December 6th is Sankt Nikolaus

Dear Parents,

On December 6^th Nikolaus is celebrated in Germany. Who was Nikolaus and why do we celebrate this day?

The following information was taken from Wikipedia:  "Nikolaus was a Saint and Greek Bishop of Myra, part of modern-day Turkey. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and thus became the model for Santa Claus, whose English name comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas."

Children in Germany will place their boots in front of the door Sunday evening, December 5^th. Nikolaus will leave a small treat or gift for the good boys and girls. This may include chocolate, nuts, tangerines, oranges or a small toy.

Enjoy!

Your German Teachers

Parent Letter

                                                                                                            November 26^th, 2010

Dear Parents,

Thank you to all of you who were able to join us this month for Portfolio Days and the Reflective Conference Day. The students were thrilled to see you and share their work and thoughts with you and the teachers.

I trust you all had an enjoyable and relaxing long weekend while the teachers had the opportunity for some outstanding professional development. We were privileged to have Dr. Anne Davies join us and share her expertise on assessment for learning. Her books have been the cornerstone of our assessment practices and it was very re-affirming to see that we are so well aligned to current, research based ideas around 'best practice'.

One visible consequence of this visit will be some revisions to our report card. We took the opportunity to consider ways to more carefully align our written, taught and assessed curriculum with our recording and reporting systems. I would like to invite everyone to a brief presentation with Mrs. Coffey at 14:30 on Thursday, December 9^th to hear a snapshot of Dr. Davies workshop as well as an overview and explanation of the newly formatted report card.

On a slightly different note, I would like to take a moment of your time to remind you of one of our most meaningful annual projects. In addition to the walk-a-thon, the Frauenhaus, a home for battered women and their children, is our second big community service project of the year. Our project begins on November 30th and ends on December 14^th. During this time we encourage our families to speak with the children about those people in the world who are not as fortunate as they are. Some of these people live in Düsseldorf and we try to help them for the Christmas Season. This year the Center asked for the following donations:

·        Small games and puzzles for different age groups.

·        CDs/ Cassettes (children's songs or radio plays in German).

·        New and almost new baby/children's clothing up to 12 year olds.

·        Arts and crafts supplies.

·        Small stuffed animals (no bigger than 30 cms./12 inches long)

·        Baby toys

Our Student Council decorates a 'Giving Tree'. All gifts are placed under the tree. The children are asked to donate something of their own from home that is in good condition, or to earn money doing chores around the house to purchase a present from the list above. We encourage parents to involve the children in choosing a gift, buying a gift and wrapping it. Parcels should be marked 'girl' or 'boy' and the age group for which it is most appropriate. The children in the center range in age from infants to twelve.

The generosity of the school community has been overwhelming in the past. Please help us make this Christmas special for these women and children who have so little. Thank you for your support during this season of giving and for helping our children learn the value of thinking about others.

Warm regards,

Alan Lorenzini

Elementary School Principal

Procedure Texts

Grade three have been exploring procedure texts. The class worked in small groups and each group had 6 samples of student procedure texts. They had to discuss and order the different texts from worse to best and then justify their order to other groups. The students identified what they considered to be the most important features of the procedural texts. Hopefully this criteria will help us create really good procedure texts for how to make our products for the Christmas Market as part of our unit inquiry.

What is 'data' and why do we use charts and graphs?

We have been exploring lots of different graphs and charts and trying to work out what they mean. Afterwards we reflected on what they were showing and why graphs and charts are used. Here are some of the student's thoughts:

Interviewing and surveying the Christmas Market Target Audience - 4th Grade

The 3rd grade have been learning some very important lessons in business. For example "It doesn't matter if you think your idea is great if the people you want to sell it to don't like it".

The students thought that they had better survey their target audience so that they had a clearer idea about what they might be interesed in buying at a Christmas Market. Many languages were spoken and technology was utilized to record and review ansers during the market research analysis stage afterwards.





Portfolio Day

The students really enjoyed having their parents into the class learning environment to discuss how and what they learn! Afterwards we used the floor mind map to reflect on why and how portfolios can be really helpful tolls to help us learn.



Identifying the basic criteria

What does a successful Christmas market look like?

After the 3rd Grade visit to the Dusseldorf Christmas Market and some shared reflection the class discussed their ideas for what their own Christmas Market will need if it is to be a success.

Here are their ideas which they organised using the 4 P's of the marketing mix:

Mrs. Jenkin's and Mrs. Zurliene's Presentations on the Marketing Mix

Grade 3 were very lucky to have Mrs. Jenkins and Mrs. Zurliene come and talk to them about the marketing mix as they begin their 3rd unit of inquiry. The students were very excited and sucked up a tremendous amount of knowledge as well as showing signs of real understanding and insight into the way products are marketed.

Here's a glimpse:

How much will it cost us?

Next Week Grade 3 are going on a trip to see the Dussldorf Christmas Markets as part of their new unit. I am trying to work out how much the tram tickets will cost as I have to go and purchase them over the weekend. I need help! I'm really hoping than some people can help me with this very difficult calculation!

A 'gruppen' tram ticket for 5 students is 11.70 euros
A student single tram ticket is 1.30 euros
An adult single tram ticket is 2.30 euros

3.1 has 21 students
3.2 has 20 students
3.3 has 22 students

How much will it cost to buy tickets for the whole of 3rd grade?

You must convince me that you are right so that I know I am paying the right price for the tickets. I wouldn't want to pay more than I should!

Thank you!

Mr. O'Farrell comes over to teach us about changing matter!

The students of 3rd Grade were very excited when the IB coordinator Mr. O'Farrell came over with lots of interesting equipment and taught them about how dirty water can be transformed.

News from the German Department

Sankt Martin

November 10, 2010

The St. Martin´s parade is on Wednesday, November 10th, 2010 in Kaiserswerth. To participate in the parade is free, but a bag of treats is available with a ticket. The tickets for the bag of treats will be on sale at the school gate from Monday through Wednesday, November 8-10 from 8:30-8:50 and 15:40-16:00. Each ticket costs €3.00.

Each child has made a lantern in school. Any child that is intending to attend the St. Martin´s Parade will need to buy a lantern stick with batteries. This can be purchased from Strauß or Max Apel in Kaiserswerth or Real, Karstadt, etc. The lantern stick should be kept at home unless your child has been asked to carry their lantern in the school assembly on November 10th.

On Wednesay, November 10^th, we will meet at 16:45 on Fliedner Straße (behind Strauß) where the parade begins. After about 45 minutes of walking through the streets of Kaiserswerth the parade will end at the German Elementary School behind Strauß.  At this time the children with a ticket will line up to receive their bag of treats in the school building. Afterwards the students may want to visit a few local shops, sing St. Martin songs and receive treats from the shopkeepers.

St. Martin´s Day is an opportunity to participate in the local community. It is common to have a parade within each suburb. Here are the parade dates for the surrounding communities. More information is available on the Internet.

Angermund: 09.11.2010

Lohausen: 06.11.2010

Wittlaer: 12.11.2010

Meerbusch-Strümp: 05.11.2010

Meerbusch-Büderich: 11.11.2010

Kalkum 14.11.2010

The ES German Teachers,

Frau Winkelmann       Frau Rabearisoa       Frau Scherpel

Frau Laute     Frau Grassnick    Herr Neas     Frau Thielmann

Senior school science experience

As part of the current unit inquiring into 'Matter can be transformed' the students of third grade went over to the senior school for a lesson with the senior school science teachers. They used electronic scales and stopwatches to conduct an experiment with candles and then another with magnesium and acid. They followed scientific principles and observed some very interesting results!