Grüße,
We are now in our Christmas/New Years' break for the next several weeks, reconvening for 2012 on 7 January.
This past Saturday had us taking our semester exam, which went rather smoothly as it was apparent that most students had indeed studied thoroughly! Any students who were not present to take the exam will need to do so when school begins again. They will be allowed to take the test before class, if they wish to arrive early, or during the break.
The rest of the morning was taken up with Singprobe.
This was a short entry, but a sweet one.
Mit Vergnügen~
Monday, December 12, 2011
Saturday, December 3, 2011
3. Dezember - Review Day
Guten Tag,
Today we spent the day doing two activities to wrap-up the semester:
Today we spent the day doing two activities to wrap-up the semester:
- Playing Jeopardy (our test review game)
- Writing our 1st semester essay for the Sammelmappe
If your child was not present today, then they shall be expected to turn in their essay next class period. It is 15 sentences in the present tense over what they like to do in their free time.
The test next week will be over what we have covered so far this semester, concentrating on the following:
- Conjugation of regular verbs
- Conjugation, meaning and use of Haben and Sein
- Telling time, including 24-hr time and the use of "halb" and "viertel"
- Food, drink, clothing, family and school supplies vocabulary
- Modal verbs-to-date: dürfen, möchten, können
- Pronouns, their use and meaning (especially the differences between "du," "ihr" and "Sie")
For any questions regarding test content or studying recommendations, I am at your disposal.
Mit Vergnügen.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
19. November - Auf der Jagd nach Truthähne
Grüzi,
This weekend was important for our class for two reasons: first and foremost, this is the last class period we will have for the next two weeks as we are not meeting next weekend (26 November). I believe that has something to do with this "Thanksgiving" I keep hearing people talk about.
Secondly, we had the promised Vocabulary Quiz on Saturday over the first three Hörverständnis exercises (Juli - Ein Gruß, Rammstein - Rosenrot, Nena - 99 Luftballoons). This is the first of several such quizzes we will be having throughout the year.
We also moved forward in our cultural-historical study of the DDR by delving into the German socialist educational system from Kinderkrippe up through University, including along the way the quintessential ossi phenomenon that was the Young Pioneers. We sang "Unsere Heimat" and went through the history and cultural importance of the organization behind this retro-earworm. Seriously--I've had it in my head for the last week and a half now.
The lesson for the week included as well a review of the modal verb (functionally) möchten and the introduction both of the verb dürfen and of the use of helping verbs paired with modal verbs.
After learning about dürfen, we played "Darf Ich?" which was basically like "Mother May I?" minus the confusing part where I would have been referred to as "mother" by a bunch of other people's kids.
To finish up the day, before going off to Singprobe, we played a rousing game of "Ente Ente Truthahn." Much to my chagrin, the students found it far preferable to say "Ent" and "Crouton." I'll admit it actually was pretty funny, though.
The homework for the week (due on 3 December) is as follows:
Workbook
P. 47 Ex. 5, 6
P. 50 Ex. 2, 3
Please note also that they will be writing the first of our Sammelmappe essays the next class period, this one being 15 sentences (present tense) over their free-time hobbies. I would strongly recommend going over with your children how to describe in German what they like to do in their free time.
These will be written in class, graded on the spot and then expected to be turned back in, corrected, the next class period.
Mit Vergnügen!
This weekend was important for our class for two reasons: first and foremost, this is the last class period we will have for the next two weeks as we are not meeting next weekend (26 November). I believe that has something to do with this "Thanksgiving" I keep hearing people talk about.
Secondly, we had the promised Vocabulary Quiz on Saturday over the first three Hörverständnis exercises (Juli - Ein Gruß, Rammstein - Rosenrot, Nena - 99 Luftballoons). This is the first of several such quizzes we will be having throughout the year.
We also moved forward in our cultural-historical study of the DDR by delving into the German socialist educational system from Kinderkrippe up through University, including along the way the quintessential ossi phenomenon that was the Young Pioneers. We sang "Unsere Heimat" and went through the history and cultural importance of the organization behind this retro-earworm. Seriously--I've had it in my head for the last week and a half now.
The lesson for the week included as well a review of the modal verb (functionally) möchten and the introduction both of the verb dürfen and of the use of helping verbs paired with modal verbs.
After learning about dürfen, we played "Darf Ich?" which was basically like "Mother May I?" minus the confusing part where I would have been referred to as "mother" by a bunch of other people's kids.
To finish up the day, before going off to Singprobe, we played a rousing game of "Ente Ente Truthahn." Much to my chagrin, the students found it far preferable to say "Ent" and "Crouton." I'll admit it actually was pretty funny, though.
The homework for the week (due on 3 December) is as follows:
Workbook
P. 47 Ex. 5, 6
P. 50 Ex. 2, 3
Please note also that they will be writing the first of our Sammelmappe essays the next class period, this one being 15 sentences (present tense) over their free-time hobbies. I would strongly recommend going over with your children how to describe in German what they like to do in their free time.
