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.

1. Teens = # + zehn. (z.B.: acht + zehn = achtzehn) 
2. Tens = # + zig. (z.B.: neun + zig = neunzig)
3. 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