Carnival (and ballet!)

Hello everyone! 

It’s Juno and Nina and we are both going to write about carnival!! 

Nina is the one dressed as a pink princess! 

Today was Fasching (carnival) and the kids from 1 to 3 dressed up as different characters, super heroes, princesses and more.

Today’s newspaper is very special, and we also have a video that Nina made herself!  The piece of music she was dancing to was called Eugene Onegin Op 24 Act III Polonaise, written by Tchaikovsky.

Today was really fun for everyone because they got to eat cake and party for the whole day!! The 4 to 6th graders didn’t, but we were ok with it because instead we went to the natural history museum for the whole day.  

The historical origin of carnival is obscure. It possibly has its roots in a primitive festival honouring the beginning of the new year and the rebirth of nature, though it is also possible that the beginnings of carnival in Italy may be linked to the pagan Saturnalian festival of ancient Rome.

Nina and me especially love carnival because of all the color, but now because of Covid19 we can’t celebrate like we used to.  

Hope you liked what we wrote and Nina’s dance performance (which she choreographed all by herself)! 

❤️💛💚💙💜🖤

Thank you to: Marie (because of the costume) Nina (dance performance) Mr.Brennan (ideas).

Art meets Science

An art display and a wealth of scientific facts: yesterday, the kids in 4-6 set up a wonderful exhibition, the culmination of several weeks of research, planning and hard work.

The project began with the class teachers providing an overview of sciences including chemistry, biology, physics, medicine and astronomy.

The kids then chose their favourite science and, working in small teams, found out as much as possible about its history and the famous people associated with its development.

Having summarised these findings in a fact-sheet written in both German and English, as a final step – the arty part! – the kids were given a canvas and asked to paint an allegory of their science.

Allegorical paintings generally use stylised images of people to represent a concept (wisdom; beauty; astronomy), and for this reason Frau Pakhuylu provided a special lesson on drawing the human face and mixing skin tones in paint.

The resulting works of art were fantastic: full of skill, symbolism and inventiveness.

As an extra bonus, the kids presented their work to the 1-3 students, who were eager to see the paintings and learn about the different sciences.

We also had a visit from our lovely bookkeeper, Frau Schöttler, and our equally wonderful secretary, Frau Frank. Towards the end of the afternoon, parents stopped by to see the show, too.

Art meets Science… we think you’ll agree that this unusual combination adds up to fascinating new knowledge plus a LOT of fun!

My fabulous students

There doesn’t seem to be much happening in this video. But that, in fact, is precisely the point.

I often ask the kids to work as quietly as possible. After all, most tasks require real focus and, in my experience, it’s difficult for anyone to concentrate if there are too many distractions.

However, I was even more pleased than usual with my English group this morning. The children handed out their books, found a place to sit and then, quite simply, began to work. No disturbances; no fuss; no prompting from me.

Don’t get me wrong – the kids are always well behaved, and put incredible effort into their lessons. But today I could have heard a pin drop as they settled down perfectly, all by themselves.

Of course, I also give the kids plenty of opportunities to chat – in English, preferably 😀 – as well as play games, do group-work and generally have fun. And on this occasion, I later treated them to a short movie, because they really deserved to relax.

A fitting end to a class in which they not only worked beautifully, but (once again) made their teacher very happy indeed.

Getting smarter at IMS!

So many great changes have happened at IMS in the last couple of years.

We’ve opened a fantastic space for the 4-6 students, as well as creating a new, improved playground for the whole school. We’ve revamped and reorganised the Hort rooms, and turned the former library into a multi-purpose classroom with a beamer and screen.

To top it all, a few weeks ago modern smartboards were installed in 4-6 – not just a fantastic tool for the teachers, but something the kids feel proud of, too.

The newspaper group decided to make a video demonstrating a few of the things the boards can do.

Thanks to Freya and Aurelia for their presentation, and to Juno for creating the movie.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY ❤️

Hi, this is Freya from the newspaper, this is a message for all the lovers out there because today is the most romantic day of the year!

Why?

Because people celebrate this day with their wives or husbands, or girlfriends and boyfriends. They give cards and presents, they have dinner at fancy restaurants. Sometimes, you even get cards anonymously, which means you do not know who the card is from.

Here is the story….

Valentine’s Day is named after Saint Valentine, a Catholic priest who lived in Rome in the 3rd Century.

At the time of Valentine’s life, the Emperor Claudius II made a strict law saying that Roman soldiers could not get married. But St Valentine began to marry these soldiers in secret ceremonies and this was the beginning of his reputation for believing in the importance of love.

Eventually Emperor Claudius found out and put Valentine in prison. While he was there, Valentine cared for his fellow prisoners and also his jailor’s daughter. Many people believe that they fell in love with each other and that his final act before being killed was to write her a love message signed ‘from your Valentine’.

Here you have some links to find out about the history of Valentine’s day.

New! Wie kann ich die Zeitung auf Deutsch lesen?

Kids just wanna have fun

We’ll admit it: what with the recent holiday and the dreary, uninspiring weather, we’ve been unusually short of news in the last few weeks.

No doubt this will change as the kids embark on exciting new projects and events, but in the meantime, here are a few snaps of an impromptu chalk-drawing session in the playground.

It was the older kids who took part (one of whom brought the chalks to school just for this purpose) and that, in fact, was what made it endearingly special.

Sometimes the level 5 or 6 students seem SO grown-up that it’s nice to know they can still enjoy themselves drawing pictures on the tarmac (or, indeed, sticking stickers where they shouldn’t).

Apart from the evidence of some rather sophisticated artistic skills, the ‘flash mob’ of artists was simplicity itself. A fun activity organised by the kids, for the kids.

Isn’t that what playtime is all about?

New! Wie kann ich die Zeitung auf Deutsch lesen?