First Grade Holiday Program

Lena's class joined the other first graders and sang some songs to celebrate the holidays.

Run, Run, Fast as You Can

Holden's pre-k class had a holiday performance.  It was a play about a gingerbread boy who escaped from the oven.  Holden was one of the kids who let him out of the oven.  Holden can be kind of shy, so his co-star helped him out.

 Holden's picture in the program

Sankt Wendel Christmas Market

It's easy to spend every weekend during the Christmas season at a market.  We went to the Sankt Wendel one because it boasted a kids' area.  The kids got to go down a hill covered in snow trucked in from the Alps, make candles, shot arrows in the medieval section of the market, watch a marionette show, see St. Nikolaus, tour a miniature village, and pick out the nativity scenes they liked best.

Science Center Berlin

The Science Center Berlin is operated by Ottobock, a company dedicated to developing and manufacturing medical technology.  Otto Bock founded the company in Berlin in 1919.  Bock was a prosthetist who crafted devices that could help those injured during World War I.  In the decades since Bock founded the company, it has steadily grown and contributed to the field of medical technology.  The Ottobock Science Center Berlin opened in 2009 with a permanent exhibition designed to help visitors “discover what moves us.”  The building itself was designed to mimic how muscle fibers fit together.  I found its modern appearance striking in a city filled with so much history.

            Once inside the Science Center Berlin, its interactive displays invite visitors to experiment with how their bodies function and respond to the surrounding environment.  In one area, you can walk across a screen imbedded in the floor.  As you walk, the scene on the screen changes to mimic walking across deep ravines or narrow surfaces.  You instinctively alter your gate to keep balance even though you are always walking on a safe, solid floor.  Other displays help you understand how muscles and tendons work together to move bones.  You can try manipulating a robotic hand to use different grasping techniques to pick up objects or use interactive displays to understand which muscles are used when you walk and run.

            An important focus of the science center is the work the Ottobock Company does with medical technology.  The company is a leader in developing medical devices that can assist those with disabilities.  Several of the displays reflect that emphasis.  Visitors can experience what it is like to navigate Brandenburg Gate in a wheelchair using a virtual course.  In another station, visitors learn about the complex network of electric currents that help muscles control a prosthesis successfully.  By experimenting with all the displays, one gets an idea of just how important the field of medical technology is.

Berlin Wall Memorial

When we started to plan our trip to Berlin, Joseph specifically asked to see what was left of the Berlin Wall.  His host nation class at school discussed the wall around the anniversary of when it was torn down.  Not wanting to discourage Joseph's interest in history, we set out to found what we could of the wall's remains. 

It turns out that small sections of the wall were preserved along Bernauer Straβ.  
Bernauer Straβe was a street that was cut in half when the wall went up.  Officials in the east bricked up doors and windows that opened up to the west.  Now, about a mile of the street is used as the Berlin Wall Memorial.  There are historical markers along the way that show how the street was altered by the wall and explain how life differed from one side to the other.  A row of iron poles show the wall's path, and markers along the ground indicate things that were moved to make way for the wall and paths for underground tunnels.  Sections of the inner wall that prevented people on the east side from reaching the actual Berlin Wall are on display as well an example of the "no man's land" that bordered the wall.  Towards the end of the trail, there is a Documentation Center that goes into deep detail about the wall's construction, what life was like while the wall was up, and the steps that were taken to take the wall down.