Garden City Middle School Students Take Part in Sprachfest

Story by Dr. Judith Hecker

Congratulations to Garden City Middle School’s seventh and eighth grade German students who took part in the Annual German Language Sprachfest at Commack High School on March 23.

They maintained their first place lead among the 13 participating public and private schools for the most awards on the middle school level.

Organized and implemented by the Long Island Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German, Sprachfest includes competitions ranging from spelling, vocabulary and geography bees and German-language Scrabble, to poetry, skits and a Culture Bowl, which requires a knowledge of the history, culture and geographical features of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

There are poster, T-shirt and program design contests, instrumental and vocal music performances, baking competitions and gingerbread house design as well. Events are judged by teachers, professors, graduate students and members of the Steuben Society.

This year’s winners were:

Culture Bowl 7/8 First Place Team: Julia Foxen, Maggie Minett, Julianne Larsson, and Dan Salsberg

Geography Bee 7 First Place: Julie DeMarco, Matthew Granville, Sean Reilly and Andrew Tang

Geography Bee 8 First Place Team: Harrison Ernst, Matt Flanagan, Jack McKernan, and Stephen Slovensky

Poetry 8 Second Place: Thomas Riggers

Poetry 8 Third Place: Emily Clarke

Scrabble 7/8 First Place Team: Tim Bensen, Collin Fischer, Ryan George, and John Murphy

Spelling Bee 8 Second Place: Julia Giacinto

Spelling Bee 8 Third Place: Kaitlyn McGarry

Vocabulary Bee 7 Second Place: Kathryn Bass

Vocabulary Bee Third Place: Megan Slovensky

Vocabulary Bee 8 First Place Tie: Mairead Pfaff and Katherine Galzerano
Vocabulary Bee 8 Second Place: Elizabeth Nguyen

Music Instrumental 7/8 First Place: Edward Flaherty, Maggie Minett and Emily Schaubeck

Music Vocal 7/8 Second Place: Julia Foxen, Andrew Nagel and Elizabeth Strysko

Program Design Second Place: Emily Schaubeck

Skits 7/8 First Place: (Hänsel) Elias Karikas, (Gretel) Andrew Nagel and (witch) Charles Tobin

Gingerbread House Design First Place: Maggie Minett and Julia Foxen

Anisplätzchen First Place: Elizabeth Strysko and Emily Way

Anisplätzchen Second Place: Maggie Minett

Anisplätzchen Third Place: Stephen Slovensky

Many thanks to middle school music teachers Mrs. Margaret Gullotta and Mrs. Nancy Menges, the Garden City mothers who served as chaperones and to all the students whose hard work made this year’s Sprachfest a great success!