Kindergarten Sommerfest!

Friday was Sommerfest at Benjamin's Kindergarten. The teachers had been pumping them up for the big after school celebration for some time.

They had learned songs and played a game which was like charades (the kids took turns acting like an animal and the parents guessed which animal they were). The school playground area was decorated with German flags the kids had colored and balloons and streamers hung throughout.The celebration kicked off with the kids singing. As you can see, Benjamin wore a dog mask and acted like a dog for part of the singing. It's so neat to see him up there singing in a language that he didn't know a word of last year at this time.

After the singing the kids could go to different stations that were set up to make musical instruments. My kids were not too interested. Although at one point or another they each attempted to create a musical instrument of sorts.

We ate and enjoyed some awesome dishes that the parents all brought. I made a platter of fresh fruit (I figured I was safe with that although other parents had the same idea).

After that they started a small open grill. Once the charcoals were hot they wrapped a bread dough on sticks and handed them out to the kids who were very excited to toast the bread over the coals. It took awhile to toast the breads and the kids' enthusiasm eventually wore off and it ended up with mostly parents sitting around the grill... but I thought it was cool and was eager to try the bread.

They had a variety of jams to go with the toasted breads. By this time it was getting late though so we took our breads to go. (We ate them with jam at home and they were pretty tasty).

But before we left... one final treat... the children shook and rattled their new homemade instruments while they sang a final rendition of one of their songs in multiple languages along with the parents.

Overall, Sommerfest was a success! I think we all had a nice time and I left being thankful that Benjamin has been given this unique opportunity (as an American) to attend such a neat school.

After living here for almost a year, I think there are only so many chances to feel like we are part of the German culture... like we are one with them...like we belong. But being part of his Kindergarten class presents unique opportunities like this that we will always appreciate and cherish.