Last week, students in EP, Grade 1 and Grade 2 were busy making their Nikolaus boots.

Each December 6, children in Germany celebrate ‘St. Nikolaus Day’. Children traditionally clean their boots the night before the 6 of December and put it outside their door. Sankt Nikolaus then fills the cleaned boots with sweets, fruits or small gifts.

The custom originates from the historical Sankt Nikolaus who had a reputation for leaving secret gifts, such as coins, in people’s shoes overnight.

When the students on the ground floor came to school in the morning, they found a sweet little surprise in their boot.

StSt

RC BRICK POT – is an abbreviation for all the IB Learner Profile attributes. As one of their Community and Service projects, Grade 7 students created a presentation about the Learner Profile attributes in German. In groups they presented this to PYP German classes.

Grade 7 students prepared different scenarios for each of the Learner Profile attributes and our PYP students had to match the attributes that fitted best. Afterwards students were asked to draw their hands and to write Learner Profile attributes on each other’s hands.

After the grade 7 students left, we brainstormed how we could implement the IB Learner Profile more into the German lessons. Our students had some excellent ideas that we will look into and develop further.

Thank you very much, Grade 7, you did a fantastic job!

SH

In Grade 6 homeroom class, we celebrate our differences and promote the IB Learner Profile attributes by nominating classmates who we think represent the 10 LP attributes best.

We started this activity in September 2020 by reflecting and observing one another during classroom lessons (even during distance learning) to determine who we think deserves special recognition for any of the different LP attributes. It is our responsibility to be fair ensuring that we are not nominating our classmates because we are “close friends”. Then, our homeroom teachers observe the nominated student to validate our nominations.

After final deliberation of our teachers, during one of our Homeroom sessions there will be an announcement recognizing the student who deserves to get their hands marked on the IB Learner Wall of Honour in our classroom. With this activity, we feel proud and successful. Above all,  we learn how to reflect, appreciate our classmates and try our best to achieve the 10 IB learner attributes to inspire others.

Sasha and Maahi, Grade 6

As our activities at H.I.S. begin ahead of Environment Week (14-21 June) with the Environment Week Challenge Punchcards, our connection to Chumbe Island Coral Park, a protected marine area off the coast of Zanzibar in Tanzania, grows.

A chance meeting in the Weststadt, Heidelberg, with the marine park’s founder, Sibylle Riedmiller, has led to a burgeoning collaboration between Chumbe Island’s marine experts and educators, and the students and teachers of H.I.S. Grade 10 and Grade 2 have made contact with the island and have arranged Zoom calls with question-and-answer sessions on sustainable development and marine pollution.

As we prepare to work collaboratively on our most ambitious rooftop Mandala to date (kick off 7th June), with a design inspired by the turtles of Chumbe Island, and as our thoughts turn towards what we can do to reduce our environmental footprint, we have just received information about what is happening in 6 coastal villages close to Chumbe Island.

Chumbe’s Sustainable Waste Management Campaign has been working with 10 Waste Ambassadors from each community, with education and training culminating in 6 beach clean ups and the analysis of waste.The overwhelming majority of marine debris found during the beach clean-ups was degraded plastic and styrofoam. Each village has since been building a sculpture in their village using the waste they collected to tell their waste issue story. Here are some photos from the communities of Buyu, Chukwani, Dimani, KiembeSamaki, Kombeni and Nyamanzi. We thank them for sharing their ideas and photos with us.

For more information on Chumbe Island go to https://chumbeisland.com/about-chumbe/project-history/.

NP

Many Congratulations to the Grade 10 students for the completion of their Personal Projects; a milestone that indicates that they have finished an important part of their education.

The Personal Project is a very important aspect of the MYP, and the process the students have gone through these past months has helped them gain skills that will support and prepare them for some of the challenges that they may face in the Diploma Programme.

Despite not being able to have a Personal Project Evening, many students still shared their products by presenting via zoom classes. We were treated to virtual presentations on Belarusian culture and the Holocaust, live music, by a student who wrote and composed his own song as well as a short movie full of suspense and a video on digital art.

Other topics included:

• Football strategies used by successful football managers,
• ADHD
• Fitness
• Benefits if indoor plants
• Building a GPS tracking system
• How idioms reflect our culture
• How to solve argument-based beliefs and opinions
• Dyslexia
• Sustainable architecture
• Symbolism in art and film
• Graphic novel writing
• Cultural cooking
• Short story writing
• Mental health in the modelling industry
• How to create suspense in a short film
• Performing a song
• Digital Art