Weekly Newsletter December 2, 2010

Poetry On Wednesday, December 1 many students in the Middle School participated in a poetry recital competition organized by our German Language Department Chair, Andre Biesel with the support of the Zentralstelle für das Auslandsschulwesen (Z.f.A). The competition, which took place in the Library in front of a large audience of students and parents, focused on the art of recital. All students had to recite two German poems and were evaluated on such elements as expression, pronunciation, enunciation, posture, memorization, and the pace and flow of the presentation. The panel of judges was made up of Peter Metzger (Head of School), Maike Silver (PYP Coordinator), Elke Rühl (Regional Director from Z.f.A) and Uschi Dörre (German Consulate of San Francisco). The parents and students watching the presentations, as well as the panel of judges, were highly impressed by the quality of the student participants. Elke Rühl from the ZfA, who visits many schools and was formerly a Gymnasium teacher of German, commented that the quality of the presentations was as good as any she had seen in a German Gymnasium and the overall academic level of the Middle School was impressive. The winners, listed below, received books as their prize.

Grade 6 Mario Blecken 1st place

Daniel Hausen 2nd place

Gabrielle Krohn 3rd place

Grade 7 Alexandra Wendker 1st place

Marc Joshua 2nd place

Philip Hausen 3rd place

Grade 8 Lisa-Lotte Bensen 1st place

Olivia Pintz 2nd place

Sara Groenke 3rd place

All participants received a certificate and carry bag from the German Consulate. Compliments go to Andre Biesel for organizing this outstanding competition for our Middle School students.

News from the Head of School

Enrollment Season Approaching

Many thanks to all the parents that came to our Open House on November 20^th and to the GAIS Choir for their wonderful performance. The event resulted in a further 20 names being added on our interested families list and allowed our own parents with a chance to look at classrooms and hear about other sections of the school. Always well attended was the High School panel and we thank our ex-students Kai Schuster, Camilo Delay and Eric Pyka for their participation. The enrollment period is fast approaching and information and forms for the re-enrollment of current students for the upcoming school year 2011/2012 will be sent to you in your mail folders before the holiday. Re-enrollment for current students starts on January 4th. Sibling enrollment starts on February 1^st and parents wishing to enroll siblings should have application forms in to the office as soon as possible. Please remember that the school offers a referral fee of $500 for new families that enroll at GAIS. Should you have any questions, please contact the office.

IB Corner by Maike Silver

Currently, most classes have started their third Unit of Inquiry. "How the world works" is the transdisciplinary theme for the exploration of light in Grade 1 and of climate in Grade 4. In our Vorschule, students are exploring a variety of traditions, while Grade 5 students investigate human body systems under the transdisciplinary theme "Who we are." Communication through writing in Grade 2, and the performing arts in Preschool and in Grade 3 are the big concepts explored under "How we express ourselves." Choosing different concepts under the same theme is what helps students make connections to the big picture issues of our world, allowing them to bring in their prior knowledge and extend their thinking to a higher level.

I would also like to mention that the new unit information has not been posted yet due to changes in the website layout. It will be updated as soon as possible.

Preschool Corner by Heike Schmalstieg

Pennies for Peace

In the past years GAIS has supported the Pennies for Peace program (more info at IKAT.org), where students and families collect pennies which will later be collected, counted and sent to the Central Asia Institute (CAI). One penny can buy a pencil in Pakistan and so the program had its name! CAI, founded by Greg Mortenson is a registered non-profit organization that promotes and provides community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Preschool staff is a big supporter of this program and will talk to the children about why they are collecting pennies, starting out by reading the picture book by Greg Mortinson: "Listen to the Wind". All you have to do is bring in any spare pennies you may have lying around. We will start collecting them in the next week and continue until the end of the school year. At the end we will let you know how many dollars we have collected! All the Preschool and many of the school classrooms will have jars for you to drop in your pennies. If you have any questions about our Pennies for Peace campaign, please feel free to contact Dunja or Carol in the Preschool. Thank you for all those pennies in advance!

Host Families for Interns

GAIS regularly has a number of interns working with out teaching staff as a means of gaining experience in an international context. Interns are University students studying education and many have exceptional training and motivation. They are a great help to teachers and provide support for our students. They also help out in the home with homework and child care. Detailed information about the internship program is available from our website under careers. We are currently looking for Host families for both this year and the new school year starting in August. If you are interested in hosting an Intern, please contact the office at offmgr@gais.org.

