Newsletter 11.10.2024

Written on 11 October 2024

With the fall vacations, we have now reached the first stage of this school year 2024/25 and the last week before that was packed with events and experiences. We wish everyone a relaxing, exciting and enjoyable fall break. The first day of school is Monday, 21.10.2024 according to the regular timetable.

The “Made in Germany” cultural school festival held last Saturday, October 5, as part of the AHK's “German Days”, will be remembered fondly for the attractive hands-on activities, the challenging physical activities offered by the Ghana Mountaineers, the interesting presentations by the creative project groups, the lively rhythms of the GGBrassband and the delicious German specialties and coffee and cake served by the parents' representatives. With a lot of good humor, we succeeded in building a bridge from Accra to Berlin.

On Tuesday, October 8, 2024, a new Board of Directors was elected at the Annual General Meeting. We wish the Board all the best and good luck in setting the course for this school year. We would like to thank and recognize the departing members (Kristof Krahl, Treasurer and Martin Wilde, Chairman) for their voluntary commitment.

On Wednesday, October 9, 2024, an all-day event took place at GISA as part of the AHK's “German Days”. This was in cooperation with the Sparkassenstiftung, the Ghana Football Association and “Faces of football e.V.”. The former German national soccer player Petra Landers has dedicated her social project to the promotion of girls' soccer in Africa: A total of 30 girls aged 7-12 took part in the workshop. Football meets the world of finance - Sparkassenstiftung supports this project and its employees provided information and inspiration on the subject of money/saving/etc. In addition to somestudents from our school, representatives of our partner NGO Universal Wonderful Street Academy and our neighboring school in Nima, the Youngsters, also took part.

Some representatives of our school enjoyed a fulfilling and entertaining evening at the German Unity Day event at the residence of the German ambassador Daniel Krull. We are grateful for the invitation, the wonderful evening and the good cooperation with the embassy in many different areas.

Start of the second round! We crowned the first round of the newly introduced project time with great performances, sales and hands-on activities and an eventful festival, all in keeping with the project motto “Made in Germany”. The new round of projects is now taking on a wide variety of winter and Christmas themes. Elections were held on Wednesday and Thursday. The pupils chose from creative and artistic activities, a sporting highlight and a theater project. Now it's time: On to a new round! You can look forward to the results.

Fun & Run for street children

On Saturday, 26th October 2024, our school is hosting the Fun & Run for Street Children – a sponsored run in collaboration with Chance for Children. This event aims to raise funds to provide more street-connected children with access to proper education. This week, your child (not in KITA) received a sponsor sheet in school, and we kindly ask for your support in helping them find sponsors. Every contribution, no matter how small, will make a difference in the lives of these children. Please ensure that the completed sponsor sheet is returned to your child's class teacher by the latest on 23rd October.

Lantern walk

We are excited to invite you and your children to our St. Martin Lantern Walk on Thursday, 7th November 2024. The event will start with a get-together from 4 to 5 pm, where you can enjoy coffee and connect with other families. Following this, the lantern walk will take place from 5 to 7 pm, as we celebrate the tradition of St. Martin with a beautiful display of handmade lanterns and a walk around the school neighborhood. We look forward to sharing this special evening with you and your children!

Kindergarten and nursery:

In the nursery, we completed the “Made in Germany” theme on Monday by having the children make gingerbread hearts. The children really enjoyed getting creative and designing their own hearts. On Tuesday, we started our new theme of Autumn. We sang the song “Autumn leaves are falling down” and danced to it with colorful leaves. The children acted out wind with a large swinging cloth, which was great fun for them. We also put together an autumn puzzle, which the children solved with enthusiasm. At the end of the week, the children made colorful leaves and then proudly stuck their creations on our windows.

This week, the kindergarten has been working on the theme of 🍂 fall. Autumn landscapes were made with real leaves, autumn leaves were traced, leaf garlands were made and autumn trees were painted with finger paints. The handprints were used as tree trunks. In keeping with the theme, vocabulary was also expanded in both English and German. The interactive poem “way up high in the apple tree” was also practiced and recited in turns.

The song “Laterne, Laterne” 🏮 was sung together during learning time this week. Shapes 🔺🔵🟪 were also cut out together and then assigned accordingly. In addition, prepositions were learned by having the children place sheets of paper 🍁 in different places, such as; on the chair, under the table, behind a child, in the box, in front of the door and next to a child.

In DAF/DAZ, some children dealt with the topic of animals 🐘🐶🐰🦓 from Africa and Europe, as well as learning colors 🎨and the days of the week. We also looked at picture books and played games on the individual topics. The lessons were a lot of fun, there was a lot of laughing, playing and learning.

In English club this week, the beginners have been reviewing phonics A-D, singing part of the phonics song 🎶 and reading the book Monster Party and then answering questions to help them understand it. The advanced students continued to work on phonics using worksheets. This time with the letters a, s, i, t and f. The children were able to color a picture with the corresponding phonic, circle two out of four correct pictures with the corresponding phonic and then trace the respective letter 🔠. At the children's request, a round of Rhyming Match Bingo was played afterwards.

