Story Competition Prizegiving in the City Parliament

The Bremen Reading Initiative (Leselust) set a challenge for students to write their own stories about childrens books -both old favourites and less well known books.

15 pupils from classes 2b,4a and 4b responded with fantasy filled stories about their favourite books. Their hard work was well rewarded with a 600 Euro book voucher for our school library!

Lea, Philine, Paul,Marie and Charlotte were invited to the prizegiving ceremony at the City Parliament in the Market Square, where they had the opportunity to sit in the place of Bremens` politicians and receive their prizes. Maries story was even presented by the actor Dirk Böhling!

The book certificate will be transferred to Melchers Bookshop in January. Our Childrens Parliament already has a long wishlist of books requested by the kids at school!

Information eveníng

On Monday 9th January we are holding an information evening for parents of next year`s first graders. This will be at eight o`clock in the music room. Afterwards the classrooms of this year`s first grade will be open for parents to have a look round. Of course teachers and parents reps will be there to help and to answer any questions.

Parents Donate Reading Material

In November the parents of the second graders attended a seminar on how to help their children with reading and writing. They made a generous (voluntary!) contribution of seventy five euros and with this money we have bought some useful reading material. Once again, thank you to all those who helped with this.

Creative Numbers

In the foyer you can see an interesting exhibition `Math and Art`. Four classes, 2a,3b,3c and 4b, have been working on this theme. The pictures all come under the umbrella of the the project `Math Journeys - Discovering Maths in Your World`. A more detailed report about this project can be found at www.matheforscher.de

The First Book

Just like every year for the last ten years, `The First Book`appears just before Christmas. It is a collection of stories and pictures created by third graders from different schools, for first graders. From our school, Henrike, Anton and Catherina have contributed. All first grade children will receive a copy of this book as a present.

Christmas Singing on 15th December

Our traditional Christmas singing is on the 15th December at 7 o`clock p.m. in the gym.
We will be entertained by:

The Zwitscherling (Ms van der Bent)
Getekids (Grade 3 - Ms Adler)
Getekids(Grade 4- Ms Krivec)
The String Orchestra (Ms van der Bent)
The Parents Orchestra (Ms Rüskamp)

There will be new songs to listen to and old favourites to sing along to.

Because the evening will be a little late and maybe the children won`t go straight to sleep afterwards, they don`t have to come to school until 8.50 the next morning. However, for those children who need to come at the usual time of 8.00 the classes will be supervised ,there`s no need to put your name down, just turn up.

Dear parents, please help us to ensure that everything runs smoothly! The children who are in the choirs need to sit at the front with their choir leader. We request that all the other children sit next to their parents and don`t run around the hall. Thankyou all for your co-operation!

Peter and Petra on the Way to Cork in Ireland

On Friday 25th November Ms Witte, Ms Röbbeling and Mr Hokema collected the Icelandic Petur from the teachers of Korpuskoli in Reykjavik and carried on with our Peter and Petra to Cork in Ireland.

The first theme is how Christmas is celebrated in different countries. Over the next two years Peter and Petra will be in Bergen (Norway), Jamsonkoska (Finland) and Galway (Ireland). We are all looking forward to their travel reports!

Comenius Meeting in Iceland

Peter and Petra went to Iceland yesterday. It snowed there and they visited a super school!

Gete-Chessteam. Two Wins at Start of Season!

For the third year running Gete Chessteam took part in the Bremen Championship in the Under- 12 section. We started in the B-Class, progressed to the A-Class and , in the last season , achieved 2nd place. The competitors are mainly club teams.

In this competition the thinking time is one hour per player per match, so they can learn to plan more of their moves in advance.

The first day of the championship 2011/12 was on Saturday 19th November in Willms Gymnasium, Delmenhorst.

The Gete team won two rounds each with 3:1 points first against St Joseph`s School and then against SK Bremen West II.

Jakob R(4b), Malte K(3a), Jan Gregor(4b), Fynn L (4a) and Johann D (4a) already have competition experience, while Moritz played the first competition match of his life and won!

Ecumenical Celebration

For the first time the Ecumenical Celebration went ahead without Pastor Leube. He has led the event for many years now and has really become a part of this celebration.

However, Ms Zaremba(St Ursula - Catholic Church) and Ms Schneider-Sema(Jona - Evangelist Church) have proved to be worthy successors.

