News for Parents

The IGS Community Choir was started in order to provide more nuanced music for the IGS community in traditional celebrations and formal occasions. It has recently been working on Christmas music for the IGS community.
It consists of students mainly from Classes 5, 6 and 7, with a smattering of older students – hopefully we will have more after TET. It is also supported by a core of dedicated teachers who provide the knowledge and expertise to enable the choir to embark on more difficult pieces.
The choir works hard at singing music with at least two parts, but sometimes attempts four-part harmonies.
Our next endeavour will be to sing music or the end of year concert – and we will be singing music which will include Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie’s “We are the World”, Ronald Orzabal’s “Mad World”, Beethoven’s “An die Freude” and a host of others including two traditional African songs.
We are very lucky to have the violinist, Julian Nguyen, in our choir to provide essential support where it is needed.
We hope that more choristers will join us for the second half of the year to swell our numbers and give us greater vocal strength in the future.

As the Christmas holidays approach in December, there is always a lot to celebrate and organize in this short period of time. And of course there was no exception in the U6 area this year either. As usual, there was a parent games afternoon, the Advent calendar, the Christmas celebrations and extensive preparations for the Christmas market.
On Monday, the parents visited the explorers’ and researchers’ premises on the occasion of the parents’ games afternoon. From afar you could smell the delicious aroma of the waffles that were conjured up especially for this occasion.
At the beginning of December, the groups had made their own Advent calendars, which contain new Christmas activities every day. Among other things, the Discoverers on Thursday had to bake delicious cookies, which were festively decorated with the parents at the Christmas party in the afternoon. Between the rehearsals for the Christmas play, the U6 area also had a very special visit on Tuesday: St. Nicholas found his way to the Discoverers and Researchers, and even had a little gingerbread man with him for every child!

Christmas is around the corner! It is a religious holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus as well as cultural and commercial events all across the world, it also reminds all of us of the importance of sharing and giving gifts to family and friends.
By taking this occasion, our secondary students had an opportunity to work through the “Christmas Project” to learn more about its history, culture and common activities of Christmas during their library hours. The project started off with research, then presentations, Christmas quizzes, and finally students got together to make beautiful decorations which now decorate the senior library.
Merry Christmas Everyone!

Report on the visit of a “globetrotter”

On Friday, November 18th, 2022, Class 8 was able to start a new life and discover work perspective with the visit of Mr. N. Bücher.
Mr. Bücher is running an exciting project (www.7-continents.com) which is about asking as many students as possible around the world about their wishes, fears and future views. He collects these in order to present them at the end of his trip at the UNO in New York and to draw attention to the real concerns of children and young people throughout the world.
The special thing about his trip is not just the fact that he is well known for his surveys, (he has traveled across 7 continents), but also covered his route by running all the way. His route through Europe alone covered 7,000 kilometers, which he covered on foot.
It was great to hear about his experiences and that Mr. Bücher also answered the students’ questions very honestly in a special Q&A session.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Bücher for his visit and all the organizers for their efforts!

Over the past few weeks, the children in classes 3 and 4 have been exploring the topic of fire. In addition to the history of fire, the tasks of the Fire Department, and a test fire alarm, fire was also examined up-close in the laboratory. For this purpose, the children slipped into the role of little researchers.
First, our little researchers demonstrated that they can use a match properly and received their match driver’s license. They then conducted experiments to find out what things a fire needs to burn.
Thanks to an impressive demonstration by Mr. Kmiecik, our little researchers now also know that metal – in certain states – can burn.