Friday was sports day at 🏃‍♀. The children went to the sports field together in the morning and played movement games. First, the children ran through a course. In another movement game, they then collected tennis balls 🎾 that were scattered all over the field and then put them in a basket.

Primary school:

Class 1/2 had another pleasant week with a lot of good ideas and creativity. This week it was also the class's turn to thank someone during the party break. The class representatives thanked the two nurses, Frau Huth and Ms Rita, on behalf of the class for their help when children hurt themselves, were sick or needed a bandaid. They handed out pictures as a thank you. This week in class, the Cambridge English group enjoyed the story "Jack's First Day." The students engaged in story retelling, To enhance the vocabulary learnt. Class 2 created speech bubbles for key moments in the story, allowing the children to express the characters' thoughts and feelings while class 1 wrote down the new vocabularies.

Encourage your child to share their retelling of "Jack's First Day" with you at home! The topic of clothing was examined in the beginner English group this week. "Trousers", "T-shirt" and the like were named and a small figure was created that was dressed in different ways and discussed. At the end, the new vocabulary could be practiced with the Anton app. In maths the children kept working in their respective number ranges. They know if they need to use material or whether they prefer doing mental maths. After the holidays year one will focus on "verliebte Zahlen". Class 2 will again represent numbers using secret writing: tens are represented by a line, ones by dots. Last but not least, the new projects were chosen! The next project period on the topic of Christmas runs until the Christmas market on 23.11.24

This week, the German learners from class 3/4 learned a new rhyme: 1, 2, Police... and worked on their family vocabulary. Class 3 with Alex Bergfeld wrote their test on syllables, and the 4th graders with Laura Lützeler also worked on syllables and learned about the tenses past, present perfect, and future. In math, the first major topic was concluded with a test, right before the holidays. This week, our English classes came together for a wonderful story-sharing session! Students had the opportunity to share their own written stories, fostering a supportive environment where everyone could learn from each other. Encourage your child to share their story and what they learned from their peers at home! In science, an experiment with sugar and water was conducted this week. Ask your child what happened.

In art, we held a small competition this week where we had to build a tower using spaghetti and marshmallows. That was not so easy at all. We particularly exerted ourselves in swimming this week, where we swam as many laps as our age. The pool is warm again, and we could even relax in the small pools at theend. For some of the girls, our Faces of Football event on Wednesday was certainly a special highlight.

Secondary school:

And the vacations are just around the corner. First of all, a huge “thank you” to all students and your families. The mood is good and we can look positively to the future. Regarding the school party last Saturday: it was wonderful to see you all together. Thank you again for your support and the different performances.

English: This week, Year 5 students focused on word lists containing homophones, while Year 6 worked on hyphenated words. They practiced recognizing homophones and using them correctly, deepening their understanding of how to use hyphens when writing words. This engaging exercise helped them to consolidate their spelling skills in a fun way.

German: We have the verbs under control so far. A nice and successful course. After the vacations, we will focus on argumentation in Year 6.

Ethics: We are continuing to look at politics and justice. How is a country run? Who sets the rules? Who gets to decide? Who suffers?

Class trip: Information will be sent out after the vacations. The date has been set: 26-29.11.2024

Enjoy the vacations and we look forward to seeing you again soon. Best wishes from the whole team!

This week, the seventh graders received their first successful German assignment back. They also worked on various practice formats for spelling double consonants and completed group work on their self-designed board games. Everyone is already looking forward to the “test games” after the fall break!

In English, the students focused on reviewing different types of texts in preparation for the upcoming reading test. They explored fiction, non-fiction and poetry, discussing the specific features and purposes of each type of text. Through group activities and individual reading sessions, the children practiced identifying important elements in the texts, which will give them more confidence for the test.

In Mathematics, the pupils worked intensively with the Cambridge Curriculum, under the guidance of Russell Ado, who was able to give them valuable insights.

We wish everyone a relaxing vacation and look forward to seeing you again!

Your class 7

Outlook:

Mon, 14.10.2024 - Fri, 18.10.2024
Fri, 18.10.2024 autumn break

Mon, 21.10.2024 First day of school after the autumn vacations (according to schedule)

Sat., 26.10.2024 Fun & Run 4 Street Children - sponsored run in cooperation with Chance for Children

Thu, 07.11.2024 4pm to 7pm St. Martin's lantern walk

Sat., 23.11.2024 3 pm to 7pm Christmas market

Fri, 06.12.2024 Farmer's Day - no school

Fri, 13.12.2024 Last day of school before the Christmas holidays

Mon, 16.12.2024 -
Tue, 07.01.2025 Christmas holidays

Mon, 16.12.2024 -
Fri, 20.12.2024 Christmas camp