News for Parents

Working closely together with the parents is an important part of our pedagogical work at the IGS to ensure the best possible transparency and communication.
For this reason, the parent representatives of the U6 area met on Monday and had the opportunity to contribute their ideas and suggestions for the next topics of the upcoming “Coffee with us” meetings. 
The focus of the suggestions was clearly on the criteria for school readiness, the promotion of the German language at home as well as regular and topic-related excursions.
We thank you very much for your input and look forward to welcoming you again soon at our “Coffee with Us” with information and answers to your topics and questions.

Well, poetry week 2023 is done and dusted. This year we had many entries from all age groups throughout the school which were posted all over the school. In some cases, students jumped onto the bandwagon during the week, and their poems were added to the collection as welcome additions.
A big thanks goes to all the teachers who made space in their calendars and schedules for encouraging students to write the poetry.This would not have been possible without their cooperation.

“A school internship – a school assistant – How do I best organize the time of the students?”
To answer this question, the teachers at the IGS were offered a workshop this week. Andreas Hänssig, contact person for International Teacher Education at our long-standing cooperation partner, the Goethe University in Frankfurt, was able to explain the importance of co-teaching and forms of implementation in a very practice-oriented manner.
We would like to thank Mr. Keller and Ms. Schaffer for organizing the workshop and for their commitment to our school’s internship concept. Special thanks go to Mr. Hänssig for the time he has spent conducting the workshop.

By Monday morning, March 21, the entire school campus will be flooded with an abundance of poetry, ranging from love poems to French poems, to poems about dragons and identity. This year, there are already numerous poems ready to be displayed around the school this Saturday.
Poetry is a powerful form of art that uses language to evoke emotions, convey ideas, and capture the essence of the human experience. It can be a valuable tool for personal development and self-discovery, helping us explore different perspectives and connect with others. Through poetry, we can tap into our deepest feelings and experiences, from joy and love to sorrow and loss. Poetry also inspires creativity and imagination in both writers and readers, promoting empathy and a sense of community.
Poetry can play a vital role in shaping our sense of identity by reflecting our personal experiences and cultural background. Next week, the entire IGS community will have the opportunity to experience the transformative power of poetry in all its forms.

After weeks of planning, an Open Day for the U6 area finally took place on Saturday, March 11th, 2023. At 9 a.m. the campus opened its doors to interested parents: and they weren’t long in coming. The many rooms with displays met with great interest. Rounded off by a great supporting program consisting of Zumba, treasure hunt, sculpting and creative activities, the parents were able to get a holistic impression of everyday events at the IGS. Thanks go to the help of the SV and the parents of our kindergarten and preschool children.

In order to show that the IGS school community belongs together, regardless of age, some pupils of the SV and Class 9 attended this year’s “Open Day” of the U6 area to sell delicious waffles.
The sale was also part of a charity campaign that was planned and organized independently by the students. All sales of waffles go to Vietnamese orphanages in order to be able to make at least a small contribution to equipping them. Charity work is an integral part of our SV.
At this point, a very special thanks goes to Yesunzul, Michelle, Viet, Hami, Alice and Jo, who made the sale possible with their active support!

Class 9 had the opportunity to visit Galerie Quynh in Da Kao this week. In our art classes we have been discussing aspects of ‘Magical Realism’ through character creation and world building. The gallery’s current exhibition ‘All Aboard’ celebrates 25 years of work from the artist Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng; it was the perfect opportunity for the students to explore this subject further. We were welcomed by the gallery staff as they gave the students a personalised tour of the exhibition and discussed the artist’s creative processes and influences. The students were very engaged in debating the meanings behind the work and took time to explore and sketch studies of their favourite pieces from the show.
We would like to say a huge thank you to the gallery team for welcoming us and being so accommodating. If you would like to see the exhibition it is on display until the 1st of April at Galerie Quynh, 118 Nguyễn Văn Thủ, Đa Kao, District 1.

“The world opens up to the child through movement. Step by step it takes possession of her. With the help of bodily and sensory experiences, it forms concepts: in acting it gets to know and understand causes and interrelationships”
 Renate Zimmer

In this context, the daring and fearless explorers held their first sports lesson together on Monday in cooperation with the third graders from the elementary school.
The explorers were warmly welcomed by the students and their teacher Mr. Tietz. As soon as the water bottles were put down, it started!
Together with one of the students, the explorers were allowed to stand in a hoop and the children became little birds who had to exchange their nests by speaking or nodding at their counterparts with flight movements.
Afterwards, Mr. Tietz wanted to know from the explorers which foods are healthy and which are unhealthy. Healthy foods were assigned a white cone and unhealthy ones a red one. The U6 area is very happy to be able to integrate into the sports lessons with the Primary students.

