Middle School

The BaSICS Times
MAY/MAI 2011 BÖBLINGEN AND SINDELFINGEN INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY SCHOOL ISSUE THREE
Students
participated in the
book week assembly
with visiting author,
Marcia Williams.
Our last days of learning on Leonbergerstrasse...
Grade 3/4 learned how to make their own
bread during their unit on the Romans.
BaSICS students, parents and staff folded
oragami paper cranes.
Fieldtrips, musicals, book
week, student council
initiatives, and our everyday
learning opportunities kept
BaSICS busy in our last
months inside the
Sommerhoffen Schule and
Pfarrwiesen Gymnasium. In
May, we will begin school in
our new building on
Hallenstrasse, in Goldberg,
Sindelfingen.
Students reproduced pieces of art from
different artists. Above: Paul Klee
Middle School students rehearsed their
choreography for Oliver!
Grade 8 students created a multi-genre
project.

Research Unit: We are scientists! Wir sind
Forscher!
The Kindergarten students had great fun learning all
about the properties of materials and how materials can
change. They experimented with gummi bears, goop,
smarties, spaghetti as well as weighing, measuring and
comparing different materials.
Kindergarten
Teacher: Leslie Gibson
Assistant: Nina Herle
Above: Alina, Leilani, John and Elijah experimented with goop while Mason learned about balancing in math.
Above: Helen, Bella, David, Alina, Colton, John, Allie and Alex all used different materials to build.
Erika and Andrew used gummy bears to learn about grouping and counting.

Grades 1-2
Teachers: Pam Grimes and Elke Clarus
Assistance: Aaron Chivington and Bianca Ginas
Grade 1 and 2 have been exploring,
How We Share Our Planet: Protecting Our
Environment.
Grades 1/2 visited the Umweltzentrum and the local
Sindelfingen Vogel und Nature Zentrum. They visited various
habitats and were able to see first-hand insects, creepy
crawlies, amphibians and birds and discuss how we should
respect their environments.
In preparation for Earth Day 2011, the class read “The Lorax,”
by DR. Seuss and came up with current events that were
similar to situations in the story. They presented their findings
at a whole school assembly on April 21 st and also shared ways
in which they have already begun to protect their environment.

Grades 3-4
Teachers: Jennifer Kind and Kristin Scholtz
Assistant: Ursula Sites
Veni, Vidi, Vici!
Klasse 3/4 Kam, Sah und Siegte!
Die römische Villa-Rustica bei Hechingen-Stein
Am Donnerstag, den 7. April machte die Klasse 3/4
einen Ausflug zurück in die Vergangenheit zu einem
wiederaufgebauten römischen Gutshof in Hechingen – Stein.
Dort wurde den Kindern gezeigt, wie Brot zur Zei der römer
gemacht wurde: 1,5 Stunden Körner zu Mehl mahlen und zu
sieben. Während das Brot im Ofen backte, besichtigten die
Kinder den Gutshofw, wo sie einen Einblick in die römischen
Essgewohnheiten bekamen, das Badehaus mit dr
Unterbodenheizung sahen und herausfanden, wie die
römischen Toiletten benutzt wurden!!
Während der Mittagszeit spielten die Kinder römische Spiele:
Wettrennen mit Streitwagen, Gladiatorenkämpfe mit
Schwertern und Schildern, bevor sie mit Eis wieder in die
Gegenwart zurückfanden und mit dem Bus zurück zur Schule
fuhren!
Veni, Vidi, Vici!
Class 3/4 Came, Saw and Conquered!
The Roman Villa-Rustica at Hechingen-Sein
On Thursday 7 th April class 3/4 went on a trip back in
time to a reconstructed Roman farming estate at Hechingen-
Stein. Once there the children were shown how to make
bread, Roman style, spending one and half hours grinding and
sieving the corn to make flour. While the bread was in the oven
the children went on a tour of the villa, got an insight into
Roman eating customs, saw the bathhouse with its underground
heating system and found out about how to use the Roman
toilets!!
During lunch-time the children also played Roman style: chariot
races and gladiator battles with swords and shields before
returning to the present with an ice cream and a bus journey
back to school!

