Life in California

GPSSD German Summer Camps for Kids – A creative way to Learn German in San Diego

A few years ago, a brave woman from East Germany started a project that is now a wonderful meeting place for many German-speaking families and families, who are interested in the German language: The German Pacific School of San Diego.

In the beginning, Wiebke Elbe, a former pharmacist, had just a few resources but managed quickly to connect with a number of similar oriented projects in San Diego and other parts of California.

With growing know-how, she started one German after-school-class in a small facility in Clairemont followed by the first German Summer Camp in San Diego.

Within six years the school has grown and now has 4 locations in La Jolla, Clairemont, Carmel Valley and Poway with more than 200 students attending classes from 4 to 6 pm during the week and Saturday classes.

Our founder Wiebke has started a new project in Norway! But she has put so much effort and energy in our project, that today GPSSD is thriving and continuing attracting more and more germanophile families that attend our school.

Wiebke has always made a point of creating a relaxed and stimulating learning atmosphere. She had a discreet manner to inspire our teachers and helpers. She induced them to the philosophy that German lessons and German summer camps should be a fun experience, where children should be inspired and helped to develop their own initiatives and creativity.

With our new principal Christine Johnson, we are continuing this philosophy, and we are still getting a lot of support and help from Wiebke and her husband Hauke.

What about our German Summer Camp?  

Summer Camp 2019 will be amazing! This year it’s all about magic!

This year’s GPSSD camp will be at a wonderful location at the French American School in La Jolla! It’s a campus that offers a lot of space for many outdoor and indoor activities.

GPSSD 2019 Summer Camp’s Topics and Activities

Depending on their interests, the campers will dive into a magical atmosphere where they can learn magic tricks, create their own theater play or even create their own video ( 3rd week)! We would like to give our campers impulses and inspiration and then encourage and help them to create their own play or show.

In our magic oriented group,  campers will read and listen to magic stories and plays. The magic flute might appear from time to time to enchant us with new ideas. Campers will also be surprised by magic tricks and then learn and practice them for a little end of the week show.

In our theater oriented group, campers will get inspiration by German plays and stories, ways to perform a play, and materials they could use. Our camp teacher Heather has a broad spectrum of ideas and ways to carry away our campers imagination. They can choose to create a performance that matches their interests, from a simple puppet show or a self-performed play on stage.

In our third week, campers will create their own small video with the stop motion film making technique.

A lot of crafting, painting of props and other hands-on activities are always part of our summer camps. All groups will liven up their activities with fun games and a lot of music and entertainment. We will also do Karaoke and will not only use the airy sports field but also the playground to do our outdoor activities. And, of course, our camps are full immersion German language camps.

That means that we will help our campers to better understand German words and sentences by repeating, describing and explaining German expressions. We will also help our campers to produce German sentences and to speak German by their own initiative.

We are looking forward to a relaxed and fun summer event, that will take place from June 24 to July 12, 2019 from 9am to 4 pm. And there is also aftercare available for working families.

Weekly sessions can be booked online at www.gpssd.org. Call us for more information at 858-461-9118 or send us an email, germanpacificschool(AT)gmail.com

Text: Vicky Ripart – GPSSD Camp Team

Images: ©GermanPacificSchoolSanDiego