Do you know any crazy and fun presentation ideas?

Creating a presentation on Eastern European culture and history for 4th graders....any help and ideas??!?

• As the title says, I am in the process of creating an hour-long presentation for a 4th grade class about Eastern Europe. I'm going to begin by showing a map of the region, trying to simply explain communism, etc etc....but I want to spend more time talking about fun things like daily life and culture. Unfortunately, I don't know as much about it as I wish I did, and I recognize that eastern Europe is a very broad and diverse region and i feel overwhelmed trying to sum it all up! I'm hoping maybe someone (and hopefully some people from those countries!) might have some ideas on interesting things to include---food, dances, songs, daily life, how you celebrate holidays such as easter and christmas...etc etc. Anything that I might be able to share with them and hopefully get them excited about learning about a different part of the world! Thanks so much for your input and ideas!!

• Answer:

  Apart from poverty caused by 45 years of communism, Eastern Europe is the same as Western Europe in general. Romania is a latin country, so the lifestyle and language is very similar with Italian lifestyle and culture in most areas. (Transylvania was settled by Germans, so most of the region has a high german population, therefor there are many cities that have bilingual signs, and most people there speak german as their second language, and the architecture of the buildings is almost identical with Austria, Hungary, Czech Rep. region.) Romania is the only latin country in Eastern Europe, which is strange :) . The main Religion is Eastern Orthodox (just like all of Eastern Europe) But the Romanians and Greeks celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December, while Slavs celebrate it on January 7th. Easter is usually celebrated a week after or before Catholic Easter (not sure why, but it changes every year) Holidays in Eastern Europe are less marketing-based and more based on the actual religious side (which is how it should be) People tend to go to churches and cemeteries more often during holidays. (Religion was banned during communism, ironically) Not to be stereo-typical but food in Eastern Europe is based heavily on Cabbage, potatoes and MEAT (lots of it too) They also drink A LOT! Dances and songs, well they vary from region to region, and country to country, but the most common theme they share would be polkas I guess... Big group dances are common everywhere. I go to Eastern Europe pretty often (I have family living there) but the only countries I've been to are Hungary and Romania (which are both pretty similar) And average Saturday day would go like this: -for breakfast people usually have nothing more than a small and really strong Espresso( I mean REALLY strong) -Grocery shopping in the morning -between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. people usually have really big lunches (salad, soup, main course, desert, beer, wine and vodka!) and as many family members as possible -Early afternoons most elderly people take naps because it gets pretty hot during the summer (46*C when i was in Romania 2 years ago, the asphalt on the streets was bubbling!) and during the winter there's nothing to do besides the occasional snowman. A lot of people might take their children to the park or movies or some other form of amusement, people there are pretty outgoing (much more than North Americans!) Younger people my age (16-25 year olds) would go to an outdoor pub or something and have a few drinks with friends! -After 6 p.m. people would usually just go home and drink beer while watching a soccer game. THAT WAS ROUGHLY AN AVERAGE WEEKEND and may not apply to everyone, but that was my personal experience while I was there. Eastern Europe is a beautiful place, and it's also very diverse. It's been influenced heaving throughout its history by Western Europe especially, and also by invading turks, Slavs, Roman Empire etc... It's right at the crossroads between Europe and Asia.