Grade 5’s trapped on a
Deserted Island
As part of their unit on government, the
grade 5 class spent the week deciding
how they would survive trapped on a
deserted island with 156 other people.
Students were put into groups of 4 and
developed their ideas so the people on
their island could live in harmony with
each other. Groups decided to develop
mini governments and allocate minister
roles to individual students to ensure food
and water sources would last/develop
into the future and ensure that there was
safety on the island.
The photos below show the children
working together in their groups.
Grade 5
Teachers: Chris Hanson and Elke Clarus
Comics in unseren Muttersprachen
Die Schüler der 5. Klasse begannen mit einem Projekt, bei dem sie
einen weiteren Zugang zu ihren unterschiedlichen
Muttersprachen erlangen werden.
Im Mittelpunkt dabei steht ein Comic aus der Mickey-Mouse-
Reihe.
Den Beginn machte eine Gruppe Englisch sprechender Schüler, die
mit ihrem Gasten, Frau Watts und Frau Bue einen Comic vom
Finnischen und Vietnamesische ins Englische übersetzten. Es
machte große Freude, der finnischen Aussprache zuzuhören und
bekannte Vokabeln zu finden. Bei der dann folgenden
Übersetzung wurde darauf geachtet, dass nicht nur einfach ins
Englische übertragen, sondern auch die Regeln bei der Gestaltung
eines Comics angewendet wurden. Sprech- und Denkblasen
gehörten ebenso dazu wie sog. Geräuschwörter.
Im nächsten Schritt trafen sich die Deutsch sprechenden Kinder
und übersetzen den Comic vom Englischen ins Deutsche.
Wir haben vor, noch andere Sprachen einzubinden und zum
Beispiel die Titelseite ins Spanische, Portugiesische oder
Vietnamesische zu übersetzen, um die Vielfalt der
Muttersprachen in unserer Klasse zu würdigen.

Strasbourg
Straßburg
Am 7. April sind wir die Klasse 5, nach
Straßburg ins Schulandheim gefahren.
Wir sind mit der DB gefahren und als wir
ankamen haben wir unsere Sachen ins Hotel
gebracht und sind durch die Altstadt gelaufen
sind. Hat eine Gruppe von Jungs uns mal rein
gelegt und wir mussten 2 mal hoch und 2
runter laufen. Als wir in einen Restaurant zu
Abend gegessen haben send wir ins Hotel.
Die Nacht mit unseren Freunden war schon
cool.
Der nächste Tag war ganz normal, abgesehen
von dem das wir nicht ins Europarlament
durften, das war ärgerlich aber ansieh war der
Ausflug richtig schön.
-Elisa Dinkelacker, Klasse 5

Grades 6-7 Humanities
Teacher: Ray Schneider
Grade 6/7 classes have been learning
about the Russian Revolution and
Civil War between the years of 1905
and 1925 in Humanities class. To
show their knowledge of the central
themes and concepts of this
tumultuous time period in Russian
history, students chose between
various projects, such as creating a
diary with several entries from the
perspective of a Russian living at that
time, writing a poem or a rap about
the revolution or writing a skit and
acting out a scene during the Russian
Revolution.
Top: Sarah Hoeing and Nick
Steenbergen used various props, wigs
and beards to perform their skit
Rasputin and the Queen.
Left second row: Mascha Pommerencke
and Janine Rosenkranz performed a
rap entitled Russian Revolution Rap.
Mascha and Janine also put the rap
to music.
Right second row: Gianna Malloy and
Genevieve Allen acted out a skit
entitled Bloody Sunday, which showed
the mistakes that the last Czar
Nicholas II made in the lead-up to
the Revolution and his abdication.
Left third row: Drake Potter and Aden
Brown recited their poem/rap about
the reasons for Czar Nicholas II’s
unpopularity that ultimately led to
his downfall.
Right third row: Cedric Donie
performed the rap Bloody Sunday,
which he wrote and put to music by
himself.
Irene Garcia, Harry Higham and
Liana Weber acted out their skit
entitled The Tzar’s Family.
Students explored the causes and
effects of revolution and the positive
and negative consequences of
revolution. The theme of revolution
has been a very current one for
students, given the events in North
Africa and the Middle East.
.
Middle School
Grades 6, 7 and 8 Homeroom
Teachers: Ray Schneider and Dr. Paul Muskett
Middle School students used Chalk Talk, one thinking routine from
Project Zero’s Visible Thinking Project, to share organizational ideas
and advice with one another. The two homerooms met together
later to discuss what had been written down on the small-group
mind-maps.