The IB Project Day is now an integral part of the annual planning at the IGS. The aim is to prepare the students for the IB program in Classes 11 and 12.
On the one hand, this is done specifically for the learners in Classes 9 and 10 by being informed by the IB coordinator, Mr. Reisdorf, about the IB degree and possible course choices at the IGS: on the other hand, the IB students in Classes 11 and 12 present aspects of the IB that they consider particularly important and are available for questions. In this way, our future IB learners can benefit from the experiences of current IB students.
Furthermore, students in Classes 7 to 10 were able to work on the characteristics of IB learners in six workshops based on the qualities of the IB Student Profile; questioning, knowing, thinking, communicative, principled, non-judgmental, caring, risk-taking, balanced and reflective. The IB learner profile is an integral part of everyday teaching at the IGS on this day, but is particularly emphasized because it is of particular importance for achieving the IB diploma.
Our IB students also used the day to complete their work on the IB project in science. As part of this project, the students developed and built a Rube Goldberg machine together and presented it to their classmates at the end of the IB day.
The students summed up the day as hard work and instructive, but also as interesting and stimulating. We are already looking forward to the next IB Project Day and new high school students in the coming school year!

On Saturday, December 10, 2022, the time will come again: from 4:30 p.m. the IGS will open its doors for the traditional German Christmas Market. In addition to a large Christmas tree, a glass blower and a carousel, there will again be numerous stands with typical Christmas accessories and activities for our big and small visitors.
The Christmas Market will be opened at 5:00 p.m. sharp by our little ones with the play, “The Lonely Christmas Tree”. There will then be various musical performances throughout the evening, such as our primary school choirs and our IGS Community Choir. Our school band will be heard again: fans can look forward to the new Christmas specials. Our little school band from classes 7 to 9 will have their first public performance that evening and we all hope for an appreciative audience.
You too, dear parents, are welcome to participate musically in the “Singalong at the Christmas Tree”. We look forward to enjoying the evening with you!

Under the direction of our movement and nature pedagogue as well as internal teacher Lukas Langer and the primary school team, a large game and sports Olympics of the primary school took place on Monday. This sporty and creative morning encouraged and challenged our Giraffes, Koalas, Penguins and Pirates in many different ways: the children were able to show their linguistic, mathematical, athletic and creative skills combined with teamwork and knowledge from science lessons in 10 different workshops. The children also learned what it means to learn and play in a team and across grade levels.
It was an all-round successful event, which ended with a ceremonial award ceremony and culminated in many smiling children’s faces. We are looking forward to repeating this great day; that’s what the children wished for, too, before they rushed to lunch, hungry – and perhaps a little exhausted – after so much sport and an eventful morning.
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The third Friday in November of each year is dedicated to reading aloud. Under the motto “Unique together”, the Germany-wide reading day was also celebrated again this year at the IGS. Interest in reading books can be increased in a playful way and literary skills can be further developed.
Pupils of all ages and grades had prepared interesting reading activities in different languages, which were implemented  across classes. Among other things, pupils in classes 5 – 7 presented picture books in kindergarten; others gave lectures with a suitable ambience of specially selected adventure stories; there was a scavenger hunt, role-playing games and many other great contributions.
The library team would like to thank all the students who helped organize this day and the colleagues who supported the children in the preparation and implementation. Thanks for the great posts!

The Mathematics Olympiad is a nationwide competition in which around 200,000 students take part every year. It is carried out in Germany and at German schools abroad.
The Olympics are all about having fun with the set challenges and meeting other math fans, in line with the Olympic motto “Together for a Shared Future”.
The Mathematics Olympiad happens over several rounds, with the difficulty increasing from round to round. The national round is the highlight for the best math fans from Class 8. For Classes 3 to 7, the competition ends with the national round and a big award ceremony, organized by the individual federal states.

13 students from the IGS already completed the 2nd round on November 9th. Now we are excited to see how far our math fans can go. Maybe someone will make it to the federal round, which will take place in Germany (Berlin) in June 2023. We’re all keeping our fingers crossed!

