On June 16th the school year at Portland Kinderschule ended with a big Abschlussfeier. For that the PKS Circus came to town. There were monkeys, horses and elephants in the arena. Acrobats were showing breathtaking stunts. A magician performed his tricks, musicians played and the clowns told funny jokes. All in front of an audience of parents, grandparents, siblings and other friends and family members, who were applauding everyone on stage.

Then it was time to say goodbye to five of the older kids who leave PKS and will be going to Kindergarten soon. As it is tradition at PKS they were “thrown out” by the teachers (onto a soft mattress) and they got a big Schultüte afterwards from their parents. In Germany kids that enter school are given a Schultüte, a big cardboard cone filled with useful stuff for school and also some goodies to sweeten the start into school life. As this tradition is unknown in the United States PKS students receive their Schultüte together with all of their friends on the last day of preschool instead.

A big raffle and a potluck concluded this last day of school. But there will be a lot of playdates organized by PKS parents throughout the summer before the school starts again in September.