urbana Free Library

REEEC and the Urbana Free Library hosted this year’s second Slavic Story time on March 2nd. Children listened to a lesser known Russian folk tale “The Animals’ Revenge” from James Riordan’s collection Russian Folk Tales (Oxford, 2000) and made a cat mask for themselves. The curriculum also included the Russian version of the children’s song “Rain, Rain, Go Away.”

“Animals’ Revenge” follows the story of a sly fox as she takes advantage of a half-witted old tomcat and hoodwinks the other animals of the forest. Mislead into thinking that the tomcat is the new governor of the forest, the fox – his alleged queen – forces the bear, the wolf, the deers and the squirrels to provide luscious meals in exchange for protection from the tomcat, a supposedly frightful monster. Yet, when the tomcat by a sudden turn of events wanders out of the fox’s den and the animals see him, they realize that they had been duped and swear to take revenge on the fox.

Tae Gyeong in his cat mask

REEEC will hold this academic year’s last Slavic Story Time at the Urbana Free Library in early May. Children will hear an Uzbekh fairy tale, learn an Uzbekh children song and make a dopi for themselves.

Festival of Trees, December 2012

On December 1st, the Russian and East European Center participated at the 17th Festival of Trees organized annually by the Junior League of Champaign-Urbana, an organization of women established in 1932 committed to developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. The Festival of Trees is an annual event for which sponsors put together themed trees, wreaths, and gift baskets. These are raffled or auctioned-off during the weekend. Proceeds are used for community grants and programs benefiting children and families in the Champaign-Urbana area.

At the Festival of Trees, children listened to the Russian fairy tale of Snegurochka (the Snow Maiden), sang the Russian song ‘Oi, Moroz, Moroz’ and made a Snow maiden fridge magnet. The daughter of Father Frost (the Russian Santa Claus) and Mother Spring, Snegurochka is believed to be the soul of the New Year. Always young, beautiful and smiling, she accompanies Father Frost on a sledge drawn by horses, visiting children and giving them gifts. The fairy tale tells a story of a man and woman who always regretted not having any children. Because in during one winter, they made a girl out of snow, Father Frost and Mother Spring decided to make the girl come alive and live with the man and the woman temporarily. They called her Snegurochka. Once spring arrived, however, Snegurochka became very sad and ultimately melted in the sunlight allowing the summer to unfold.

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With roots in Slavic pagan beliefs, Snegurochka is a unique character in Russian folklore and an essential part of New Year’s celebrations. She  has  inspired Russian literature and children’s theatrical performances. She is also the subject of the play Spring Fairytale written by the Russian playwright Aleksandr Ostrovsky in the 19th c.  and the opera Snegurochka, which Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov wrote based on Ostrovsky’s play. According to legend, Snegurochka lives deep in the winter forest. However, her modern place of residence is quite real – it’s the Russian city of Veliky Ustug, where she resides with Father Frost.

The Festival of Trees was a great chance to meet with children and parents of Champaign-Urbana’s diverse community. Thanks to the help of the organizers from Junior League of Champaign-Urbana, REEEC was able to entertain fifty children and adults, distribute Russian candy, and slip Snegurochka as  a fairy tale and a fridge magnet into many hearts and homes. Next year we hope to repeat this experience!

Youth Literature Festival

On October 4-6, the College of Education hosted its fourth Youth Literature Festival. This annual event celebrates literature in the lives of youth by bringing together local and national authors, illustrators, poets, and storytellers to share their stories, craft, and enthusiasm with children, teens, and adults. Organized in collaboration with the University Library, author visits to area schools and libraries, as well as a writing contest for children in kindergarten through fifth grade, are also central to festival activities.

REEEC participated in the Community Day Celebration on the last day of the festival. Thanks to the Center’s display put together by our graduate assistant, Ryan Eavenson, children could immerse themselves in the beautifully illustrated translations of fairy tales from Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

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REEEC also informed parents and K-12 teachers of its resources and outreach activities, such as the Slavic Story and Craft Curricula, and the bi-monthly Slavic Story Time at the Urbana Free Library. Last but not least, both young and old were invited to make a Firebird mask and learn, thereby, about one of the most persistent symbols of Russian folklore and national culture. As David Galloway explained, “The Firebird as an icon is revered by the Russian peasants while at the same time alarming them. A symbol of power and wealth, it is always depicted as being large, strong, and shining like gold. The Firebird has inspired many stories and plays, including a famous ballet by Igor Stravinsky simply called  The Firebird.” The Annotated Afanas′ev Library, Courtesy of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature, University of Pittsburgh.

The Youth Literature Festival was a great chance to meet with a diverse section of the community in Illinois, and  disseminate the opportunities that REEEC has to offer. Thanks to the help of the organizers from the College of Education and the Center’s staff, REEEC was able to reach over four hundred children and adults, who expressed their enthusiasm by flaunting their firebird masks throughout the day. Next year, it shall be no different.

Eggs To Pysanky

On Wednesday, April 4 REEEC hosted visit by Vera Samycia, a master artist of Ukrainian Egg painting known as Psyanky.  Vera demonstrated her craft at the Illini Union and later in the day at the Douglass Branch of the Champaign Public Library.

