During the weeks leading to Christmas (from 2 nd to 22 nd December 2010), the primary school library organised Christmas readings for children from different years and language sections. A total of 15 readings were held in German, French, Italian and Spanish. As it is normally very busy in the library during regular school opening hours, most readings were held in the classrooms.

The stories took the children into the world of the small Santa Claus, who is too young to distribute presents to children himself. Even though he is still very young, he then succeeds very quickly to receive recognition by the big Father Christmas and thus becomes the Santa Claus of the animals.

In another story the children became acquainted with Edward Bacon, the smartest pig from the "Scheffelhof", who longs to have a red silk dressing gown for Christmas. Some of the pupils got inspired and drew fantastic pictures while listening to the stories, while others simply listened intently.

The reading of stories or fairy tales does not only make children sit still and listen attentively, but at the same time it fires their imagination and enhances their individual language skills. In addition, it creates closeness and trust, but above all, it brings a smile to the children's faces.

“Writing is an adventure, you never know where it ends”, this is how Michael Ende described his writing career. This year marks the 50 th anniversary of his first adventure and his first book “Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer”, which is famous all over the world and translated in more than 30 languages.

The primary school’s library picked up on this event in order to draw the young readers attention to this story and to the different books of Michael Ende. The exhibition was held from 22 nd October to 12 th November 2010.

The posters revealed characters and locations of the story to the children without giving away its end. The aim of the information provided was to encourage them to read more.

The young visitors of the exhibition were able to see life-size figures of Jim Knopf and Lukas and the big locomotive called “Emma” with the two famous marionettes of the “Augsburger Puppenkiste” looking out its windows.

The puppet show of the “Augsburger Puppenkiste” is as famous as the books in Germany and can be seen as a film in the library. Finally the exhibition presented information of the author itself who delivered to us the mostly read book in the world “The Neverending Story”.

It is a pity that he already died in 1995, otherwise we would have surely already invited him to give a reading to our pupils.

For those who are interested to learn more, there is a Michael Ende museum in the International Children’s and Youth Library in Munich (Blutenburg).

Maja Dalgacheva is a very popular children’s author from Bulgaria. She came to Munich for the Day of the Cyrillic Alphabet, celebrated by Bulgarians on the 24th May. Despite a very busy schedule, she took the time to visit our Bulgarian primary school children on 25th May 2010 before she held a reading at the Bulgarian Consulate.

The children were very well prepared as they had studied Ms Dalgacheva’s poems in class. Enthusiastic and inquisitive, they had the opportunity to put their many questions directly to the author – such as, when had she started to write, and what are her favourite figures and subjects. One of the poems recited was about a lion that had fallen sick. How could it be healed? After much thought, the children in the village hit upon the idea of singing to it.

The very approachable and candid author used rhyme to speak about the content of her poems and answered the children’s questions in verses, which stimulated the children in making up verses for themselves. This led to a back-and-forth chain of rhymes until a rhymed stanza emerged. Time flew by, and much to the disappointment of the children there was no time for further poetry. At the end of the session, the author signed several of her books which she then presented to the children before she departed. A pity such an impressive visit couldn’t have lasted longer as the children were inspired by the author and had a great deal of fun.

On 9th March 2010, Austrian author Kurt Hörtenhuber and the German illustrator and painter Conny Wolf paid a visit to the ESM and captured the attention of nine primary school classes from different years and language sections (3Dea, 3Deb, 3IT, 3GR, 5IT, 5SP, 1Dea, 1Deb, 2Dea).

First the author and the illustrator explained how the character “Oups” had come to life and then described the way in which this character had inspired Kurt Hörtenhuber one evening some time later to write “Oups – Planet of the Heart”.

The author then read out loud some passages from this very book, while Conny Wolf simultaneously made some drawings on the flip chart. Inspired by the vivid illustrations and by the illustrator’s enthusiasm, pupils got their paper and pencils out and started to eagerly draw, too.

Why is everything on this planet so hectic? Why do people care so little about each other? Such questions and many more the character Oups asks himself in the book "Oups - Planet of the heart “, in which Oups talks about his “planet of the heart” in a very funny and emotionally moving manner.

With its poignant stories, proverbs and drawings, this book offers a novel view to how we treat ourselves and others as well as to the way in which we approach nature.