Vorschule Unit "Shelters"

Kids' City The Vorschule classes finished their unit on shelters with the construction of a "Kid's City". Each child built their "dream house" featuring several fun elements (like slides on the roof or pools for example). Together the class added further buildings and places, such as a beach, a store, a playground, a school, a police station, and connected everything with streets.

Winterfest - Saturday December 4 from 2-5 PM

All parents, relatives and friends are cordially invited to our Annual Holiday Festival, called Winterfest, on December 4, 2010 from 2 - 5 pm. This festive event at GAIS includes a variety of activities as well as a chance for our community to get together and celebrate the many cultural manifestations associated with the winter season. We will have a German Christmas market set up in our gym with lots of exciting items for the holidays. The children will have fun making ornaments and little presents in two classrooms set up as crafts workshops. German Food and baked goods as well as hot drinks will be for sale and performances by the GAIS students will get you into the holiday spirit. Some rain is on the horizon so please come prepared.

Sing with Ragazzi!

Ragazzi Currently four boys from GAIS sing with the Ragazzi Boys Choir. They are Julian Scigliano, Brady Kiesling, Ethan Yang Feng and Julian Blecken. The Ragazzi Boys Chorus offers a complete music education for boys with choral/vocal and theory instruction. Ragazzi performs its own concert series and tours worldwide. If your boy is between 7 and 10 years, come to our half-day SingFest! on January 8^th,2011. For more information on this you can visit www.ragazzi.org or get a parent's point of view by contacting Andrea Blecken at (650) 862 0585.

Race to Nowhere Showing

Race to Nowhere GAIS will be showing the controversial documentary on the state of today's education on Tuesday, December 14th at 7 PM in the Gym. This is a free event for parents, relatives and friends of the school. Space is limited so please RSVP to Manu Hipkins at manu.hipkins@att.net to guarantee a seat.

End of Unit 2 Assembly

An assembly to mark the end of the second IB unit took place on Wednesday, November 24^th. All students in VS to Grade 5 had the chance to share what their class did during the unit. End of unit assemblies are a great opportunity for our students to develop their presentation skills and gain confidence in speaking in public. They are also a good way for students to share their work and knowledge attained during the unit. A nice example of the integration of subjects in the PYP was shown by the Grade 4 students who compared world religions with the use of a venn diagram.

Fratello Marionettes

Puppet Theater

During our drama unit, the Preschool invited a professional puppet theatre. The Fratello Marionettes gave a performance for all Preschool classes in the gym. The two players gave a fantastic performance of three classic fairy tales, "The Three Little Pigs", "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Tortoise and the Hare". All three stories were interwoven into one, accompanied by the the music "Carnival of the Animals" by the French Composer Camille Saint-Saens. The stories had no words but came to life with the unique characters of the puppets, their gestures and movements. The children were spellbound by these very talented puppeteers. After the show, the children were able to ask questions and inquired into how the puppets are made and how they move them, if they can try-out the marionettes, if they also knew how to build a volcano and many more. The show was a truly enriching experience for all.

SMV Winter Week by Alexa Joshua Grade 8

The SMV is organizing a Winter Week from December 13 - 17. This means that we will host a variety of activities in the last week before the Winter Break. On Monday, December 13 we will have holiday face painting during the lunch break. Also, the Middle School will begin a "Secret Santa" where the students will have to buy a present for a classmate in the Middle School. On this day students will pick a name out of a jar. On Tuesday we will play "Santa says" which is similar to "Simon says" during lunch break. On Wednesday the school decided to have a "red and green theme", where the students will wear something red and/or green to school. For Thursday the Middle School students will trade their presents. On the last day of the school, we will have a hot chocolate sale after school starting at noon. Please remind your kids to bring a bit of cash. Happy Holidays!

German Book Fair Orders Have Arrived

Please pick up the books you have ordered at the GAIS German Book Fair. You can pick them up in the Library during the opening hours Monday 8am to 3 pm, Tuesday and Friday 8 am to noon and Wednesday and Thursday 8 am to 2 pm. The Library is also open during the Winterfest from 2 to 5 PM. If you need a special arrangement for pick up, do not hesitate to contact Jana Seidel at jseidel@gais.org.

For newsletter information, questions or article submissions, please contact Dagmar Stullich at offmgr@germanamericanschool.org. or call the office at 650-324-8617.

back to top