Reading aloud is part of the daily routine in almost all day-care centers. But reading aloud is not only fun: it also supports children on their educational path. In addition, listening to the little ones will become an important factor in learning to read in a few years.
On the occasion of the nationwide reading day 2022, the students of classes 6 and 7 visited the U6 area on Friday to take the Researchers and Discoverers into a world full of stories. Whether young or old, analogue or digital, for the duration of the stories, the readers and listeners experienced a common adventure and shared funny, sad and exciting moments.
While the researchers were abducted into magical winter worlds, the explorers got to know Frederick the field mouse and heard a story about different animals that shared the stable on a rainy night.
A special highlight was the self-recorded audiobook recorded by the Class 7 students which they presented to the Discovery House in the morning.

The tenth of November burst over the International German School like an explosion of joy and colour. Children were running around in various costumes; lanterns were being handed out; the smell of frying bratwurst filled the nostrils of the hundreds of people thronging every possible open space on the rain-soaked campus of IGS.

The official programme began at 5:30 with songs, plays and poetry. The school band waited impatiently to set up for their amazing repertoire, both covers and original performances.
At 6:10 pm, the long lantern lauf began, ably assisted by Class 9 and 10 students who made very able stewards prodding and guiding students, parents and teachers to the two meeting spots at Riverside. There, students and parents loudly sang traditional lantern songs.
The walk back led people to a very relaxed evening where folks caught up and chatted amiably, accompanied by the IGS band. All in all, a good time was had by all.

Some books change the world, some books change us, but the best books do both. Wondering what’s next to read? Looking for some favorite reads to fulfill your literary School Year’s resolutions?
Here at IGS, for the first time since this school year, we have started a new project “Books of the Month” in the school libraries. This project also gives avid readers a way to stay up to date with new authors and books in different languages such as German, English and Vietnamese.
The books will be recommended by our teachers and students each month. They also take this opportunity to write about their book reviews as well as design their own unique and creative posters.
“I always kept two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

In the last week, Class 5 climbed high: together with the intern, Toni Ehrig, and the class teacher, Matthias Mayr, Class 5 conquered the steep and high walls of the Saigon Climbing Center. Horizontal, vertical or diagonal – they climbed in all directions and the students had a lot of fun. Class 5 has proven that they are a strong team and are already looking forward to the next trip!

Halloween is a holiday celebrated on October 31 in many countries every year. It was believed that on that day, the souls of the dead returned to their homes, so people dressed in costumes and lit bonfires to ward off evil spirits. This day also marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death.
To celebrate this occasion, the students of classes 5-10 had started off their spooky Halloween project during the library lessons in October. They did a variety of activities such as doing research and presentations about Halloween, and making tons of creepy Halloween decorations all around the school libraries. On the 31st of October, they got together with primary students to do some face painting and watch scary movies afterwards.

Happy Halloween!

There’s only one night when you can express your creepy side and get away with it. Correct guess! Halloween! On Monday, the U6 pupils celebrated the day of scares, entertainment, thrills and madness all rolled into one. Transforming into witches, monsters, mummies, evil fairies and a terrifying pumpkin, the Researchers and Explorers all looked BOO-tiful! Whether it was spiders made out of Oreo cookies, ghosts made out of bananas, scary pumpkin face carvings or a costume parade in the Forum, the day had a lot to offer. Of course, a “trick or treating” tour could not go amiss.

November 10, 2022, 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Finally back at the IGS after two years!
Save the date!

Whether as a short section in the morning circle, or as a shared experience in the reading corner, reading or telling fairy tales as well as immersing yourself in fantastic worlds was part of everyday life for the U6 area this week. Existential questions of living together in society were addressed as well as many fantastic characters and places that initially have little or nothing to do with reality.
With the help of storybooks, hand puppets and the Kamishibai, the teachers took the children into a new world teeming with princesses and princes, queens and kings, witches, dwarfs and magicians.
The children took the opportunity to slip into some fairy tale costumes themselves in order to experience these magical stories for themselves. The highlight of this week was a tempting-looking gingerbread house, just like the witch in Hansel and Gretel owned.