End of School Parties

The end of the school year is always a fun time with lots of performances and celebrations.  Both and Nate and Will had class parties at the end of June.

William's party was at the EY1 campus in Pfaffhausen, about 10 minutes drive from the main campus.  It was a nice sunny day and we had a picnic outside in the garden, followed by games and songs performed by the kids.  As a class gift, all the kids selected a recipe to put into a recipe book and drew a picture for each of the teachers.  Some of the parents took some very cute pictures of each child wearing a chef's hat and apron to include in the book.  William had a very good year, was very "popular" with the boys and the girls, and plays a good role in the class.  He's looking forward to next year when he will be in EY2 at the "big school"!

Ms. Cuthbertson reading the recipe book that the kids put together for her

William with Ms. Paton, a teaching assistant

William with Ms. Cuthbertson, his teacher from the second half of the year

The next day William also got to see his teacher from the first half of the year, Mrs. Lillywhite.  The kids hadn't seen since January, but we all really enjoyed seeing her again!

Nathan's Party was together will all 3 of the kindergarten classes.  They walked from school in Zumikon down to the Rumensee (a lake and park area) in Küsnacht - over an hour walk...they were tired when they arrived!  We had a potluck picnic and the kids played.  Nate's class did a really fun activity for the teacher's gift (organized, by Valerie Turgis, Alexandre's mom, who is so creative!).  Each child wrote a sentence or two of a story, then passed it along to the next person to add a few sentences.  It was a pirate story with lots of twists and turns (adventurous from the boys' parts and a bit nicer from the girls' parts).  Each child drew a picture to illustrate their page of the story.  It was very cool!

Nathan had a great year in kindergarten as he really grew up!  He is reading very well now and is amazing with his math.  His teachers Ms. Hateley and Ms. G. were awesome - such a positive classroom environment!  And he had a really great group of friends.  Now on to Grade 1!

The kindergarten classes walked all the way down to the Rumensee from school!

Ms. Hateley reading the story that all the kids had written and illustrated

Nathan with his teacher, Ms. Hateley

Nathan with the teaching assistant, Ms. G.

Elise's Primary School Graduation

To mark the end of primary school, Elise participated in the grade 5 "completion ceremony" on Wednesday, June 22nd.  It was a very nice event, made even more special by the fact that Elise was invited to perform the piano piece she had composed for her grade 5 exhibition project.  The band which included the entire grade was performing some songs for the program (Elise played the flute in the band this year), but Elise was the only soloist!  Mr. Stefan, the music teacher, had asked her to perform her piece, and she did an amazing job!  She said a few words about the song and why she composed it, then she played it - and the room was completely quiet as she performed for all of her classmates and their parents.

Mrs. Hill, Elise's teacher, also said some nice words about each of the students in her class and what makes them special / what she will remember about them.  About Elise, she said, "Elise, who always has not just one question, but two!"  Elise told us later that once in class when someone raised their hand and said they had two questions, Mrs. Hill had joked, "who are you - Elise?"

Elise had a very good year with nice friends, a good teacher, some wonderful experiences and great memories to take with her on to secondary school!

Sports Day for Nathan and Elise

Each year the kids have a sports day towards the end of  the year.  This year Elise (in grade 5) was with students from grades 6 and 7 (she said she was the only grade 5 girl on her team, but she had lots of fun hanging out and with some of the older students and getting advice for next year in middle school).

Nathan was on the "purple team" and had a great time doing all kinds of different sports.  Nathan (in kindergarten) was with students from Early Years 2 and grade 1.  I got to watch some of the games, and they were having a lot of fun - they won all the games I saw them play, included a 6-legged race!  Nathan was very proud of his medal!

Zermatt

Paul and McKenna (Dave's brother and his wife) came to visit during the first week of June and we had a great time with them.  Although the weather was a bit rainy, they did a lot of sightseeing, culminating in a trip we all took over a 4-day weekend to Zermatt.  It was our first trip to see the Matterhorn!

We took the train from Zurich to Zermatt (a car-free town) in Southern Switzerland at the food of the Matterhorn.  We stayed at a great hotel, Hotel La Ginabelle, which was family run and a great place to stay, with absolutely incredible food and a fun indoor/outdoor pool.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and at the suggestion of the hotel, went to the "Family Fun Park", a ropes park with 3 courses for even the younger visitors (ages 4-8).  Dave and Elise went on a more advanced course, while I went on the kids' courses with Nate and Will!  Elise had done a ropes course before on a school field trip, but it was the first time for the rest of us.  What a lot of fun - especially the zip lines where you just sit down and go flying through the air!

The next day we did some sightseeing in the town, then went up the Gornergrat on the hightest open-air cogwheel railway in Europe.   This is the train line that goes over the incredible bridge that is on all the Zermatt postcards!  It was the beginning of June, but it looked like winter at the top.  Apparently it's quite common for the Matterhorn to be covered with clouds/fog, and it was exciting to be watching it and waiting for the clouds to clear and the peak to be visible.

 Saturday morning we took a train up the mountain to Sunegga, where there was a small lake and a playground, and lots of places for hiking.  We even got a quick glimpse of the Matterhorn when the clouds cleared.

Coincidentally another family from ICS also went to Zermatt this same weekend - the Joshi/Lennox family with 2 daughters, Priya in William's grade and Maya in first grade (who had been in the dance club at school that Elise had co-led).  I found out just a couple of days before the trip that they were also going.  We saw them on the train going to Zermatt, then got together at the park one day to play!  It is so fun to run into people we know on our travels!

 This was the view of the Matterhorn from our hotel room on the last day we were there.  When we woke up the sky was clear and blue, but by 9am, the clouds were rolling in!