These will be written in class, graded on the spot and then expected to be turned back in, corrected, the next class period.
Mit Vergnügen!
Saturday, November 12, 2011
12. November, Sanktmartinstag Feier
Grüße,
Today we celebrated the feast of Saint Martin, also known as "Lantern and Goose Day!" To celebrate, we took a slightly different turn from the usual marching in the Saint Martin's Day parade around the school; instead of participating, we made geese puppets and followed along behind the parade, honking! The students' puppets were excellent--mine looked a bit like a "demented penguin with pinkeye," according to some.
We also covered the history behind Saint Martin's Day, including both the Calling of Martin and his establishment as Bishop of Tours.
As promised, today we also had a quiz over what we'd learned last week about telling time, namely the use of the 24-hour clock, quarter before/after and half before/after.
Next week, as mentioned in last week's entry, we will be having a quiz over the vocabulary (Wortschatz) of the last 3 Hörverständnis exercises.
Today we celebrated the feast of Saint Martin, also known as "Lantern and Goose Day!" To celebrate, we took a slightly different turn from the usual marching in the Saint Martin's Day parade around the school; instead of participating, we made geese puppets and followed along behind the parade, honking! The students' puppets were excellent--mine looked a bit like a "demented penguin with pinkeye," according to some.
We also covered the history behind Saint Martin's Day, including both the Calling of Martin and his establishment as Bishop of Tours.
As promised, today we also had a quiz over what we'd learned last week about telling time, namely the use of the 24-hour clock, quarter before/after and half before/after.
Next week, as mentioned in last week's entry, we will be having a quiz over the vocabulary (Wortschatz) of the last 3 Hörverständnis exercises.
- Rammstein - Mein Herz Brennt
- Nena - 99 Luftballoons
- Juli - Ein Gruß
If your child requires another copy of the exercise sheets in order to study the vocabulary, please feel free to ask.
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for:
Hausaufgabe:
- Write a minimum of 10 sentences using words from the vocabulary lists.
For the sake of studying, I'd recommend writing sentences with all of the words, but I will only require a list of 10 for grading.
~Mit Vergnügen
Sunday, November 6, 2011
5. November - Guy Fawkes' Day
Happy Guy Fawkes' Day, everyone!
We celebrated this British holiday by not mentioning it or doing anything even remotely related to it. Instead, we focused on German things. Yay!
Our class opened up with another listening comprehension exercise (seeing a pattern?), upon which time I dropped the news that, in two weeks, we shall be having a quiz over our Hörverständnisse to date. This will include Wortschätze from the following:
The primary lesson today was over telling time. We covered the following:
This was accompanied by the classic game, "Herr/Frau Fuchs," otherwise known as "Mister Fox," wherein Hr/Frau Fuchs stands at one end of the field with the other children to his back, and the children ask "Hr. Fuchs, Hr. Fuchs, wie steht die Uhr?" He replies with a number (e.g. 10 Uhr!) and they take that many steps forward. When he replies, "Mahlzeit!" he turns around and chases the others until someone is caught and becomes the new Herr/Frau Fuchs. (It's pronounced "Foox")
Next we studied school vocabulary, namely school supplies (p. 40 in the textbook) and school subjects (p. 35). We then played the most surreal game of charades ever, having to pretend to be pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, notebooks...
And now for the grand finale.
Homework:
We celebrated this British holiday by not mentioning it or doing anything even remotely related to it. Instead, we focused on German things. Yay!
Our class opened up with another listening comprehension exercise (seeing a pattern?), upon which time I dropped the news that, in two weeks, we shall be having a quiz over our Hörverständnisse to date. This will include Wortschätze from the following:
- Juli - Ein Gruß
- Nena - 99 Luftballoons
- Rammstein - Mein Herz Brennt
The primary lesson today was over telling time. We covered the following:
- Everyday 12-hour time telling using the format #Uhr# (e.g. 11Uhr22 or 11.22)
- The use of 'quarter of' (viertel vor) and 'quarter after' (viertel nach)
- The use of 'half until' (halb vor) and 'half after' (halb nach)
- 24-hour time. AM being 0-12, PM being 13-23.
This was accompanied by the classic game, "Herr/Frau Fuchs," otherwise known as "Mister Fox," wherein Hr/Frau Fuchs stands at one end of the field with the other children to his back, and the children ask "Hr. Fuchs, Hr. Fuchs, wie steht die Uhr?" He replies with a number (e.g. 10 Uhr!) and they take that many steps forward. When he replies, "Mahlzeit!" he turns around and chases the others until someone is caught and becomes the new Herr/Frau Fuchs. (It's pronounced "Foox")
Next we studied school vocabulary, namely school supplies (p. 40 in the textbook) and school subjects (p. 35). We then played the most surreal game of charades ever, having to pretend to be pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, notebooks...
