Blog
Teaching a Child the Russian Letters
I had a lovely conversation today with a mother of a little 2 year old. Her family is trilingual, where […]
Read More →
Furniture in Russian: I will have something to sit on in Russian and English
My almost 4 y.o. daughter asked me today: “Мама, а как по-английски табуретка?” (Mama, what is English for “tabuhretka”?) And […]
Read More →
Winter and Snow Vocabulary in Russian
I thought sharing some Russian winter and snow-related vocabulary that came up with my daughter during this trip might be useful. Here are the words and phrases we either ran into or discussed because of the trip.
DSCN2433снег – snow
Снег падает с неба. – Snow is falling from the sky.
Снег лежит на земле. – Snow is on the ground.
снежинка (снежинки) – snowflake(s)
Снежинки кружатся и падают. – Snowflakes twirl and fall down.
лёд – ice
Лёд на дороге=дорога обледенела – icy road, the road is covered in ice
сосулька (и) – icicles
Снег тает. Лёд тоже тает. Сосульки тают и капают с крыш. – Snow melts. Ice also melts. Icicles melt and drip from the roofs.
A Book Collection about Russian Winter
My oldest daughter loves reading and being read to. Right now her reading in Russian is a lot better than […]
Read More →
Russian New Year: Everything You Wanted to Know About Grandfather Frost
Russians love celebrating New Year and for me as a kid it was one of the favorite holidays, second only […]
Read More →
Over 20 Toys and Games from Around the World (Guest post for MKB)
I had a great pleasure to wirte this guest blog for Multicultural Kid Blogs about Toys and Games Around the […]
Read More →
Not from Russia but Speak Russian
Where I live in Northern CA there is a huge Russian-speaking community, and I am so happy that my kids gets to be exposed to Russian a lot, just because of that. Recently it dawned on me that out of the people I know who speak Russian so many are not actually FROM Russia, although most are from the former USSR.
Read More →Morning in the Pine Forest: Co-author a Painting
My favorite childhood chocolate candies, which then were quite expensive, were “The Club Footed Bear”. Then you could only get a couple and only in special gift bags you got at the end of your summer camp stay or for the New Year’s festivities. It was practically impossible to buy them. On top of the blue wrapper there was a picture of several bear cubs climbing trees with their mother bear next to them on the grass, watching them. The scene took place in the morning in a pine forest.
Read More →
What is YOUR Name? (Russian Names)
In Russian it is very traditional to have an official name and a family-freinds names that have many variations are are used interchangeably.
Russian full name consists of a first name, a last or family name and a patronymic (an adjective formed from the first name of the father). In the official documents or when you fill out a form, last name goes first, then first name and patronymic. So it looks like this: Ivanova (family name) Lidya (first name) Nikolaevna (patronymic) – Иванова (family name) Лидия (first name) Николаевна (patronymic).
Read More →
Lesson Plan: Teaching Russian Letters to Children (in English)
Quite frequently when I talk to teacher I am asked about lesson plans. I think that having lesson plans to all our books is a wonderful ides, and at some point it will come to fruition. However at this point I can not create lesson plans for all our books. I did create two short lesson plans with a corresponding video that should hopefully give you some ideas for lesson plans and how to use our books.
This informaiton should be sufficient for about two 45-minute classes. If the classes are shorter, you might have enough for 3 or more classes.
I hope this lesson plan will be helpful, but please sen me your questions, what worked and what did not, what you did differently and I will be happy to reply.
Lessons to Introduce Russian Letter «В» [v]
Lesson 1
Usually I use several books at the same time ( one of the resons I like series – you can combine them if more material is needed). I also always interchange the “sitting” and “moving” activities, so the kids are not jsut sitting in their places all class long.
