im September jährt sich der Gründungstag des German School Campus zum 5. Mal. Am Anfang standen die Initiative und die Vision einer Gruppe engagierter Menschen, die etwas bewegen wollten. Der Wunsch nach einem gemeinsamen Ort, an dem Schülerinnen und Schüler auf höchstem Niveau die deutsche Sprache erlernen können stand dabei im Vordergrund.

Heute erwartet die Schülerinnen und Schüler des German School Campus eine Schule, die den Schwerpunkt auf exzellenten Sprachunterricht legt. Der Fokus des Unterrichts liegt auf Weltoffenheit, kultureller Vielfalt und fortschrittliche Sprachbildung. Die Möglichkeit sich im Miteinander die eigenen Sprachen und Kulturen näher zu bringen stehen im Mittelpunkt des Schulalltags. Schülerinnen und Schüler können bei Ihnen erfolgreich die DSD-Prüfung ablegen – sie bringen damit jedes Jahr kulturell und sprachlich vielseitig gebildete Absolventen hervor, die für den deutschen und internationalen Arbeitsmarkt wertvolle Fachkräfte sind.

Ihre Schule ist daher ein unabdingbares Teil des Netzwerks der Deutschen Auslandsschulen, welches wie zuletzt vom Bundestag bestätigt, ein essenzieller Teil der Auswärtigen Kultur- und Bildungspolitik ist. Schulen wie Ihre stärken die Position des WDA gegenüber den fördernden Stellen und helfen uns dabei, auch in Zukunft Durchbrüche für das Netzwerk der Deutschen Auslandsschulen zu erreichen. Zu Ihrer beispielhaften Arbeit und zu Ihrem Jubiläum gratulieren wir nachträglich im Namen des Weltverbands Deutscher Auslandsschulen sehr herzlich. Wir danken dem Vorstand, der Schulleitung, den Pädagogen, Eltern, Schülern und Ehemaligen der Schule für ihr großes Engagement. Sie machen gemeinsam Bildung
„made in Germany“ in den USA möglich!

Gratulation 5 Jahre GERMAN SCHOOL campus Newport Beach

Explore the forest Elementary class week 4.

In addition to the diverse flora and fauna in the forest, we also prepare the students for possible dangers, such as poisonous mushrooms. They will also learn about the good edible mushrooms, and with the help of a mushroom profile, the children will learn the individual terms.

• Where is the mushroom hat? What is mycelium?
• We talk about the term “symbiosis” Teamwork in nature, mushrooms as helpers.

In the second half of the week we discuss the path of wood.

• Tools of a forestry worker.
• From felling wood to the finished piece of furniture.
• Children name at least three things that are mainly made of wood.
• What do exercise books have to do with the forest?
• Students explain the terms sawmill and chainsaw.
• For this purpose, we work with a worksheet, where the pupils put the respective work steps “from the little tree to the wooden board” in the right order.

• “The four weeks with the summer camp flew by so quickly and our little explorers were such wonderful students that I really I like them very much.
• I also had a lot of fun with them, as we cut, glued, did handicrafts, and created our own forest.
• We made a big lap book board that every student can continue to use to deepen what they learned.”

Alexandra Wuerfler
Teacher of German Language

Explore the Forest Elementary class Week 3

As a repetition in week 3, the pupils have created a forest lapbook. With this form of presentation, the children can work on, consolidate and creatively implement lesson topics.

The theme of week 3 is “the forest and its inhabitants”.
We differentiate between coniferous and deciduous trees, from the root layer to the tree layer, the pupils learn about the benefits of the forest.
The seasons, and who hibernates or hibernates, are there animals that are active all year round?!
Photosynthesis is an important component.
Behavior in the forest – the rules.
Eat and be eaten, the food chain.

The children are very motivated and engaged in their work. They arrange the obtained information in a fold-out envelope, which contains numerous glued or pinned inner parts, such as “Leporello” elements, compartments, or turntables, thus creating a clear and condensed presentation of the chosen topic.
The students work not only theoretically but also manually – many senses are involved. The children learn to research and design independently.