Grade 8 Multi-Genre
Project
Grade 8 studied the different genres
of writing and applied their
knowledge to better understand the
topic, Stereotypes, Discrimination and
Prejudice.
Each student created a total of twelve
pieces: six in their mother tongue and
six in their additional language.
Frau Eres and Ebba worked
together to translate Ebba’s Finnish
and English recipes into German.
Paul used a theasaurus to help him
find synonyms for his English
poem.
Finn used a dictionary to help him
find new verbs for his narrative.
Leon presented his final project to
the class, explaining what he had
learned through using the different
genres.
Language
Grades 6-7 acted out prepositional phrases they
had created:
Sharing our work...
Teachers: Ray Schneider, Elwine Eres, Casey Haapaniemi
Biographical Genre
Grades 6-7 researched revolutionary figures throughout history.
They first created outlines in preparation of writing a biography,
including a bibliography. Research and outlines were completed in
the language of the students’ choice, while the final draft of their
paper was written in their additional language. We celebrated the
end of the unit together with the students sharing their completed
biographies with the rest of the class.

Middle School
Arts
Never before has a boy wanted more!
Well, he does now, and the 6 th , 7 th , and
8 th graders of ISS BaSICS will be
showing that to all of you on Tuesday,
June 21 st in a dramatic performance of
the musical “Oliver!” This musical is an
adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic,
Oliver Twist, and features songs including
“Food, Glorious Food,” “Pick-A-Pocket-
Or-Two,” and “Oom-pah-pah.”
The story takes place in Victorian
England, and goes like this: the orphan,
Oliver, the main character (played by
Mascha Pommerencke), runs away from
the workhouse he is staying in and goes to
London to seek his fortune. He bumps
into the Artful Dodger, a sneaky little boy
who thinks he’s got manners (played by
Cedric Donie), who takes Oliver to his
mentor, Fagin (played by Finn Widman).
Fagin is a lovable old gentleman who is
mixed up in thievery, and who takes care
of a band of misfit orphan pick-pockets.
He teaches Oliver to pick-pocket, and
Oliver heads out.
When Oliver’s first venture to pick-apocket
lands him in court and then at the
house of the respectable Mr. Bumble
(played by Leonard Dinkelacker), Fagin,
his partner Bill Sikes (played by Paul
Pickelman), and Bill’s girlfriend Nancy
(played by Janine Rosenkranz) have to
find a way to get him back before he spills
the location of their hideout.
This results in a long and complicated
adventure, but you’ll have to come see the
musical to find out how it ends! BaSICS
students and staff are invited to attend a
morning performance, and middle school
parents and staff will be attending the
evening performance on Tuesday, June
21, 2011.
-Sarah Hoeing, Grade 7
Music teacher: Crystal Fisher
Oliver Rehearsals
Drama teacher: Casey Haapaniemi
Art teacher: Kristin Scholtz
Middle School students rehearsed the song, Food Glorious Food,
with choreographer, Adrian Turner.
Mr. Turner helped students to think about how to
convey a strong opening for their musical.
Ms. Fisher helped students to
choreograph, Be Back Soon, in music
class.