And now for the grand finale.
Homework:
- Page 46, 1-3 (Arbeitsbuch)
- Study for the Time Quiz (especially quarter before/after, 24-hour time)
Sunday, October 30, 2011
29 Oktober - 2011, Halloween Feier!
Guten Abend jeden!
I apologize for the tardiness of this update--we had quite the Halloween party in the Walker Household with my wife having made more baked goods than I have ever thought possible, so preparing for, and then cleaning up after, that event took up most of the weekend.
As for Schule...
Saturday saw us beginning the school day with a 10-sentence Aufsatz, "Das Schaurigste Ding," or "Wovor ich Angst habe," wherein the students described one thing that scares them. Typical examples included haunted houses, older brothers and, in one case, Herr Walker. Apparently I rise from the grave at night to eat children. News to me!
We also added on to our continuing unit over indefinite articles, going back over the possessives mein/meine and dein/deine, and learning ein/eine, kein/keine.
This introduced another staple of the 5.Klasse's gaming repertoire, "Bart Kein Bart." In this game, one does a series of motions that go along with the phrases "Bart," "Kein Bart," "Mein Bart," "Dein Bart" and make a neighbor repeat them, the goal being to make a pattern someone else can't repeat, going on until you're the last one standing!
Also covered were different ways of expressing like, dislike and desire
I apologize for the tardiness of this update--we had quite the Halloween party in the Walker Household with my wife having made more baked goods than I have ever thought possible, so preparing for, and then cleaning up after, that event took up most of the weekend.
As for Schule...
Saturday saw us beginning the school day with a 10-sentence Aufsatz, "Das Schaurigste Ding," or "Wovor ich Angst habe," wherein the students described one thing that scares them. Typical examples included haunted houses, older brothers and, in one case, Herr Walker. Apparently I rise from the grave at night to eat children. News to me!
We also added on to our continuing unit over indefinite articles, going back over the possessives mein/meine and dein/deine, and learning ein/eine, kein/keine.
This introduced another staple of the 5.Klasse's gaming repertoire, "Bart Kein Bart." In this game, one does a series of motions that go along with the phrases "Bart," "Kein Bart," "Mein Bart," "Dein Bart" and make a neighbor repeat them, the goal being to make a pattern someone else can't repeat, going on until you're the last one standing!
Also covered were different ways of expressing like, dislike and desire
- gern haben
- finden + adjective
- "möchten" (presented as its own verb although technically it isn't)
- mögen
Homework for this week
- Page 20, Exercises 4-5
- Page 22, Exercise 9
- Page 23, Exercises 1-3
Mit Vergnügen!
Saturday, October 22, 2011
22 Oktober - Freundschaft ist Magisch!
Grüße,
Today we proudly presented our family trees before the class, to start off with, and soon they shall be hung all over our new (old) classroom! Our class has moved again, this time back into the room I'd had for the last 3 years, so if you have trouble finding us, just look over by where all the other teachers are: I'm between Hr. Schäufele and Fr. Rill.
We did a review of possessive adjectives (mein/meine, dein/deine), regular verbs and also Haben and Sein, all to the tune of "Mein Herz Brennt" by Rammstein, the latest in our hörverständnis exercises. There will soon be a quiz over all the vocabulary we've learned from these various songs, by the way, so watch out for that in the near future!
Our primary activity of the day, after having learned interrogatives (was, wer, wo, wie, woher, wohin), was to make up our own imaginary friends. We described them and then drew pictures of them before presenting what we made to the rest of the class.
Finally, we learned a bit of negation, namely the uses for and meaning of nicht, nichts and nie/niemals.
For the last few minutes of class, the students were hilfsbereit enough to help me hang up all the new posters over DDR-era Berlin that were just generously provided for us! I let the kids choose how they wanted to arranged things, so this new classroom feels a bit more gemütlich now that we all had a chance to pitch in and make it pretty.
The moment you've all been waiting for...
The homework for this week is as follows:
Arbeitsbuch
Page 12, Exercise 11
Page 15, Exercise 1, 3
Page 19, Exercise 3
These will involve the set of verbs listed on page 28 of the textbook (also in their notes from today).
Mit Vergnügen!
Today we proudly presented our family trees before the class, to start off with, and soon they shall be hung all over our new (old) classroom! Our class has moved again, this time back into the room I'd had for the last 3 years, so if you have trouble finding us, just look over by where all the other teachers are: I'm between Hr. Schäufele and Fr. Rill.
We did a review of possessive adjectives (mein/meine, dein/deine), regular verbs and also Haben and Sein, all to the tune of "Mein Herz Brennt" by Rammstein, the latest in our hörverständnis exercises. There will soon be a quiz over all the vocabulary we've learned from these various songs, by the way, so watch out for that in the near future!
