School rituals / First grade · late summer 2015
A First-Grade School Cone Covered in Cats and Family Flags
German children start first grade carrying a Schultüte, a tall cone of sweets and school supplies. A student at the German International School Washington remembered his: cats, family flags, and a grandfather who had carried one 65 years earlier.
In German tradition, children start first grade with a Schultüte, a school cone: a large cone of paper or cardboard, filled with sweets and school supplies. For its sixtieth anniversary, the German International School Washington collected memories from students. One wrote that of all the German traditions he liked, including Oktoberfest and the Christmas market, his favorite was the Schultüte.
It was, he wrote, a little celebration to show that you are starting elementary school. You could decorate it with things you had learned in kindergarten, and with other interests.
"My friends and I made a little game out of it," he remembered. "Who would designed the coolest Schultüte?" There were many different designs, Harry Potter among them, all in bright colors and patterns.
A competition with no rules, no judges and no prize, entered by every six-year-old in the building. This is the purest form of competition there is.
He made his with his mother and filled it with candy and school supplies. They covered it with cats, because the year before he had been in the Cat Class. Relatives and friends from different countries helped. He painted on the flags of the countries his family comes from, starting with Colombia.
And it mattered for another reason. He started first grade, he wrote, exactly 65 years after his grandfather started school in Berlin, and his grandfather had carried a Schultüte too.
Sixty-five years apart, two first graders in two countries holding the same kind of cone. That is a family tradition with a very specific shape.
The custom travels. In February 2026, the German International School Sydney held its welcome ceremony for new kindergarten students, Schultüten included.
We are not German. But when the youngest started first grade, I read about the Schultüte, and we made one out of a poster board. She covered it with stickers of dogs, because of our dog, and added a drawing of each of us. It was taller than her arm. She filled it with crayons and exactly one lollipop, because she said a school bag should be serious.
Her teacher had never seen one before. By lunch, three other children had asked their parents for cones. The youngest has asked me to make another for second grade. I have explained that it is a one-time thing. She said, "Then why is it a tradition?"
Sources
The public records, school pages and published accounts this story draws on. Where the story imagines a scene or a line of dialogue, that is the column’s telling, not a quotation.
- Sebastian Hildebrand: A Wonderful Tradition, GISW 60 Years memories giswashington.org
- German International School Boston: Einschulungsfeier at GISB 2025 gisbos.org
- German International School Sydney: Primary newsletter February 2026 gutenbergpost.giss.nsw.edu.au