The Ecumenical Celebration is a special mixture of theatre, music and spirituality which never fails to touch the hearts of all, children and adults alike.

4b (Ms Timm), the choir(Ms Adler and Ms Krivec) together with the parent`s orchestra(Ms Rüskamp) worked in harmony to create a wonderful atmosphere. This year`s scenery was especially good.

Seminar for Parents of Second Graders

The language advisors Ms Scholz and Ms Diekmeyer invited the parents of the second grade to a seminar called `Difficulties with Learning to Read and Write - How Can Parents Help?`
Over two Thursdays parents were taught about the basics of acquiring writing and language skills, and the teaching principles used by our school. There was the opportunity to discuss with the language experts and Ms Meyer , the class teacher of 2c, how parents can support these principles at home.
To cover costs the parents made a voluntary contribution , which raised 75 Euros. This money will be used to buy early reading books and materials for diagnosing reading problems . Thanks for all contributions.
Because this seminar was so well received it will now run every year for parents of 2nd graders.

Reading Bags for the First Grade

The first grade had a visit from the second grade today.For every new pupil there was a beautifully painted reading bag. The bags had been kindly filled by Melchers Bookshop in Schwachausen. Ms Nehen didn`t hesitate to hand the bags out - 'The Strongest Olchis in the World' and 'The Best ABC Stories' will certainly motivate the kids to learn to read as quickly as they can. The second graders showed what they could do and soon the room was full of absorbed readers and listeners.

Hands On Math

For two weeks the children from our school had the chance to experience math in a different way. The `hands-on` stations encouraged the development of spatial awareness skills and the puzzles and games encouraged the kids to experience math in a practical way - learning by doing. They worked their way through these activities with much experimentation, concentration and determination - even in the break, groups of children (of mixed ages) could be seen mulling over these problems together, trying to find a solution.

Over all Borders

Lots of our third and fourth graders took part in a competion for the Bremen Literature Prize for Children and Teenagers. The theme was `over all borders`. The winners were selected from 651 entrants and on the 8th November the prize giving ceremony was held in the Glocke. Out of 12 prizes awarded in the grades 1-4 category, 3 were received by children from Gete, namely, Emma Aude (in the then 4a), Jeldrik Bade and Antonia Runnebohn (both in the now 4b). Congratulations on your achievement!

1a With Safetyvests

Just in time for the dark days of winter, ADAC have given safety vests to all the children in Germany who started school this year. So, on their way to school in the morning they are much more visible than when they are wearing their ordinary clothes.
Class 1a tried their vests on straight away and the results are clear to see in the photo.

Ecumenical Celebration

The Ecumenical Celebration will be held at our school on Wednesday 16th November at 10.15. This year 4b will be presenting the story of Moses delivering his people out of slavery in Israel. Pastor Leube wrote this piece and Ms Timm has been practising with her class, with the help of Pastoral intern Zaremba from St Ursula. The choir and the parents` choir will also be taking part and the scenery was painted by all the classes.
Parents are welcome to join us.

Breaktime Concert

In the last week before the Autumn holiday there were two breaktime concerts. On Tuesday, 3b , led by Ms Adler , sang songs from all over the world.
On Thursday Ms van den Bent`s`Zwitscherling`, the second grade choir, made their debut, singing some funny songs.

Class 4b at Astrium

Classes 4a and 4b are taking part in the `Newspapers in Primary School`project and are producing a page for the `Weserkurier`. 4a are writing about animals living in the tidal shallows and 4b are reporting on their visit to Astrium.
At EADS Astrium , at Bremen Airport, class 4a gathered a lot of interesting information on the theme of `Space`. Nico Wirth and Matthias Schoenke explained Bremen`s contribution to space exploration and the class heard all about Space Lab `Columbus`, Space Transporter ATV and Ariane 5.

The School Football Finals

On the 6th October we`ve got so far : ten kids from the third and fourth grades are travelling with Ms Ackershot to the final! On the sport field at Osterholz the best footballers in Bremen`s primary schools met for the last round of the championship.
In the end we finished in ninth place. With over fifty schools taking part, this was an awesome result. Congratulations!