Science & Techology
at BaSICS
Teacher: Dr. Paul Muskett
ISS Science Fair: Middle school students took part in the ISS Science Fair for the first time in March. All
students from 6th to 8th grade carried out their own scientific research and presented it on a poster. The
students had a great morning in Degerloch and enjoyed meeting the judges and their fellow middle
school students. Special congratulations to Harry Higham for winning the grade 7 presentation prize.
Grade 8 Science: Grade 8 are studying ecosystems. We have supported theory work by carrying out
some ecological sampling. Using quadrats we randomly sampled two areas close to the school to ask the
question if there were any differences in plant species present. The next step will be to process the data.

Tinkering
The Flexible Friday tinkerers are making steady progress on their soap box carts and we hope to get them
completed soon. The wheels are almost on! Some very strong team working and problem solving skills have
been shown by some team members.
Robotics Club
The first robot vehicles have
been constructed and we are
now developing our programing
skills using Lego Mindstorms.
Programming the vehicles to
travel set distances, detect walls
and navigate obstacles have
been some of the challenges.
Many thanks to Frau Bartels and
Mr Potter for their help and
support.

At BaSICS, we’ve begun our third
trimester of Flexible Friday sessions. The
third session, which will take place on
Friday afternoons until the end of this
school year, provides students with time
and support to spend researching a
personal inquiry topic.
Above: Janine, grade 7 student, is learning about
Photoshop, and how to manipulate photographs
with the software.
Right: Mascha, grade 7 student, and Felix, grade
6 student, are working together to learn more
about hairstyles throughout the decades.
Flexible Friday
Jenny, grade 8 student, is currently researching the Maldives.
She used an Atlas to help her find the islands, so she can
begin writing about the geography in her powerpoint slides.
Left: Genevieve, grade 7 student, is interested in
taking her personal inquiry research on Greek
mythology from the first Flexible Friday session,
in order to create her own website.

BaSICS librarian: Julia Daniels
ISS Lower School librarian: Betty Turpin
Book Week
Left: Marcia Williams showed
students the many drafts and
prints that a book goes through
before it is printed.
Mrs. Turpin and Mrs. Daniels made it
possible for ISS and BaSICS to have
author and illustrator, Marcia Williams,
visit both of school’s campuses.
Marcia Williams has written and
illustrated many books, such as
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and
Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist. She uses a
distinctive cartoon-strip style which
engages young and old readers alike.
During the week of March 28, BaSICS
teachers rotated to different
classrooms each morning to read one
of Marcia Williams’ stories with a class.
On Friday, April 1, Marcia Williams
visited our school and held two
workshops with our staff and students.
We were fascinated by her creativity
and ability to retell these classic stories
in a unique way.
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Above: Mrs. Kupke, Mrs. Gibson and
Mr. Hanson share some of Marica
Williams stories with different classes
during Book Week.

Flexible Friday Group
How can we support Japan?
During the last Flexible Friday enrichment trimester, BaSICS
teacher, Pam Grimes, and her class had been studying Japan.
When the recent catastrophe hit the country, the class
decided they needed to inform the rest of BaSICS students
about the beautiful country that Japan was before tsuami,
earthquake and nuclear crisis.
They quickly and carefully put together a powerpoint
presentation with pictures and information about Japan and
its culture in order to present their knowledge to the school
at assembly.
Families
The Naito family initiated a sushi and bake sale after school in
order to raise funds to support those suffering in Japan.
Student Council
BaSICS teacher, Elwine Eres, and the student council launched
an activity involving the whole of the BaSICS community. They
wanted to encourage us to think about the people affected
by the tragedy, and to create something displayed in school
that reminds us that even when the stories begin fading from
the news, the problem will not disappear for a long time.
BaSICS students, staff and parents have come together to fold
1,000 origami cranes in order to create a display for our
school. This idea was based upon the non-fiction story,
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, by Eleanor Coerr.
Easter at BaSICS
BaSICS PTA president and member, Karla McGhee and
Laura McMillan, along with Middle School students, helped
the Easter Bunny pack and hide Easter bags, before the
primary school went looking for their eggs and goodies.