Our exercise books for Maths and German come complete with shiny star stickers which the kids can use to mark work they’ve finished.
Juno, however, decided that instead they’d make a great accessory.
Whether she’s being creatively fashion-forward, or simply rocking her own take on an Indian bindi, the effect certainly made us all smile.
Full marks for innovation, and it’s nice to know that even very grown-up twelve-year-olds still enjoy playing with stickers. 🙂
A hundred days can seem like a very long time, especially if you’re a first grader. Which is all the more reason to celebrate a special milestone: Thursday 27th January was the kids’ 100th day in school since starting at IMS last summer.
The 100th Day celebrations originated in the United States where, in the 1970s, a teacher decided to mark this defining moment with her class. The idea spread rapidly, and now the event is held worldwide (it’s nice to think that many other Berlin school-kids were celebrating at the same time as us, too).
Traditionally, all activities have something to do with the number 100. As you can see, crafts, maths, art and games were all on offer, and just so that no one felt left out, the 2nd and 3rd graders joined in the fun.
It probably goes without saying that one of the best moments was the unveiling of the cupcakes you can see at the top of the page (obviously we all wanted to eat a hundred of them, but sadly, that just wasn’t possible).
After 100 days in class, the IMS teachers have something to reflect on, too.
The pandemic, of course, is still very much present, but despite the challenges for children and staff, our first one hundred days have been filled with achievement, enthusiasm and joy. As the kids themselves will tell you: every day spent at school is cause for celebration.
There’s nothing more personal than our names. After all, they belong to us and are a big part of who we are.
It also turns out that we can use them in a surprising number of ways at school. Not just on exercise books, or at the top of a worksheet, but in cool projects that everyone seems to enjoy.
Take, for example, a maths task with a difference – an exciting way for the 4-6 kids to learn about heights, widths and angles.
All the children drew out their names carefully using just straight lines, then pencilled in all the measurements, paying particular attention to the angles created by the letters.
Colouring the results added to the fun.
In another unusual maths activity, we even found a way to convert names into fractions.
How? Let’s use GABRIEL as an example.
The whole name consists of seven letters, so in this case the denominator (the bottom number of the fraction) is
7
The next step is to count the total number of vowels.
The answer, of course, is three – A, I and E. This number goes above the denominator to give the final result:
3 /7 (three sevenths) of the letters in Gabriel’s name are vowels.
Cool, right? Below you can see Lena’s exercise, where she has worked out the number of vowels and consonants in her name as fractions:
Finally, in a further name-based project – this time for Art – the kids were asked to transform their names into colourful cardboard sculptures.
As you can see, the results were as inventive and individual as the kids themselves – a way to quite literally see every child’s different personality.
So what’s in a name? Much more than you might think!
Art is an important part of school life at IMS. Year after year we produce some immensely talented artists – several of whom have won coveted places at secondary schools with a fine art emphasis – but it’s also a subject that all the kids seem to do well in. (Given the right kind of encouragement and tuition, everyone can be creative, right? Or maybe there’s just something extra-special in the IMS water).
Recently, we were particularly impressed by the wonderful paintings produced by Amethyst class (1-3), which we happened to spot on a visit to the downstairs art room.
The kids’ versions of one of Van Gogh’s famous sunflowers paintings were gorgeous: beautifully painted, and as vibrant and joyful as the original. In fact, just the kind of thing we all need at the moment to brighten up these dark, wintry days.
The kids can mix colours incredibly well, and have a grasp of technique that’s really unusual among younger students.
Several of the children are already showing a real talent for art (what is it about IMS?!), but credit also has to go to Frau Pakhuylu, who has done a wonderful job of teaching the kids how to paint and draw in her always-inspiring classes.
If the students are now so confident that they can tackle a Post-Impressionist masterpiece with ease, I wonder what magical works they’ll produce in future?
Somehow, New Year’s Eve already feels like a distant memory, but it’s still not too late to showcase our post-holiday art project in 4-6, a New Year’s greeting with a twist.
The brief was to create a short movie using the words ‘Happy New Year 2022’. Which probably sounds easy, but I also asked the students to film their message in the most creative way possible.
I gave the kids a few examples, such as how to unexpectedly reveal words and numbers, or form text using objects in the classroom.
The children were then let loose with nothing more than an iPad and their imaginations.
Needless to say, everyone came up with great ideas of their own, and here’s a small selection of the finished projects.
Thanks, kids, for your super movies.
And here at IMS News we’d also like to say thanks to all the readers who have given us so much positive feedback and encouragement over the last few months. Hopefully you’ll keep reading throughout 2022!
Aurelia has chosen her top songs for 2022: have fun listening!
We love this song, and you can sing to it.
This song is really amazing and we put it in the top eight because it’s so cool.
This song is named ‘Shape of you’ and you can dance to it really well.
Havana is an old song but it’s really fun to dance with it.
‘Holy’ from Justin. It’s kinda sad but we all like it.
Eminem is cool and it’s really old. Sometimes he explains about his life in his songs.
‘Hold on’ is a really good song and it is really good to sing with.
Lonely is a really sad song but you can sing to it really well.
Thank you for listening to the top eight in our playlist.
By Aurelia, and a little bit from Freya.
“Fudge Series” by Judy Blume. Reviewed by Eric Dougherty
Recently, I read a really fun book series with five books. The series is about a boy named Peter Hatcher and his little mischievous brother Farley Drexel Hatcher who likes to be called Fudge. The book series is written by Judy Blume.
The first book is called ‘Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing’. In that book, Peter is 9 years old and gets a tiny baby turtle at his friend’s birthday party. Peter’s 2-year-old brother Fudge swallows the turtle, which makes Peter very angry and causes trouble for the whole family. The book takes place in New York City.
The second book is called ‘Sheila the Great’. It is written from Sheila Tubman’s perspective. Sheila is Peter’s neighbour in their apartment building in New York and they also go to the same school. Peter doesn’t like Sheila because she always pretends like she knows everything better. Sheila travels to Tarrytown, Rhode Island, to stay there for the summer and faces some of her greatest fears: spiders, dogs, the dark and water.
The third book in the series is called ‘Superfudge’ and also takes place in New York City. In that book, Peter’s mother is having a little baby whom everyone calls Tootsy. Fudge is not happy about the baby because now he does not get everyone’s attention like before. In ‘Superfudge’, Fudge also gets a talking myna bird. He names it Uncle Feather and teaches it all sorts of naughty things to say.
The fourth book in the series is called ‘Fudge-a-Mania’. In that book, Peter is 12 years old and Fudge is 5. Peter travels to Princeton with his family and is shocked when he finds out that he has to share a house with Sheila Tubman. In Princeton, Uncle Feather escapes from his cage. Fudge is very sad and the whole family is looking for Uncle Feather. Will they find him?
Finally, the fifth book is called ‘Double Fudge’. In this book, Fudge suddenly gets really obsessed with money. Fudge and Peter also meet their ‘long lost cousins’. One of them is also named Farley Drexel and looks just like Fudge. Mini-Fudge also acts like the original Fudge, because he also does lots of crazy things. The book takes place in all kinds of different places, but most of it happens in New York City and at the money press in Washington.
The first, third, fourth and fifth books are written from Peter’s point of view, and the second book is written from Sheila’s perspective.
I recommend the Fudge series to other readers because I found it hilarious and you could feel Peter’s annoyance and Fudge’s temptation to come up with new nonsense all the time.
