From Monday, March 18 to Friday, March 22, students and staff of IHMS celebrated their unique culture and heritage with Ukrainian Week. The theme for this year was ???Ukrainian Roots in Canadian Soil???
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Monday was a N.U.T. Day – ???No Uniforms Today???. Students and staff wore blue and yellow clothing symbolizing the colours of the Ukrainian flag – a blue sky above a brilliant yellow field of wheat. |
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| Students wearing blue and yellow clothing on Monday |
Students also started a craft activity on Monday called a ???paper seed palette??? which they continued on Tuesday.
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| Sr. Anne helping grade 6 students create their ???paper seed palette??? |
Also on Monday, and for every day throughout the week, the students were able to participate in a daily trivia contest that helped them to learn more about ???Ukrainian Roots in Canadian Soil???. The trivia questions (and answers) were in an information sheet sent home with the students. Students entered their answers for the chance to win a daily prize.
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| A grade 8 student entering the trivia contest |
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Trivia Questions
Monday’s Question: How much did land in Canada cost, over 100 years ago, when settlers were arriving from Ukraine? Answer: $10.00 for a quarter section, or about 160 acres. Tuesday’s Question: What attracted Ukrainians to settle in Canada? Answer: The prospect of owning land and a more promising future (their country was under the rule of neighboring countries). Wednesday’s Question: What was the name of Canada???s first Ukrainian Catholic Bishop? Answer: Bishop Nykyta Budka. Thursday’s Question: Approximately how many Ukrainian people did the new Bishop minister to in Canada? Answer: 128,000. Friday’s Question: What was the date the children of St. Nicholas School performed for the new Bishop? Answer: December 22, 1912.
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| Junior high students colouring eggs (pysanka) for Easter |
On Wednesday, students continued with their rehearsals for the Ukrainian concert.
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| The kindergarten “mosquitoes” practicing for the concert |
Thursday was another N.U.T. day, in this case, Ukrainian Wear Day where students were encouraged to wear an article of clothing with a Ukrainian slogan or saying on it. In the past, they were asked not to wear their Ukrainian concert outfit until just before the dress rehearsal at 1:30 p.m., but this year it was allowed if they had nothing else to wear.
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| Grade 7 and grade 4 students on Thursday’s “Ukrainian wear day” |
The concert, entitled ???Ukrainian Roots in Canadian Soil??? was also performed that evening at 7:00 p.m. Like the Christmas concerts, it was performed twice that day in order to accommodate the work schedules of parents who were unable to make it to the 7:00 p.m. performance.
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| A few scenes from Thursday’s very successful Ukrainian concert |
Friday, March 22nd was the last day for the trivia contest, and the last day before the beginning of the Spring break. Thanks to perogy donations from various Ukrainian Catholic parishes, students were able to purchase a delicious perogy lunch served by the IHMS Parents Guild.
  
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| Parent volunteers (top photos) serving perogies to appreciative students |
At 1:00 p.m., students attended Divine Liturgy at Sts. Vladimir and Olga Cathedral before being dismissed for their spring break.
Ukrainian Week was another great success this year. Thank you to Mrs. Wdowiak and Mrs. Stanowych (the school’s Ukrainian teachers), Miss Karhut, Mr. Picklyk and Sr. Anne for planning the activities. Their dedication and hard work made Ukrainian Week 2011 the success that it was.