Our primary activity of the day, after having learned interrogatives (was, wer, wo, wie, woher, wohin), was to make up our own imaginary friends. We described them and then drew pictures of them before presenting what we made to the rest of the class.
Finally, we learned a bit of negation, namely the uses for and meaning of nicht, nichts and nie/niemals.
For the last few minutes of class, the students were hilfsbereit enough to help me hang up all the new posters over DDR-era Berlin that were just generously provided for us! I let the kids choose how they wanted to arranged things, so this new classroom feels a bit more gemütlich now that we all had a chance to pitch in and make it pretty.
The moment you've all been waiting for...
The homework for this week is as follows:
Arbeitsbuch
Page 12, Exercise 11
Page 15, Exercise 1, 3
Page 19, Exercise 3
These will involve the set of verbs listed on page 28 of the textbook (also in their notes from today).
Mit Vergnügen!
Saturday, October 15, 2011
15. Oktober - Wer hat das Obst?
Grüße an jeden,
Today was a very special day, for on this day we got to go to German School!
Class began with the kids' presentation of their Speisekarte, which I must say were excellently done. Their were a good deal of creative restaurant names in there, and I could only wish that German food were actually as cheap as they made it out to be.
Going along with this, I quickly ran over the different kinds of restaurants found in Germany, includingGasthäuser/Gaststuben, Cafés, Kneipen. This lead to an introduction of the idea of Gemütlichkeit, the emphasis on "coziness" found in Gasthäuser, e.g. dark lighting, lots of wood furnishing, pastoral scenes and paraphernalia on the walls, dinners that last for hours where you sit around just for the sake of relaxing and taking in the atmosphere.
A new game was tried today as well, which I have tentatively named Konjugieren-Springen-Werfen-Chaos-Spiel (or "The hop-scotch throwy thing"). Basically, the kids drew a card with a subject (e.g. ich, du...) and a conjugated regular verb. They had to say the subject and verb out loud, then jump onto the hopscotch course (made of verb endings: e, t, st, en) and end up on the right ending for that verb conjugation, then throw a tennis ball into a bucket. IF all of that was done successfully, their team gained a point. We had teams Apfelsaft and Orangensaft.
The primary topic of learning today was family vocabulary, as found on page 19 of the Kursbuch. This lead also into an introduction of various personal adjectives: klein, groß, klug, doof, dumm, nett, schön, hübsch, ärgerlich, sympatisch (some of those were requested on the spot as opposed to being in my original list. I will let you guess which ones).
This was followed up with the first of many possessive adjectives we will be learning this year: mein/meine, dein/deine.
A little extra knowledge was gained today when I noticed that the kids weren't always understanding what I meant when trying to get them to stop talking. Thus we were introduced to the terms "Halt den Maul/den Mund," "halt die Klappe." I mentioned these as being ways of telling someone to be quiet to varying degrees of politeness, the least polite one being "halt die Klappe." I'd like to mention at this point that these phrases were introduced to me as being mostly acceptable for public usage. If this is a mistaken understanding and these phrases are ruder than I knew, please do feel free to correct me as I would not want to teach something inappropriate by mistake!
Class wrapped up with a rousing reprise of "Hast du mein Obst?" outside.
The homework for this week:
Stammbäume
-Make your own family tree using the vocabulary found on page 19.
-Include the names of the family members, their relation to you (auf Deutsch, e.g. "meine Mutter, mein Vater...)
-Include pictures. These may be hand-drawn, photographs, or even pictures of celebrities/cartoons/fictional characters from magazines or online...
Bonus (+5 on the first quiz)
-Write 5 sentences describing different family members. Use the verb "sein" and the adjectives learned today.
-Mit Vergnügen
Today was a very special day, for on this day we got to go to German School!
Class began with the kids' presentation of their Speisekarte, which I must say were excellently done. Their were a good deal of creative restaurant names in there, and I could only wish that German food were actually as cheap as they made it out to be.
Going along with this, I quickly ran over the different kinds of restaurants found in Germany, includingGasthäuser/Gaststuben, Cafés, Kneipen. This lead to an introduction of the idea of Gemütlichkeit, the emphasis on "coziness" found in Gasthäuser, e.g. dark lighting, lots of wood furnishing, pastoral scenes and paraphernalia on the walls, dinners that last for hours where you sit around just for the sake of relaxing and taking in the atmosphere.
A new game was tried today as well, which I have tentatively named Konjugieren-Springen-Werfen-Chaos-Spiel (or "The hop-scotch throwy thing"). Basically, the kids drew a card with a subject (e.g. ich, du...) and a conjugated regular verb. They had to say the subject and verb out loud, then jump onto the hopscotch course (made of verb endings: e, t, st, en) and end up on the right ending for that verb conjugation, then throw a tennis ball into a bucket. IF all of that was done successfully, their team gained a point. We had teams Apfelsaft and Orangensaft.
