Our+Trip+to+Nitra+by+the+9yo+Class

=__The Nine Year-Old Trip to the Principality to Nitra__= written by Mrs Szeryk's 9yo Students =//Thursday September 29, 2011//=

We caught the bus right on time at the Iuventa Center. The trip took 1 hour and 15 minutes. Finally we arrived.

The Slavs lived in a small house made of straw, wood, and mud. Inside the house was one bed and one table. Only parents can sleep there, and children need to sleep on the floor. The table's size was presently normal, and there were spoons and a dish made of wood. I think the house seemed uncomfortable to me.

There was only one bed. The children slept on the floor! Mom and Dad slept on the bed.

The old Slavs grew wheat, peas, and onions. They ate flatbread and stews. They also drank milk from cows, goats, and sheep. They also ate cheese.

Before a village feast started, one family would kill a pig, a cow, or a sheep and this family who had just killed the animal would invite the whole village to come and celebrate this big feast. Vagor is the god of this feast.

We learned how to make knives. Here are the steps: 1. Find a rock

2. and then find a smooth rock, it needs to be round

3. start rubbing them together

Some of the animals back then were goats, pigs, cows, and sheep. One of the differences were that all the animals were just roaming around. They used the goats, cows, and sheep for milk. They used the pigs for feasts, and the sheep for wool. But in the winter, they had to gather up the animals, so they would not die.

The Slavs made their dishes, pots and everything for eating out of clay. This is called “Pottery Making”. Pottery making might have been hard for them but I think they did a very good job. Pottery making was different than these days. Instead of working with the turning pottery tool, they did it with their hands. They made small and big pots, thick and thin pots. All made with hands, out of clay. I do not know how many pots those poor people had to make! The Slavs are great pottery makers!

The Slavs lived hundreds of years ago and they didn’t just grow wheat to make flat bread and they didn’t just have village feasts. They also made jewelry. Do you want to know how they did it?

The Slavs had only a limited amount of materials, so they had to make jewelry out of things they had. Lets make it:

1. Find a round stone with a diameter of 2-7 centimeters.

2. Take a wire and wrap it around your rock.

3. Take a small rope and put it under one wire.

4. Just tie the both ends of the rope together and you have a necklace.

Why make jewelry? The Slavs liked to be pretty, like we do today. The didn’t have any machines, like we today, so they couldn’t reach the minerals underground. They had the rocks from the riverbanks, the wires from the minerals in the mountains, and the rope from wool and other materials.

We had many Treasure Hunt activities. First, we had to listen to the information about some of the important gods and we had to match the name of the god with the picture. It was pretty challenging. We found:

Svarog-the god of feast

Perun-the god of lightning

Dazbog-the god of the sun

Velas-the god of land

Click on the god to see the picture:

[|Dazbog]

Monika, our guide, showed us the Slavs’ alphabet. Then we had to figure out a word using the alphabet. The word was //NITRA//. It was really fun!

[|(if you click this you will see the Slavs alphabet)]

We had to put together a picture of fire. There were little pieces of the fire and we had to put them together. The funny thing was is that we didn't know what the picture was, but we found out.

[|picture of fire]

Some of us were given letters that we needed to unscramble. The word was PRIBINA, which was the name of the first king.

We saw sheep, ponies, horses, and a rabbit. When we had free time after lunch, we saw three little sheep and the sheep ate every plant that we gave them.

The tunic of the time was made from a thin cloth called linen. They were wearing it for all seasons. In Winter, they would wear clothes made from animals’ fur on top of the linen tunic to keep them warm. The furs would be from sheep. They had belts where they kept their weapons, like knives. Also, they needed belts to decorate. People would decorate their tunics by rubbing the cloth with flowers, grass and dirt. We decorated one.

During the pony ride, there was a little pony that was standing next to a girl that worked there. Everyone got a chance to ride on it. So when we were waiting for our turns there was a padded wooden horse to jump on. So we played with that while we were waiting.

On the way back we stopped and walked to look around the city. We went to a high place where the castle was and looked at the view. After that we went to the souvenir shop. Then we rode back to QSI.