Vera Samycia uses a wax-resist method in dying her eggs.  She starts by outlining her design on the egg in pencil, then adds beeswax to all the areas she wants to stay white.  The egg is then typically placed in the lightest dye (yellow) which sits for 20 minuets.  After each dying Vera adds beeswax to the areas she wants that particular color to stay.  After every color is done, the egg is dried, the layers of wax are removed by heating the wax with a candle. Finally, Vera varnishes the egg with polyethylene, and the inside contents are blown out.

Kids at the Douglass Branch library were fascinated by the Egg painting process, and thought the coolest part was when Vera blew out the inner contents of a finished egg and left the shell in tact.  Seventy people attended the Illini Union presentation and 22 children and 13 adults attended the after-school event at the library.

Vera’s event at the Illini Union made the front page of the Daily Illini, to read the story and watch a video of the event, please go to the Daily Illini’s website: http://www.dailyillini.com/index.php/article/2012/04/easter_eggs_get_ukrainian_makeover

Global Fest

Baba Yaga riding through the forest in her mortor, swinging a pestle in one hand and a broom in the other.

On March 10, Normal West High School hosted Global Fest. Global Fest is a celebration and promotion of the study of world languages and international studies through educational activities connected to the Illinois Learning Standards for students 6th through 12th grades. Global Fest participants learn about and share the knowledge of the world through introductory lessons in languages of Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East; interactive cultural activities and performances; arts and crafts displays; global knowledge competitions, and exhibits.

REEEC presented “Russian Horror Stories,” to 60 students. During the workshop, students were asked to name favorite horror stories and then broke into groups to discuss what elements made the stories scary.  Then Students looked at pictures of scary characters common in Russian Folklore, one of them being Baba Yaga, and then compared these characters to the scary elements in their own favorite scary stories.  Discussion of Russian folktale characters was followed by a reading of the popular Russian folktale “Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave.”   Students also wrote their names using the Cyrillic alphabet and sampled Russian candy.

More on Global Fest can be found in an article written in the Bloomington Pantagraph :  http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/students-get-taste-of-culture-at-festival/article_19dcbc2c-6b0f-11e1-b5c1-0019bb2963f4.html?mode=story

You can also see their feedback here:

https://reeecillinois.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=696&action=edit&requestfeedback=1#requestfeedback

Slavic Story Time at the Festival of Trees

We had a wonderful time participating in the Festival of Trees this year, the children listened to a telling of Patricia Pollaco’s book “Uncle Vova’s Tree,” we heard the Russian song Ёлочке, and decorated a Christmas tree.

To see past curriculum and craft ideas please visit the teachers page on our website. http://www.reeec.illinois.edu/teachers/lesson/

The Day of Knowledge

On September 3, REEEC and the Urbana Free Library celebrated The Day of Knowledge with the  Urbana-Champaign community.  The celebration started with a brief explanation of the Day of Knowledge and the different traditions associated with it: bringing a bouquet of flowers to your teacher, dressing up, and taking part in The First Bell.  The First Bell signifies the start of the new school year.  A first grade girl is chosen to ring a bell while perched on the shoulders of a 12th grade boy,  officially starting the new school year.  After the explanation, the Russian Heritage School performed a special song and dance they prepared especially for the Day of Knowledge celebration.  The audience was invited to join in and learn the dance, called the Troika, when they danced a second time.   Over fifty people attended this event. They enjoyed making paper flowers for teachers, decorating bells and creating the white flowers that young Russian and Ukrainian girls wear in their hair as part of dressing up for their first day of school.

Story Time at the Urbana Free Library

This month children listened to “The Son of the Sun and the Daughter of the Moon.” In the story, the fiery Sun wants the Daughter of the Moon to marry his son. However, the Moon’s refusal to let that happen leads to events that cause the shadow we see on the moon. The story was followed by a sing-a-long of a Russian song and craft time, where we made sun and moon masks.

In the upcoming year REEEC will enhancing its role with the Urbana Free Library by offering cultural events. REEEC will offer programs that teach children about REEE culture by celebrating national holidays throughout the year. On September 3 from 11 am – 12 pm REEEC will present a program on the Day of Knowledge a Ukrainian and Russian National Holiday, which celebrates the start of a new school year with the traditional ringing of a bell by a new first year student.  Please join us for this event!

Since June of 2010 REEEC has partnered with the Urbana Free Library and Shih-Mei Carmody, a children’s librarian at the Library, in providing a cultural story time that introduces children in the community to Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia by telling traditional stories and learning popular children’s songs from these countries.  The number of children who attend the story time varies from week to week but usually around 10 children on average participate in these events. We hope that by providing this story hour, we as a center will become more recognized by the community and broaden its cultural awareness of Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia.  As an additional service, for those who might be interested in creating a similar program, the curriculum developed for the story time may be found on our website under teacher resources: http://www.reeec.illinois.edu/teachers/lesson/.

For more information about the services provided at the Urbana Free Library please explore their website: http://www.urbanafreelibrary.org/.
The Urbana Free Library hours of operation for Adult, Teen, & Children’s Services are:

9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Monday – Thursday

9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Friday – Saturday

1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sunday