The primary topic of learning today was family vocabulary, as found on page 19 of the Kursbuch. This lead also into an introduction of various personal adjectives: klein, groß, klug, doof, dumm, nett, schön, hübsch, ärgerlich, sympatisch (some of those were requested on the spot as opposed to being in my original list. I will let you guess which ones).
This was followed up with the first of many possessive adjectives we will be learning this year: mein/meine, dein/deine.
A little extra knowledge was gained today when I noticed that the kids weren't always understanding what I meant when trying to get them to stop talking. Thus we were introduced to the terms "Halt den Maul/den Mund," "halt die Klappe." I mentioned these as being ways of telling someone to be quiet to varying degrees of politeness, the least polite one being "halt die Klappe." I'd like to mention at this point that these phrases were introduced to me as being mostly acceptable for public usage. If this is a mistaken understanding and these phrases are ruder than I knew, please do feel free to correct me as I would not want to teach something inappropriate by mistake!
Class wrapped up with a rousing reprise of "Hast du mein Obst?" outside.
The homework for this week:
Stammbäume
-Make your own family tree using the vocabulary found on page 19.
-Include the names of the family members, their relation to you (auf Deutsch, e.g. "meine Mutter, mein Vater...)
-Include pictures. These may be hand-drawn, photographs, or even pictures of celebrities/cartoons/fictional characters from magazines or online...
Bonus (+5 on the first quiz)
-Write 5 sentences describing different family members. Use the verb "sein" and the adjectives learned today.
-Mit Vergnügen
Saturday, October 8, 2011
8. Oktober - mitten im Herbst
Grüße an die Füße,
Today was a day of surprise, suspense, and Speise! Well, mostly of Speise. A significant chunk of our time was devoted to learning food vocabulary, namely the below-listed:
das Cola (soda)
die Limonade (lemonade or generic for soft drink)
der Apfelsaft (apple juice)
der Orangensaft (orange juice)
das Wasser (water)
die Milch (milk)
der Kaffee (coffee)
der Tee (tea)
der Hamburger
die Pizza
das Brot (bread)
das Ei (egg)
der Käse (cheese)
die Wurst (sausage)
die Brezel/Bretzel (pretzel)
die Suppe (soup)
die Pommes Frites (fries)
das Obst (fruit)
das Gemüse (veggies)
der Kuchen (cake)
With these words, we played another memory game, which seemed to go over well, and also introduced a new game that has been a staple of my class for a while now: "Hast du mein Obst?!" wherein the children ask each other "HAST DU MEIN OBST?!" and must answer "ICH HABE DEIN OBST NICHT!" the goal being to make one another laugh.
I was an easy target this time, somehow, as apparently this year's group of kids outclasses all my previous ones in their ability to make me laugh!
We also went over regular verbs (introduced with a rousing round of bingo) and learned the below-listed conjugation rules which will be re-introduced and emphasized frequently throughout the year.
Today was a day of surprise, suspense, and Speise! Well, mostly of Speise. A significant chunk of our time was devoted to learning food vocabulary, namely the below-listed:
das Cola (soda)
die Limonade (lemonade or generic for soft drink)
der Apfelsaft (apple juice)
der Orangensaft (orange juice)
das Wasser (water)
die Milch (milk)
der Kaffee (coffee)
der Tee (tea)
der Hamburger
die Pizza
das Brot (bread)
das Ei (egg)
der Käse (cheese)
die Wurst (sausage)
die Brezel/Bretzel (pretzel)
die Suppe (soup)
die Pommes Frites (fries)
das Obst (fruit)
das Gemüse (veggies)
der Kuchen (cake)
With these words, we played another memory game, which seemed to go over well, and also introduced a new game that has been a staple of my class for a while now: "Hast du mein Obst?!" wherein the children ask each other "HAST DU MEIN OBST?!" and must answer "ICH HABE DEIN OBST NICHT!" the goal being to make one another laugh.
I was an easy target this time, somehow, as apparently this year's group of kids outclasses all my previous ones in their ability to make me laugh!
We also went over regular verbs (introduced with a rousing round of bingo) and learned the below-listed conjugation rules which will be re-introduced and emphasized frequently throughout the year.
- Every verb has a stem that does not change in the present tense (e.g. MACHen, SPIELen TRINKen...)
- Each subject adds a different ending to the stem of a verb, the same ending each time:
- Ich: stem + e ("MACHe")
- Du: stem + st ("MACHst")
- er/sie/es: stem + t ("MACHt")
- Ihr: stem + t ("MACHt")
- Wir: stem + en ("MACHen")
- Sie/sie: stem + en ("MACHen")
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for....
Hausaufgabe:
Speisekarten
- Make a menu for your own imaginary restaurant
- Invent a restaurant name, be original!
