Come on in, it’s Reading Day

Friday 18th November was Reading Day, and this year’s celebration of all things book-related was bigger and better than ever.

One of the main highlights were our ‘book doors’, with the students decorating classroom doors to look like a specific book, or to reflect a favourite reading theme.

As you can see, the children’s hard work and enthusiasm really paid off, and all the students took turns to visit each others’ classrooms and view the results of this wonderfully novel 🙂 idea.

Another important aspect of the event is the fact that, in the morning, teachers and parents read to the kids. In the afternoon, it’s the older students’ turn to read aloud to the younger children, making sure that they’ve picked a book the little ones will love.

In between, various other activities take place, and the choice this year was particularly impressive, ranging from bookmark-making and writing book reports to a lively book exchange bazaar.

Special thanks to Ms Bergquist and Frau Jäger for organising a super day!

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!

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?

100 days at school (and a hundred reasons to celebrate)

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.

All the fun of the Christmas fair

Ho, ho, ho! Today was a very special day for the whole school: we held a sparkly, tinselly, heart-warming Christmas fair complete with tickets, games, prizes and plenty of home-made cakes.

The event was organised by the kids in 4-6, who spent a week preparing for the occasion. The fun yet demanding schedule involved carefully planning the activities, then designing and constructing the games in small teams.

As you can see, the results were fantastic – ingenious works of art with a wonderfully Christmas feel. As an added challenge, the kids were asked to prepare precise player instructions in both German and English, receiving help, if needed, from their teachers.

On the big day itself, all the children from classes 1-3 were given visiting time-slots, with tickets available for just a few cents.

A stamp was added for each game played, and once three stamps had been collected, the ticket owner could help themselves to goodies from the enormous cake and biscuit buffet (thanks, parents, for all your delicious contributions).

Many extra prizes were offered at each stand, so every child left the fair feeling very happy (and full!) indeed.

After a morning of fun, the event drew to a close and the 4-6 students were excited to discover that they had raised a substantial amount of money – a fitting reward for all their hours of careful planning and hard work.

Now they’ll have to decide exactly how to use their earnings, but a visit to the Jump House seems to be a current favourite option.