Since the beginning of the second semester we have been offering a gardening club and a problem-solving club every week.
In the Gardening Club (every Wednesday, 4.20-5.20pm) the students have been doing a variety of activities: together we have been sowing seeds, re-potting seedlings, and building a snail-shaped plant bed from bricks and cement. Our goal is to build a lush vegetable garden with lots of vegetable varieties. Thanks to Ms. Polzin, Ms. Jurischka, Mr. Kmiecik and Van (Class 8) for helping in the first few weeks. We would love to welcome new students, especially those from higher grades, to join the gardening fun anytime.
In the Problem-Solving club (every Tuesday, 4.20-5.20pm) we have been looking at interesting tricky problems from maths and science olympiads such as the IJSO. The students are puzzling over age-appropriate questions while learning new problem solving strategies and natural science concepts.
In der Problemlöse-AG, die jeden Dienstag von 16.20-17.20 Uhr stattfindet, haben wir uns mit interessanten und kniffligen Problemen aus Mathe- und naturwissenschaftlichen Olympiaden, wie der IJSO, beschäftigt. Die Schüler*innen knobeln an altersgerecht ausgewählten Aufgaben, wobei sie neue Problemlösestrategien und eine Vielzahl an naturwissenschaftlichen Konzepten erlernen.

International Mother Language Day, on 21 February every year, is a day to celebrate and protect all the languages of the world. A language is much more than just a way of communicating: language, and particularly our mother tongue, is an important part of our culture.
In order to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism, our primary and secondary students had an opportunity to work through the “International Mother Language Day Project” in their library hours where they could write the stories, record some idioms or sentences in their own mother tongue language by voice, then create QR-Codes. Finally, they got together to design some unique posters which were related to their work content.
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” –  Nelson Mandela

What was going on in the U6 area on Monday? No sign of the children. Pirates, princesses, bears and dinosaurs cavorted in the groups. That can only mean one thing: it’s carnival season in Germany and it’s a very special time of year for children.
You slip into other people’s roles and enjoy the hustle and bustle to the fullest. When else are you allowed to throw confetti around and wear creative costumes? A celebration of Carnival, Fastnacht or Mardi Gras is therefore almost mandatory – and of course this also applies to Researchers and Discoverers. Great carnival games, balloons and of course exciting costumes, celebrating together was a great pleasure for everyone involved and a nice change from everyday life. 
The carnival party, allowing the children to slip into new roles and playing with the costumes, encourages self-confidence and imagination and of course the “fifth season” is just a lot of fun. The focus of the celebrations were familiar games and activities such as the trip to Jerusalem, which put a smile on the faces of all the children.
There are many regional differences in the carnival celebrations in Germany: Carnival or Fasching? Hey or Alaaf? However, everyone agrees on one point: the festive season includes pastries made from yeast dough, fried in fat and filled with jam. Whether donuts, pancakes or donuts, the sweet delicacy is simply part of the foolish time. And the Researchers and Discoverers could also enjoy the sugary yeast balls on Monday.

Young children are naturally curious. The educators are therefore usually bombarded by numerous questions about how things work and why they happen. Young learners are naturally curious about the world around them. This natural curiosity drives them to explore and investigate, and it is the most important reason they learn.
I was even happier this week in the U6 area that FNU (formerly science lessons) can finally be offered weekly again. That’s why things got underway in House G on Monday: The explorers marveled at the effect of heat and cold on the very simple example of how water can change.
Science is an extension of the child’s everyday world. Science encourages and teaches children to discover and wonder about everything in the world around them. As children experiment and talk about what they are doing and what they have discovered, they expand their oral expression in a fun way. Having to experiment and record their investigations gives children an understanding of their world.
The U6 area is looking forward to many more great experiments and is happy to be able to firmly integrate FNU back into the curriculum.

For a long time, there has been an offer at the IGS that has unfortunately died out somewhat due to the pandemic – every Tuesday, interested colleagues met on campus for teacher sports. In the future, we would like to renew interest in college sports within the college, especially for the many new young members of the college. Because the same applies to teachers as to all professional groups: only those who are healthy and well-balanced can achieve outstanding performance in their profession. That is why teacher sport is so important. As part of this interest in renewing teacher sport times together, some colleagues created a survey in order to determine the levels of interest amongst the collegium in offering football, volleyball, yoga etc. for the teachers again.

The first week of the year of the cat is behind us. It was great to see how the children stormed the schoolyard waving happily and occupied the group rooms on the first morning. However, some small news awaited them. The U6 area had grown during the break. The educator Jennifer Ottofülling is now supporting Ms. Schoechert with the resourceful Researchers. But the clever Researchers have also grown. In addition to Tim Hoppe and Yen Nhi Nguyen, who have been supporting us for 12 months as part of a voluntary service, the U6 area is happy about the additional help of two other interns – Wiard Schmidt, who supports the pre-school building for 4 weeks as part of his teacher training, and Simon Jungbluth, who actively helps in the kindergarten.
The first week flew by! The focus was on Spring and, as is the case in the calendar, the next public holiday is not far away either: Carnival is just around the corner.