Newsletter 20.09.2024
After an exciting and intensive school week, we are looking forward to a long weekend. Please note that school and kindergarten will be closed on Monday, 23.09.2024 due to the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day.
The return of the Ghana Junior Mountaineers to the campus last Saturday was a complete success and the organizers around Kevin Stepper were very pleased with the great response. We are looking forward to the revived cooperation, which will also be presented at “made in Germany” on 05.10.24.
The annual company outing took place on the same day. The employees had the opportunity to rediscover Accra and round off the day on campus with delicious food, cool drinks and a dance or two.
Accra Business Mingle makes a strong debut at the Swiss Club
The inaugural Accra Business Mingle was successfully hosted at the Swiss Club on Wednesday, 18 September. The event featured presentations from three businesses, showcasing their offerings to a highly engaged audience. Additionally, 25 other participants joined the lively networking session that followed. The event was a success, underscoring the potential of the Swiss Club as a vibrant community-building space. We look forward to future mingles as this new initiative continues to foster connections and collaborations within the business community.
Dance class
We are eager to update you on the ongoing dance class at the German International School, on Tuesday for the Kindergarten and class 5/6 and a Friday session with the whole school group. The students are practicing a beautiful blend of Afrobeat, German hits and modern dance, preparing for an exciting performance on the German Days, October 5th. We can't wait to see them shine!
In the paper printing project, we looked at the wasp nests (the first paper producers) and made the last sheets of paper. While the last sheets of paper were drying, we turned our attention to parchment as a writing medium. The children were able to cut up a sheepskin, which they clearly enjoyed. The quills were then used again on the small pieces of parchment.
Join the new GISA Teen Club
Exciting News! We’re happy to announce the launch of the GISA Teen Club, where teens can have fun, make friends, and enjoy exciting activities together! Starting on Saturday, the 28th of September, from 2 pm to 5 pm, we’ll be meeting once or twice a month on Saturday afternoons to enjoy activities like bowling, laser tag, surfing, DJ sessions, fabric-making, and more. It’s going to be a blast! Children from outside the school are also welcome to join, as long as they are between 10 and 14 years old. See our flyer for more details on how to join and to explore our activities for the coming months.
Tomorrow, Saturday, 21.09.2024, the Swiss Club will open its doors again and show the Bundesliga conference of matchday 4 from 1 pm.
On 5.10.2024 we will again take part in the German Days, which are organized by the AHK in Accra. This year our motto is “Made in Germany”. In addition to delicious German food, the children will also present products that they have prepared during the project period. The children's fun is ensured by hands-on activities carried out by the pupils, teachers and the Ghana Mountaineers. We will end the evening with a brass band and a mix of German classics and Afrobeats. We look forward to welcoming many visitors!
Kindergarten and Nursery:
There was a lot going on at the nursery again last week! On Monday we celebrated a birthday. The children sang together and enjoyed the birthday cake! On Tuesday we started the new topic of colours. As an introduction, the children made colourful handprints and had a lot of fun experimenting with different colours. We also assigned different objects to the correct colours together. This playful activity helped the children to better recognise and name colours. As there is still a lot to discover and learn about colours, we will continue with the topic of colours next week!
This week in kindergarten, we continued to immerse ourselves in the world of gummy bears. We continued to practise our ‘Gummy Bear Gang’ song, learnt a gummy bear counting rhyme and made giant gummy bears. In a gummy bear experiment, we made the gummy bears grow with the help of water and in a gummy bear film we learned how they are made. We also created a ‘typically German’ poster to match the ‘German Days’, on which there are lots of pictures of things that are typically German for us. During learning time this week, we learnt various adjectives that we can use to describe our gummy bears. We also took different ‘shape trains’ to ‘shape stations’ and practised naming and recognising different shapes. Finally, we listened to a story about an enchanted forest, to which we then drew our own enchanted forests with imaginary animals. In the ‘English Club’ this week, we talked to the beginners about colours. Different things were assigned to specific colours. We also practised how to introduce ourselves. Afterwards, a short book entitled ‘swimming’ was read aloud and the content was recited together by asking specific questions. The more advanced children played the game ‘Rhyming match bingo’ in English this week. The aim is to find a matching rhyming word on their own card for a given term. On Friday we were in the sports room with some of the children and they had the opportunity to let off steam with yoga or a roller board course.