With the help of the little figure Oups, Connie Wolf and Kurt Hörtenhuber raise the awareness of young audiences about respectful behaviour and encourage children to strive for improvement. Their credo is: follow the voice of your heart!

In a brainstorming session, some classes had already thought about harmonious social interaction in class. These ideas were then written down in key words next to sketches on the flip chart. The final results depicted considerate and prudent behaviour so vivid and impressive that the organisers of the event now think about presenting these results in an exhibition in the primary school in order to share them with everyone.

The children's book illustrator Thé Tjong-Khing visited the entire Dutch sections and years 1 of the primary school on 10 th February 2010.
 
Thé Tjong-Khing was born in 1933 in Indonesia and later studied art at the Arts Academy in Bandung (Java). In 1956, he continued his studies at the Arts College in Amsterdam. Since the 1970s, he has been working as a freelance artist and illustrated many Dutch children's books including.

During his visit at the ESM, he asked the teachers to read out loud the story “The Mouse and the Dragon”, which they had written themselves. While listening, he was drawing figures and images on the whiteboard.

Afterwards, the children to drew a line on the whiteboard out of which Thé Tjong-Khing made a sketch of a dancer with shoes, dress, jewelry, etc.

Thé Tjong-Khing’s incredible creativity also became apparent in his clever and humorous comments and remarks. The interactive event captivated the children and inspired them to paint and experiment with colour. The illustrations of the books are already part of the Dutch primary school curriculum.

More information can be found on Thé Tjong-Khing website: please click here!

On the 4th December 2009, the Primary School was delighted to welcome the well-known children's and youth book author Klaus Kordon. Mr Kordon read to the fifth-years of the German section from his book “Die Flaschenpost” (“Letter in a Bottle”). The story is about two children, a boy from East Berlin and a girl from West Berlin, who get to know each other through a letter posted in a bottle. As a result, they become pen pals and manage to meet up despite the concerns of the adults.

“A gripping story from a difficult period of history, which – thank God – now belongs to the past.” (Mannheimer Morgen newspaper). Klaus Kordon gave the pupils a vivid and thought-provoking account of his youth in Berlin at the time when the Berlin Wall was being built (“Our world stopped at the Wall”), his attempt to flee to Bulgaria, and his resulting year in jail (“Nature is what you miss most…”).

A lively discussion ensued, with the children raising well-considered and reflective questions. Through Klaus Kordon’s humorous and insightful replies, the children gained valuable understanding of a piece of contemporary and personal history, while at the same time obtaining a deeper understanding of how historical events may become entangled in and affect the personal fate of an individual.

More information can be found on Klaus Kordon's website: please click here!

As part of the school project “Europe 20 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall”, Karl Heinz Baum, a former East German correspondent for the “Frankfurter Rundschau” newspaper, visited the Primary School Library on 13 th October 2009.

Year five primary pupils listened with great interest to Mr Baum’s first-hand account of life in East Germany and of what he experienced during the fall of the Berlin Wall, which paved the way for the German reunification.

The children had so many questions that the 45 minutes scheduled was extended into lunchtime.

With a lot of patience and empathy, Mr Baum enlightened the ten-year-old children who still had somewhat naive and very vague ideas about about the divided Germany and the Iron Curtain.

For instance, the pupils learned that the “Raisin Bombers”, the transport airplane of the Western Allies, did not fly to Berlin to feed the population of East Germany, but carried out their mission much earlier, directly after the Second World War, when they flew in vital aid and food for the trapped residents of West Berlin.

The year 2009 marked both the 40th anniversary of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, which was published in 1969, and the 80 th birthday of its author Eric Carle.

The primary school library commemorated this special occasion with an exhibition, held from 14th -25th September 2009.

The exhibition depicted Eric Carle’s live, his museum nearby Boston (USA) and, of course, the very hungry caterpillar, which has meanwhile eaten 29 million apples, 58 million pears, 87 million plums, 116 million strawberries and 145 million oranges (see also Gerstenberg publishing house ). No wonder it became so fat!

As of 28 th September 2009, the exhibition was seen in kindergarten where many children paid additional and very personal tribute to the popular author and his creation with self-made handicrafts.

More information can be found on Eric Carle’s website: please click here!