Isabel’s month of October 2022 Report
In October, I showed off a dish from my home country, Germany, called Fladlesuppe, which is common in the Swabian region. For this, we baked German pancakes, made vegetable broth, and then cut the pancakes into strips and added them. In the German class, I also taught a lesson that revolved around the topic of family. I started with a round of talks to pick up on what we had learned in the previous lesson. After that, we went into the topic of family and used picture cards to reinforce the vocabulary. The children were then given the task of listening to a story and then filling in a blank with the vocabulary they had learned.
New instruments were purchased for the music lesson, which we now use for singing and making music. This motivates the students and challenges them in more areas. Likewise, each child can be involved by having an individual role with their instrument in the music group. The class is also activated and creatively challenged through appropriate movements to the music.
On Halloween, we had a Halloween party for the kids where we carved pumpkins, played games, and ate together.
Because of my interest in surf culture in California, I visited the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center (SHACC) in San Clemente. The museum is interesting and diverse in design. While the beginning is about the history of surfing and the production of the first surfboards, the rest of the museum displays surfboards from the best surfers of today. Likewise, there is a part of the museum that regularly includes a new exhibition. During my visit, different types of boards that didn’t look like the typical surfboard were on display. Another part of the museum shows a workshop where surfboards are made. Another interesting part of the exhibition for me as a musician was the connection between surfing and music, especially with regard to the songs of the Beach Boys. These have strongly influenced the Californian surf culture and are hard to imagine without them.