Enrollment

3rd Week Summer camp – Seasons

This week we talked about what happens in the forest during different seasons. In the fall, trees lose their leaves. We read about the reason for that and why conifers do not lose their needles. In winter, some animals hibernate, and others do not. In spring, birds return from the south and mate. Early bloomers, like the Schneeglöckchen, appear to let us know that winter is over.

Kreislauf der Natur

Nahrungskette

Nahrungskette

We learned about food chains and nature’s circuits, wrote short poems, and discovered that the forest plays an essential part in many German fairy tales.

Poems “Elfchen”

Groß
Der Bär
Heftig und stark
Winterschlaf in einer Höhle
Winter

Scheeweiß
Das Fell
Leuchtet im Sonnenlicht
Es hüpft durch das Gras
Kaninchen

Regenbogen
Die Vögel
Die Würmer im Boden
Ich hasse alle Insekten
Tschüß

Academics

Second week German School Summer Camp online

This week middle and high school students learned about the animals in the forest. We talked about different categories like mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, spiders, and invertebrates but also about carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores, as well as predators and winter sleepers.

We read about animals that were interesting to us from a list of more than 40 different species.

On the second day, we took body parts under the magnifying glass. Animals have different body parts than humans:

• das Maul (muzzle) 
• die Schnauze (snout) 
• der Schnabel (beek) 
• die Vorder- & Hinterläufe (fore & hind limb) 
• die Pfote (paw) 
• die Kralle (claw) 
• der Schwanz (tail)
• das Fell (fur)
• das Gefieder (feathering)
• die Feder (feather) 
• der Flügel (wing) 
• das Geweih (antlers)
• der Huf (hoof) 

So, we labeled a few. Every student got to pick a favorite animal to do research on and present it to the group on the last day.

We finished learning about different habitats like anthills, caves, burrows, nests, and spider webs and left listening to songs about birds who bring messages to dear people far away.

Der Hase

• Hasen haben Vorder- & Hinterläufe, Bauch, Kopf, Hals, Schwanz. Am Kopf haben sie lange Ohren
• Hasen können grau, weiß, braun und schwarz sein
• Hasen sind Säugetiere, keine Winterschläfer und Pflanzenfresser. 
• Sie fressen Blätter, Wurzeln, Pilze, Beeren, Rinde und Zweige.
• Hasen können 17-28 Zoll groß werden und leben 1-5 Jahre.
• Hasen leben in Grünland und Ackerland.
• Hasen sind Feinde mit wilden Hunden und gefährlichen Vögeln

Summer Camp 2020 – Elementary School children

“The Forest and its Inhabitants”

On the first day of Summer Camp, children introduced themselves in German and learned about the other children in the group.

As we decided to run the Summer Camp as Immersion German, we talked about everyday things so that the children gained confidence with their teacher.

The forest animals were introduced, using flashcards, and it was really fun for the children as they knew some of the animals or were familiar with.

We talked about the appearance and habitat of the respective animals:
“das Eichhörnchen, das Reh, das Wildschwein, der Dachs, der Fuchs, die Ameise, der Vogel.” The pupils could already recognize or imitate some of the bird – or animal calls.

Under guidance, students created a small forest animal booklet, which will be used for all classes.

The development of learning techniques and strategies was to implement the metric system. Various tools such as a tape measure were used to measure the size of the animal.

We used worksheets with material for structuring to promote motor skills such as cutting out forest animals with pictures and glue them on paper with the German word next to it. It was discussed whether the forest animal is below or above, left or right, crawling, hopping, or flying.
For this purpose, the students are provided with a small vocabulary list to learn the most important words of the respective week.

It was amazing that the students could, later on, differentiate between mammals, birds, insects, and learned about the food chain.

It was a week-long homework handicraft project, to finish one animal like a squirrel.

They will go out and look for some leaves and pine cones to bring to class on Monday.

At the end of the course, students will be present their forest as they have learned about different animals and trees and fruits from the forest. This is a valuable activity and promotes creativity as well as fine motor skills and the ability to concentrate.