First Real Days of School!

This past week was the first week the students came into school. We have 21 students all between 8 and 9 years old. They were excited to see each other and when they came in they were all chattering in German. We had a pretty good first day. None of them misbehave, but they ALL love to talk... I'm sure that once they get the routine down they won't be as rambunctious.

That afternoon I traveled to the lower school to watch the Schultute ceremony. This is a German tradition in which students who are entering their first year of school receive candy and gifts in the cone shaped schultute. (Think really big party hat full of goodies) The ceremony was really cute. Moms and Dad were wandering around crying while 5 year olds dig through schuletute's as big as they are. (Not kidding, some of these schultutes were three to four feet tall.

I went to the grocery store on Monday afternoon. That was quite an adventure as all of the food labels are in German; I ended up guessing on a few things. I found what I hoped was yogurt and bought a few of them. (They, thankfully, turned out to be yogurt and very good). I also purchased what I thought was shredded mozzarella cheese for my pizza and ended up with some kind of shredded swiss. (Very odd tasting on a pizza). The other issue was that whatever I bought, I had to carry the three blocks home. This meant I couldn't buy heavy things like milk or any bulkier items. The other different thing about grocery stores here is that they generally don't provide you with bags or bag your groceries. You are expected to bring your own bags.


So on my walk to and from school I take a short cut through a small neighborhood. Around the neighborhood is a little green gate with very stern signs on it. (See pictures) At first I didn't take the signs seriously. I'm in the middle of a huge city, why would there be wild boars? I was thinking that maybe there had been a sighting once and it was a rare occurrence and they had put the gate up to scare the kids into closing it. Something along the lines of, "Shut the gate or the wild boar will get you!" Apparently not. One of the other teachers at the school was telling me that the wild boars wander around the area and will charge at you if you get too close. (This has been an issue on the lower school playground since lower school is in a wooded area and they have no fence)

The rest of the week went by quickly. I helped the students paint a bench to go on the playground and worked with the students on their math exercises. Malane and I worked on our plans for the next week. I'll be teaching a lesson on solids and liquids in science, a spelling lesson, and a guided reading lesson. By the end of the week the students all know my name (I love how they say it with their little British accents!) and I'm pretty sure I know all of their names.