Tuesday, March 15, 2011

T-A-P-A-C!!

Let me tell you what I ended up doing for our Shevchenko day. Now, you have to understand that this is a pretty solemn afternoon. This guy was poor, an indentured servant, he was hounded by the Russians, and through it all he loved his country, Ukraine. Usually this holiday has poems, plays, a choir sings his works set to music, and the like. For the last 6 years I taught my little ones this song entitled "Deep Bow to you, Taras." It's a little two stanza song where the kids say how their hearts beat for him and they promise to be faithful to Ukraine and to him and what he stood for. GREAT work for a kid who A. doesn't speak Ukrainian, B. can't envision who he was or what he means, and C. sings the Christmas song to Santa.
Anyway, I usually ended up singing that song alone and the kids just stood there looking into the stage lights. So I said if I had to do this song again I'd throw myself off the roof of the Ukrainian National Home in Hartford. And it came to me!
A song so simple, so cute, so totally inappropriate for this solemn day, I had to do it. For you Ukie people, here is how it went:

Buv pysmennyk, nash pysmennyk nazyvavsia SHEV-CHEN-KO!
Buv pysmennyk, nash pysmennyk nazyvavsia SHEV-CHEN-KO!
T-A-P-A-C! T-A-P-A-C! T-A-P-A-C, nazyvavsia SHEVCHENKO!

For you English speakers, this is the Ukrainian version of
"There was a farmer had a dog and BINGO was his name-o"-

There was a writer, our writer, and his name was SHEVCHENKO
There was a writer, our writer and his name was SHEVCHENKO
T-A-R-A-S, T-A-R-A-S, T-A-R-A-S, and his name was SHEVCHENKO

Yep- I did B-I-N-G-O in Ukie for the greatest writer who ever was from our country. I made sure the kids knew the one important word- SHEVCHENKO! And they shouted it out just like I wanted!! One little one was even dancing around as we sang.
Well, the place went crazy! Everbody clapped when it was time to clap as each letter got taken away, and we got a huge round of applause at the end. All my parents told me it was awesome, cute, adorable!!! YAY! Even the principal and the guest director liked it. So phew, I get to keep my job. Not that I necessarily still want it, I have to think about it, but at least they didn't run me out of town.

1 comment:

  1. Toldja it was cute! Maybe next year you can set the words to a Ruslana song - that would really get the place hopping!

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