Kiera’s First Day of School (Einschulung)

Here’s a cute letter that Kiera’s new school sent to her right before summer vacation. Along with a very detailed list (below) of what we needed to buy before the first day of school. Luckily, Oma took care of that for us- we only had to swing by her place and pick it all up. Thank You Oma!

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I just realized that this is a pic of Quinnie’s stuff, but Kiera’s was very similar.

Cool Germany folder                                                                                           Kiera’s Mäppchen

Inside the Mäppchen

writing notebook                                                                                                    math notebook

Kiera with her Schultüte. Parents usually put lots of thought into their kids’ Schultüten (they are only given on the first day of First Grade). Many are homemade to reflect the child’s interests, and are very detailed and fancy. I offered to make one for Kiera, but once she saw this ready-made dolphin one, she had to have it. She loved it!

Quinnie was one of the kids chosen to speak a few sentences at the church ceremony, welcoming new students.

Quinnie’s lines for the service…

She was pretty excited about it (as you can see from this picture she drew).

I had her wear the same dress that Quinnie wore on her first day of school. On the way to the church service with Papa…

..where she found her best friend Louis who was also starting First Grade at the same school!

Kiera with friends from our building and neighborhood. This is when she realized that Mama had made the grave mistake of not tying the top of her Schultüte with a ribbon!  I went back home and found her one since she was pretty bummed about it. Sorry Kiera- I’m not up to speed on all these traditions yet!

See what I mean? Kiera’s is the only store bought Schultüte in the group!

The first day of school in Germany usually starts with a short church service (even if it’s not a religious school).

Kiera receiving her blessing. All the new students are called up to be blessed by the pastor/ priest.

one of the songs sung during the service

with Oma and Opa after the service

Then off to the school for a performance by the older students…

where they sang in English 🙂

Older students playing their Blockflöten.

Kiera reading the names of the other First Graders. Love that in the reflection you can see her clutching her Schultüte.

In her classroom meeting her teacher and peers.

Showing us her new shell necklace from her teacher

doing a puzzle with Papa and Opa

Sneaking a peek inside her Schultüte. I’ll show you what was inside in the next post!

The next day she came home with this little book she made at school, titled “My book from the first day of school.”

“This is Me”

“My Schultüte”. I love how detailed she was with the dolphins…

“I like… dragons, guinea pigs, chickens, dogs, birds…”

Here is the link from Quinnie’s Einschulung post

Other posts I’ve done on schools in Germany can be found here, here, and here.