5 maart tot 11 maart 2023
Kinderen: Aya, Zakaria, Anouar, Mason, Niek, Maud, Pepijn, Finn B.
Collega’s: Diana, Anton, Joyce
Together with 8 children we went to Grundschule Steinheid, in Steinheid, Germany. A little village in the German province Thüringen.
We left on Sunday the 5th of March by train from Utrecht Central, the Netherlands, to Erfurt Central, Germany. When we arrived at the Erfurt station, the host families were there to pick up the children. In pairs, they stayed the whole week in their host families. An amazing experience!
Monday March 6
The Grundschule Steinheid starts at 7.50. Some come by local (school)bus and others are brought by car. Very different compared to how the Dutch children go to school. They normally walk or go by bike.
In the gym, all the pupils and teachers of the school gave us a warm welcome. After this warm welcome, we had a tour through the school and after that our pupils went back to their classes. They stayed and joined lessons like math and music until lunch.
In the afternoon, we went on a field trip to the local glass factory run by a family of glassblowers. All kinds of Christmas balls and figures are handmade and shipped all over the world. Some pupils were allowed to try to blow a Christmas ball with great success.
Tuesday March 7
We started the day at school. Our pupils told us they had a great time with their host families. Some sledded in the evening and others played games with their families. We joined some classes and 4 of our pupils gave a presentation about themselves, our village, our country and what we do about sustainability.
After the hot lunch at school, we went to the Silbertall arena where we could ski or sled. Some of the pupils had their first ski experience!
Wednesday March 8
The other 4 pupils gave their presentations in the morning. We are proud of them all. Because of the heavy snowfall during the night and day, our afternoon program was adapted. Instead, we went on a hike in the neighborhood and built snowmen. The children have not seen much snow this winter! All wet and cold, we drank hot chocolate in the local bakery.
Thursday March 9
The fifth day of our adventure. After the heavy snowfall of yesterday, it is raining today. Every morning we ask the children what they did in the evening and if they feel oke. Children are resilient and can adapt very soon to different situations.
Today we go for two more excursions. First, we went to the fairy caves. All dressed up as gnomes we went inside the caves. These caves used to be mines. Crystals were extracted from these caves. It was pretty to see. Some children bought souvenirs.
The second excursion was all about Friedrich Fröbel. He was the founder of today’s kindergarten. His former house is now a museum where we heard his life story. We even walked around in the house to see the different toys he made. Did you know that circle, square and mister Fröbel invented cylinder toy blocks? A new fact has been learned.
It is a kind of a tradition that on Thursday night we go bowling with the host families. So did we. We had a lot of fun together and it was nice to see how close our pupils are with their host families.
Friday March 10
Our last day at the school. A day of saying goodbye to the pupils and teachers of Grundschule Steinheid. All the children were assembled in the gym where we heard a song about sustainability and saw a dance of the oldest pupils. Our pupils received a certification of participation in the Erasmus project. In the afternoon, we had our last excursion to the toy museum. We could see all kinds of toys through the ages, both from Germany and from the rest of the world. Some toys bring back memories…..
Saturday March 11
After a great experience and a very nice program during this week, we had to say goodbye to the teacher from Grundschule Steinheid and the host families. We had a wonderful time with many new experiences that we can take back home.
Thank you very much!
By Joyce van Putten.