- List out the food and drinks with both the names (including articles) and pictures
- Include prices (in euros) for each menu item
- Make it pretty! Be creative!
- Pictures can be hand-drawn, cut out of magazines, photographs or digital pictures.
~Mit Vergnügen
Saturday, October 1, 2011
1.Oktober - Feier des Wiedervereinigungstages
Grüße an die Füße,
Today marked our annual celebration of German American Friendship Day as well as the Reunification Day for united Germany. Accordingly, we took a step forward in our coverage of the history and culture of the former East German regime as centralized in East Berlin.
Class time began with a piece of German history in itself, the 80's classic "99 Luftballons" by Nena. We went over the Furcht that was a fact of life for decades after the end of World War 2, when the Nervenkrieg was in full swing and the USA and USSR began their epic nuclear staring contest from opposing sides of the Atlantic. This served as our segue into what will be this month's history lesson: a re-introduction to the formation of the twin Germanys in post-war Europe, and a single, important detail about life in the DDR, namely the role played by the Stasi.
We went over the overall modus operandi of the Staatssicherheitpolizei in the DDR, highlighting the scope of their operations with a few facts and figures: by 1989, there were 91,000 paid employees in the Stasi operating with a network of approximately 300,000 civilian informants (out of a population of 16 million).
My goal is for us to have a total of 7 history lessons over the course of the school year to cover different aspects of life in the DDR. I think we're off to a nice start!
In regard to grammar, we went back over the meaning and uses of Haben and Sein, reviewed numbers 1-1000 (board races!) as well as the three definite articles (nominative): der, die, das.
Now for the moment you've all been waiting for...
As the students should now consider themselves exhorted to do their workbook homework on a separate sheet of paper (or to have it photocopied), the one and only time I will accept late work will be this upcoming weekend. Last week's homework (Page 8, Exercises 8 and 9) will be accepted next week alongside this week's homework:
~Mit Vergnügen
Today marked our annual celebration of German American Friendship Day as well as the Reunification Day for united Germany. Accordingly, we took a step forward in our coverage of the history and culture of the former East German regime as centralized in East Berlin.
Class time began with a piece of German history in itself, the 80's classic "99 Luftballons" by Nena. We went over the Furcht that was a fact of life for decades after the end of World War 2, when the Nervenkrieg was in full swing and the USA and USSR began their epic nuclear staring contest from opposing sides of the Atlantic. This served as our segue into what will be this month's history lesson: a re-introduction to the formation of the twin Germanys in post-war Europe, and a single, important detail about life in the DDR, namely the role played by the Stasi.
We went over the overall modus operandi of the Staatssicherheitpolizei in the DDR, highlighting the scope of their operations with a few facts and figures: by 1989, there were 91,000 paid employees in the Stasi operating with a network of approximately 300,000 civilian informants (out of a population of 16 million).
My goal is for us to have a total of 7 history lessons over the course of the school year to cover different aspects of life in the DDR. I think we're off to a nice start!
In regard to grammar, we went back over the meaning and uses of Haben and Sein, reviewed numbers 1-1000 (board races!) as well as the three definite articles (nominative): der, die, das.
Now for the moment you've all been waiting for...
As the students should now consider themselves exhorted to do their workbook homework on a separate sheet of paper (or to have it photocopied), the one and only time I will accept late work will be this upcoming weekend. Last week's homework (Page 8, Exercises 8 and 9) will be accepted next week alongside this week's homework:
Nachforschungsarbeit
· Answer 5 Questions (English) over the Division and Reunification of Germany
i. Complete sentences for each answer.
ii. Bonus points if attempted in German.
1. What areas of Germany were controlled by each of the allies after World War 2?
2. What were the two halves of divided Germany called, and when was each half „founded?“
3. Why did the Soviets build a wall in Berlin? When did they build it?
4. What were the „Stasi“ and what did they do?
5. When did the wall come down?
~Mit Vergnügen
Sunday, September 25, 2011
24 Samstag - Das Abendteuer geht noch weiter!
Grüße an eure Füße!
Ich bitt' euch um Entschüldigung für den verspäteten Beitrag dieses Wochenendes, aber meine Frau ist ziemlich krank und benötigte etwas Aufmerksamkeit von mir.
This Saturday was a fun day, full of exciting grammatical discoveries, new vocabulary and new intellectual challenges! Sadly, we also had to have game time every now and then, but rest assured that all that "fun" nonsense that kids these days seem to like did not serve to hamper our cognitive growth time.
Introduced in class Saturday was an activity we do intermittently throughout the year, Nachrichten exercises. In short, I print out news/culture articles taken from Deutsche Welle (deutschewelle.de), highlight passages in which the primary facts/themes of the article are located and underline key words the children might not know. I then provide them with a vocabulary table and between 4 and 7 questions over the material. This week we covered the below-listed article, which also serves as a segue into our geographic theme for the year:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6615856,00.html
Our theme or "Landeskündliches Thema" is East Berlin under the GDR.
