Summer in Germany For South Colonie Special Needs High School Students 

july/august 2011 

South Colonie high school students in the district’s summertime special needs program are learning about Germany this year and the German immigrant community of Pennsylvania. As they learn they pretend they are immigrants to Colonial America and settle in Pennsylvania. They are studying the immigrant population that eventually became known as Pennsylvania Dutch, which also includes the Amish. In addition to their traditional classroom time with special needs teachers Deirdre Locke, Keri Martinez and Cheryl Nunamacher they get to spend three days a week in art class with teacher Thomasa Nielsen. Art class this summer has focused on creating traditional folk motifs and crafts of both communities. Featured in this art gallery are images of the children’s folk designs based on German folk art (Photos 1-12). The students picked the designs that they were inspired by, drew them in pencil, used watercolor to paint them, and outlined the finished images in ink. They also painted glass wine bottles (to be used as vases) that also included these folk motifs (Photos 13-16). Some of those photos show clay pots, which have been painted in a similar fashion. The clay pots will be filled with dirt and planted with chives- a common herb used by the Pennsylvania Dutch.