Primary school:
Grade 1/2 did sound, sources of sounds and the types of sound in Cambridge science. That's loud, quiet and no sound. Learners were able to use drums, guitar and their tables to make these types of sounds and at the end of the lesson, they did an activity where they were able to categories objects, depending on the sound. In Englishclass the students focused on the use of capital letters. They learned about when to use them, such as at the beginning of sentences, for names, and in titles. Through engaging activities, they practised identifying and using capital letters correctly. Encourage your child to look for capital letters while reading at home! Friendship bracelets can strengthen friendships and show solidarity. In ethics class we have been studying friendship since last week, and this week we tried to learn the art of braiding so that in the future we can show our friends our solidarity with a self-braided bracelet. In the next few weeks we will look at what friends should or should not do and work out other ways, apart from friendship bracelets, of keeping good friends and maintaining friendships.
This week we went to the library again in German and read to the kindergarten children, among other things. Class 4 also continued to work hard on their report so that we are hopefully well prepared for the class test on Thursday. Class 3 started with the topic of spelling rules and swung words, played their own activity and got their first tests back. Our German learners have written the test on polite forms. In maths, we continued to play mental arithmetic games and worked individually in the workbook. In English this week, the focus was on writing a story - what do I need to consider when sequencing and how do I plan a story? Laura Lützeler in English continued writing the story ‘The farmer and the monkey’. In Science, we observed the progress of our plants and learnt about the states of matter: solid, liquid and gas. In Ethics, we continued to create our own games in groups and reflected on the group work process. In swimming, we practised breaststroke and crawl and diving into the water. Everyone had a lot of fun. The Class 3/4 team wishes you all a great long weekend.
Secondary school:
We always have our class council in the last lesson of the week. We use this time to compliment and criticise each other. We want to get to know and understand each other better week by week. As teachers, we can also gain a good insight into the dynamics of the class and are happy to receive suggestions for improvement. In the DaF lessons, we continued to learn how to spell and work on the polite form. One of the highlights of this week was certainly the video shoot for one of our projects. We worked with a green screen and are now eagerly awaiting the results. More on this in the coming weeks. Since this week there is a ‘toy rental’, which Patrick Blanke-Schelle has brought to life. The class took advantage of all their services and did a really good job. Thanks to you, thanks to Patrick Blanke-Schelle. In German, we will finish the topic ‘Lügengeschichten’ next Tuesday and will then be taught by our intern Lennard Brodner, just like this week. At the same time, we're working our way through the tenses of verbs. Stay strong, you're doing really well. Year 5 have been looking at the skeleton in the human body and why it is important to have a skeleton. The learners were able to identify the parts of the bones in the skeleton and the organs that the skeleton protects. In Year 6, they looked at pollination and the different parts of a flower. In a group practical, we split a flower in half to identify the ovary and the ovule in the flower where fertilisation of the eggs takes place. This week in English, our students focused on the correct use of inverted commas. They learned how to mark dialogue in their writing to make their stories more engaging and clear. Through practical exercises, they became more confident in the correct use of inverted commas. We also practised spelling using our weekly word list. Encourage your child to use speech marks in their writing and review the word list at home!
This week, Year 7 maths students worked on rational numbers and practised calculating with positive and negative numbers. This helped the pupils to deepen their mathematical understanding. In chemistry and physics, the students learnt about the properties of solutions. They recognised that solvents and dissolved substances come together to form a solution and were able to explain the differences between solutions and mixtures. The physics lessons focussed on light, reflection and mirrors. The students learnt the difference between real and virtual images. In German lessons, students explored the concepts of direct and indirect speech. They practised conveying conversations accurately and discussed the importance of these forms of speech in prologues to introduce stories and shed light on context and characters. In addition, the play equipment loan service was introduced this week. Year 7 were positive about this new concept and appreciated the scheme giving them more responsibility.
Outlook:
Mon, 23/09/2024 Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day - no school dayWed., 02.10.2024 Years 1 - 7 Inclusive workshops with ‘Football in your Life’/Bundesliga
Thu, 03.10.2024 Day of German Unity - no school day
Sat., 05.10.2024 ‘Made in Germany’ school festival as part of the AHK's ‘German Days’
Tue, 08.10.2024 AGM
Wed., 09.10.2024 Faces of Football: Football workshop for girls with former national football player Petra Landers in cooperation with Sparkassenstiftung
Mon, 14.10.2024 - Fri, 18.10.2024
Fri, 18.10.2024 Autumn holidays
Mon, 21.10.2024 First day of school after the autumn holidays (according to plan)