After doing this article, I gave a brief introduction to the division of Germany post WW2, including the division of Berlin and the construction of the infamous wall. We will be covering elements of life and culture in the DDR Berlin throughout the year.
Following this, we reviewed spelling and pronunciation of numbers 1-100, and with this fresh in our brains we played a memory game, matching numbers with their written-out forms on little cards.
One of many grammar points were covered as we were introduced to the verbs Haben and Sein, including their meaning, usage and conjugations. Expect more on this to come!
One of my favorite games to play in class was introduced as well, "Wer hat den Schlüssel?" Where the children sit in a circle with one person in the center, who then has to guess which one of his/her classmates is hiding the key (I used a little plastic key from Walmart).
And now, for the moment you've all been waiting for...
The Homework:
Page 8 in the workbook
Exercises 8 and 9
The class was a little loud on Saturday, and I warned them that my having to tell them 3 times to stop talking out of turn would result in more homework. So here is the rest of the homework:
Ich bitt' euch um Entschüldigung für den verspäteten Beitrag dieses Wochenendes, aber meine Frau ist ziemlich krank und benötigte etwas Aufmerksamkeit von mir.
This Saturday was a fun day, full of exciting grammatical discoveries, new vocabulary and new intellectual challenges! Sadly, we also had to have game time every now and then, but rest assured that all that "fun" nonsense that kids these days seem to like did not serve to hamper our cognitive growth time.
Introduced in class Saturday was an activity we do intermittently throughout the year, Nachrichten exercises. In short, I print out news/culture articles taken from Deutsche Welle (deutschewelle.de), highlight passages in which the primary facts/themes of the article are located and underline key words the children might not know. I then provide them with a vocabulary table and between 4 and 7 questions over the material. This week we covered the below-listed article, which also serves as a segue into our geographic theme for the year:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6615856,00.html
Our theme or "Landeskündliches Thema" is East Berlin under the GDR.
After doing this article, I gave a brief introduction to the division of Germany post WW2, including the division of Berlin and the construction of the infamous wall. We will be covering elements of life and culture in the DDR Berlin throughout the year.
Following this, we reviewed spelling and pronunciation of numbers 1-100, and with this fresh in our brains we played a memory game, matching numbers with their written-out forms on little cards.
One of many grammar points were covered as we were introduced to the verbs Haben and Sein, including their meaning, usage and conjugations. Expect more on this to come!
One of my favorite games to play in class was introduced as well, "Wer hat den Schlüssel?" Where the children sit in a circle with one person in the center, who then has to guess which one of his/her classmates is hiding the key (I used a little plastic key from Walmart).
And now, for the moment you've all been waiting for...
The Homework:
Page 8 in the workbook
Exercises 8 and 9
The class was a little loud on Saturday, and I warned them that my having to tell them 3 times to stop talking out of turn would result in more homework. So here is the rest of the homework:
- Conjugate Haben and Sein
- Make 10 sentences with these verbs.
Bei fragen stehe ich euch gerne zur Verfügung,
~Mit Vergnügen
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Erster Schultag '11
Guten Tag und schönes Wochenende jedem!
We had our first day of classes today, as you are doubtless aware, and in my humble opinion it all went rather smoothly!
To begin with, we filled out a small questionnaire over ourselves, "Wir lernen uns kennen," wherein the students were challenged to answer each (German) question about themselves with the best German they could muster, serving both to 'brush off the cobwebs' of the summertime as well as give me a benchmark as to their current proficiency levels. We then read these out loud in the class to introduce ourselves. I followed suit, of course.
Questions answered included such classics as the following:
"Was ist deine Lieblingssüßigkeit?" or "Schulfach," "Wann ist dein Geburtstag" usw.
The content covered was a wide variety of basic vocabulary as today's emphasis was on review.
We took a quiz over counting, using the numbers 1-1000 in German and went over basic guidelines for number formation.
We had our first day of classes today, as you are doubtless aware, and in my humble opinion it all went rather smoothly!
To begin with, we filled out a small questionnaire over ourselves, "Wir lernen uns kennen," wherein the students were challenged to answer each (German) question about themselves with the best German they could muster, serving both to 'brush off the cobwebs' of the summertime as well as give me a benchmark as to their current proficiency levels. We then read these out loud in the class to introduce ourselves. I followed suit, of course.
Questions answered included such classics as the following:
"Was ist deine Lieblingssüßigkeit?" or "Schulfach," "Wann ist dein Geburtstag" usw.
The content covered was a wide variety of basic vocabulary as today's emphasis was on review.
We took a quiz over counting, using the numbers 1-1000 in German and went over basic guidelines for number formation.