First Round of the Primary School Football Championship

Our school football team competed today against ten other school teams.In the end it came down to penalties and after the first round we are still in the competition!This Thursday it`s the finals with the ten best Bremen and Bremerhaven primary school teams at the Schevemoor playing fields.

We`re all keeping our fingers crossed for our team and Ms Ackershot, their trainer!

For a while now a new visitor has been causing mayhem in the playground.This cat seems to have made itself at home here with all the children. Although we have made a big effort to find out , we still don`t know where she comes from or whose cat she really is. However much they love her though, all the kids have to follow some ground rules ; the cat must stay outside, no one is allowed to feed her and, when she goes off into the bushes, they must accept that she wants to be left in peace.

Lots of kids love this cat and she gets lots of strokes and attention!

15 Years `Bärenhöhle`

The Bärenhöhle has been part of our school now for fifteen years. In the beginning there were just twelve children in before and after school care. Of course, with such a small group they also did the cooking themselves.

Every year more and more parents wanted to take advantage of the service offered and everyone involved; the school club, the head teacher and the day care staff had to adapt the concept to meet the increasing demand. They managed to overcome most of the problems that arose and today there are seventy children using the Bärenhöhle day care facility, there are five staff members to look after the kids and they don`t have to do their own cooking anymore! -the meals are supplied by `Ratatouille`.

To celebrate 15 years of the `Bärenhöhle` seventy very excited children went to `Kinder Leo`s Play Paradise` A wonderful morning of playing and climbing instead of math and german!

Warmest congratulations and heartfelt thanks to the School Club and all the day care staff!

4b in the Town Hall and the Schütting

On Thursday, the 15th 4b`s class orchestra had two big appearances.First, they went to the Town Hall (Rathaus) where the reading helpers of the Annaliese Loose-Hartke Foundation were honoured to hear the first performance.

Then they all went across the marketplace to the Schütting House where the Kiwanis Club Bremen were holding a prize giving ceremony, for which 4b provided the musical programme. Ms van der Bent had prepared the class very well and everything went perfectly as shown by the enthusiastic response from the audience.

4a in Sahlenburg

From 5.9 til 9.9. 4a were on a class trip to Sahlenburg on the North Sea coast. On the programme was a hike to Duhnen, a guided walk over the tidal flats and a trip to Cuxhaven, the centre of the National Park.There was also a visit to the Climate House in Bremerhaven.

Of course, there was plenty of time left for collecting mussels and snails on the tidal flats and for building sandcastles on the beach!

Community Police Officer Frese with 1b in the Neighbourhood

´How do I cross the road safely?` Today, the first graders were shown exactly how by Jochen Frese from the Schwachausen police station. He didn`t just explain though, he took them to all the places in the neighbourhood where they might have trouble crossing the road.This is a good way to complete the traffic awareness taught in kindergarten and at home. Here you can see Officer Frese with 1b and Ms Röbbeling.

Big Box of Books Festival

There was a report in our town newspaper, the `Weserkurier`, with information about the ´Big Box of Books` festival which will be held before the summer holidays.

Mathematical City Tour

On Tuesday evening eleven of our colleagues took part in a mathematical tour of the city organised by Hilde Block. In the marketplace, in front of the City scales, by the Bessel memorial (with the big egg), on the Schlachte and in the Biblegarden we saw many examples of mathematical phenomena in accessible forms - some with a Bremen connection and some without.

At the exit of the Lloyd Passage we saw that the mathemetician and astronomer, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel took part in measuring the land in and around Bremen. What was then the church tower of St. Ansgarii was used as a measuring point.

Along the way the teachers were instructed in the ancient mathematical art of counting on their fingers and toes!

First Day at School

All the new pupils and their families met under the chestnut tree in front of the school and waited for the doors to finally open at ten o`clock. The third graders formed a welcoming line and everyone walked past them into the gym, which was by now very full. The new first graders sat on benches in front of the stage and, accompanied by the Parent`s Orchestra, the `Gete Kids` choir was led in song by Ms Adler. Ms Krivec`s class presented the musical piece ´All Little Mice Must Learn to Read`.

Then down to business! The new kids came up on to the stage and were assigned to their different classes. They then walked in line with their new class teachers, past the proudly waving moms and dads on their way to their new classrooms.

Outside in the sunshine the parents and grandparents enjoyed coffee and cake together. Many thanks to the parents of the second grade for baking and organising the coffee!