- Teens = # + zehn. (z.B.: acht + zehn = achtzehn)
- Tens = # + zig. (z.B.: neun + zig = neunzig)
- Hundreds = # + hundert + # (ein hundert eins, zwei hundert zwei, neun hundert acht...)
We then covered Tageszeit and which greeting goes with which time of day:
Guten Morgen: "Good Morning," for morning
Guten Tag: "Good Day," for afternoon
Guten Abend: "Good Evening," for the evening/night hours
Gute Nacht: "Good Night," which could be used during the same hours as Guten Abend, but it is more personal and implies that you or the person you're saying it too is just about to go to bed.
Example: You run into a friend on the street after dark. You'd say "Guten Abend." Compare this to being in your PJs and on the way to your bedroom when you run into a sibling. Then you'd say "Gute Nacht."
Months and seasons (Sommer, Herbst, Winter, Frühling) were covered as well.
The format for these lessons is what has historically been standard for my class, a summary of a concept/set of vocabulary with plentiful examples, notes taken over the concept, and then a game to let the concept sink in.
Now the moment you've all been waiting for:
Homework:
P. 6-7 (Arbeitsbuch)
Exercises 2-6
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
17.9.11 - der erste Schultag
Guten Tag one and all,
As you are doubtless aware, this upcoming Saturday will be the first day of this year's Donauschwaben Wochenendschule session. I look forward to meeting those of you whom I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting, and of course likewise I'll be happy to see again those of you whose children I've had in class before.
For those of you who have not yet met me, allow me to introduce myself a bit. I'm Hr. Walker, 5th grade teacher of the Society's weekend school. I'm currently in my 4th year at the school, and I would like to think that with each year I grow at least a little bit in wisdom and pedagogical ability. My curriculum is rather grammar-heavy, and as such there will be much in the way of note-taking accompanied by as many corresponding activities and games as we can fit into a 3-hour morning!
For your information, my classroom has changed locations for the first time in years. I am now located on the side of the building closest to the front entrance (not the back one where the kids have lunch). You may know it as Frau Dickerson's former room. With the addition of the new wing for the school, we did a bit of switching around among the teaching staff so as to ensure that each class had enough space based upon the projected class sizes.
Please be certain that your children are as close to on time as possible as we will be engaging in various introductory activities as well as distributing textbooks and workbooks on Saturday. Please be sure as well that your student has the following on Saturday as well as each and every day of the school year:
- Pencils
- Notebook paper
- Adequate erasers
- Shoes suitable for both indoor and outdoor activities
- Jackets (as necessary throughout the year)
- Clothing that would allow them to sit on the floor as easily as in their desks (e.g. please avoid skirts as far as possible)
This is a very active class, and I would hate for anyone not to be able to participate fully due to not being adequately prepared or properly dressed.
Each Saturday evening, I will be sending an email out to the parents with information over what we covered in class today as well as that week's homework assignment. This will also be covered in detail on the blog I established for this purpose... which you are now viewing!
bei weiteren Fragen stehe ich euch gerne zur Verfügung.
~Mit Vergnügen
Monday, September 12, 2011
Herzlich Willkommen!
Ein Gruß an die lieben Eltern meiner Schüler!
Ein Gruß an die Kinder selbst!
Ein Gruß an meine KollegInnen, die herausgefordert wurden, diesem hässlichen Blog zu folgen und ihre eigenen auch zu erstellen!
Ein Gruß an jeden.
For the 2010-2011 school year, I will be making weekly posts each Saturday/Sunday for the purposes of ...
It is my hope and intention that no one be left behind.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions/concerns you may ever have over the course of the school year. I much prefer emails to blog comments to ensure that I will be able to respond to you in time--I do have a day job, after all, and cannot always view my blog at work!
~Mit Vergnügen
Ein Gruß an die Kinder selbst!
Ein Gruß an meine KollegInnen, die herausgefordert wurden, diesem hässlichen Blog zu folgen und ihre eigenen auch zu erstellen!
Ein Gruß an jeden.
For the 2010-2011 school year, I will be making weekly posts each Saturday/Sunday for the purposes of ...
- sharing the homework assignments for those who may not have been present, as well as for the parents for their tracking purposes
- displaying an outline of what we went over in class each day, including posting page numbers from the textbook where applicable
- reminding everyone of upcoming school events, namely holidays
- posting any and all announcements as may be deemed necessary
- giving fair warning/forewarning of upcoming tests, quizzes and extra credit opportunities.
It is my hope and intention that no one be left behind.
- Don't have email?
- Can't open/receive my email notifications each week?
- Kid insist he/she has no homework or that they were never warned about the test?
Please feel free to contact me with any questions/concerns you may ever have over the course of the school year. I much prefer emails to blog comments to ensure that I will be able to respond to you in time--I do have a day job, after all, and cannot always view my blog at work!
~Mit Vergnügen
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