Frohe Weihnachten!
This Saturday, we brought back a tradition that was started years ago in the 5.Klasse: Cookie Saturday!
We spent the class period with each student decorating their own bundle of cookies, both sugar and gingerbread, of various shapes. Shortly beforehand, we went over the vocabulary for the shapes, so as to make the whole cookie thing at least slightly academic.
Also provided was a handout containing the following: a German-style Lebkuchenfiguren recipe, exposition over the differences between European and American recipes (ingredients done by weight instead of by volume, metric instead of standard, etc), vocabulary for the various words listed in the German recipe, and for the parents, a copy of the recipe that we actually used to make the cookies--I hope you like it!
There is no homework assigned over the break; however, the week after we come back, there will be a redo of the test that was taken last week.
Mit Vergnügen~
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Sunday, December 9, 2012
8.Dezember - Prüfungstag
Hello all,
As you are doubtless aware, I was not present for class on Saturday thanks to the flu that'd likewise kept me out of the office all week.
The majority of scheduled class time was to be spent taking the first major test of the year.
Next week, we originally were not supposed to have class due to the museum trip; however, as you have been informed, this trip was cancelled. Soooooo for those students who are in attendance on 15. December, we'll be spending our class time with something fun, whimsical and, most importantly, tasty.
Mit Vergnügen~
As you are doubtless aware, I was not present for class on Saturday thanks to the flu that'd likewise kept me out of the office all week.
The majority of scheduled class time was to be spent taking the first major test of the year.
Next week, we originally were not supposed to have class due to the museum trip; however, as you have been informed, this trip was cancelled. Soooooo for those students who are in attendance on 15. December, we'll be spending our class time with something fun, whimsical and, most importantly, tasty.
Mit Vergnügen~
Saturday, December 1, 2012
1.Dezember - Befestigt euch; Winter kommt.
Today saw the beginning of a new tradition in the 5th grade class here, namely the naming of our class mascot: the Spielzeugkuh. I will have to find a toy cow to display in the classroom somewhere for years to come now.
It began like any other Saturday, but quickly this illusion was shattered when I wrote 8 ominous columns on the board: 8 categories, 8 topics, each with numbers 1-1000. It was time... for Jeopardy.
As is tradition, since next week is going to be our cumulative semester test, today was review day in the form of a class-long game of Jeopardy.
In the end, the team "Augen" beat out the team "Kluge" by about 1500 points.
After lunch, and before the Singprobe, we went over Nikolaustag and read the poem, "Nikolaus, ich wart schon lange," reading it together, translating it in stanzas, and then finally acting it out. One of the many things wished for in the poem is a "Spielzeugkuh," and somehow the kids thought the idea of a toy cow was just hilarious, so one of them took it upon himself to dress up and act like the cow during the acting portion. He then wore that costume (made of notebook paper colored in with black blotches and taped to his clothes) to the singing practice, mooing all the way.
And so was born our new mascot, the Spielzeugkuh, forever immortalized in toy form once I can find a cow. If you have a toy cow you would like to donate to the class instead, just let me know and this shall be gladly accepted and prominently displayed.
For next week's test, I recommend studying the following:
It began like any other Saturday, but quickly this illusion was shattered when I wrote 8 ominous columns on the board: 8 categories, 8 topics, each with numbers 1-1000. It was time... for Jeopardy.
As is tradition, since next week is going to be our cumulative semester test, today was review day in the form of a class-long game of Jeopardy.
In the end, the team "Augen" beat out the team "Kluge" by about 1500 points.
After lunch, and before the Singprobe, we went over Nikolaustag and read the poem, "Nikolaus, ich wart schon lange," reading it together, translating it in stanzas, and then finally acting it out. One of the many things wished for in the poem is a "Spielzeugkuh," and somehow the kids thought the idea of a toy cow was just hilarious, so one of them took it upon himself to dress up and act like the cow during the acting portion. He then wore that costume (made of notebook paper colored in with black blotches and taped to his clothes) to the singing practice, mooing all the way.
And so was born our new mascot, the Spielzeugkuh, forever immortalized in toy form once I can find a cow. If you have a toy cow you would like to donate to the class instead, just let me know and this shall be gladly accepted and prominently displayed.
For next week's test, I recommend studying the following:
- Modal verbs, meaning and usage of möchten and dürfen
- Food vocabulary as gone over earlier in the year (sausage, hamburger, pizza, pretzel, orange juice, milk, tee, coffee, fries, bread, water, egg, cake, cookies) with articles
- Family vocabulary
- Regular verb conjugation
- Definite articles in nominative and accusative
- Negation (nicht, nichts, nie, niemand)
- Interrogatives (wo, wer, wie, was, wann)
Mit Vergnügen
Monday, November 19, 2012
17.November - Schönes Fest!
Grüße an alle!
As promised and forewarned, Saturday's class opened with a quiz over the vocabulary we've accumulated from listening comprehension exercises (the songs) so far this year. It went rather well, as it was apparent that most everyone had studied.
We then reviewed the conjugation guidelines for regular verbs, as well as haben and sein, and jumped into a brand new unit that will be following us for the rest of the year: happy-fun-delicious-delightful modal verbs!
Beginning with the informal semi-modal verb möchten and introducing dürfen, we went over the basic use of modal verbs including the proper structuring of a compound verb phrase. This lead into what is easily one of the sillier games in our repertoire, "Lehrer Darf Ich?" a variation of the classic "Mother May I?" In essence, commands were given, then confirmed by saying the title phrase, and silliness ensued. That is probably the first time I've ever seen someone attempt to follow the commands "Sleep," "run," "sing" and "fly" simultaneously.
Finishing off the day after lunch in the time we had left before Singprobe, we discussed thankfulness and brainstormed about the things for which we are thankful. We then made posters with the phrase, "Ich bin dankbar für..." followed by drawings of what we're thankful for paired with the words for them, e.g. "meinen Hund" followed by a picture of a dog.
And now, the homework, to be turned in on 1. December:
P. 47, Exercises 5,6
P.50, Exercises 2,3
Finish the, "Ich bin dankbar für..." poster if not completed in class
Mit Vergnügen!
As promised and forewarned, Saturday's class opened with a quiz over the vocabulary we've accumulated from listening comprehension exercises (the songs) so far this year. It went rather well, as it was apparent that most everyone had studied.
We then reviewed the conjugation guidelines for regular verbs, as well as haben and sein, and jumped into a brand new unit that will be following us for the rest of the year: happy-fun-delicious-delightful modal verbs!
Beginning with the informal semi-modal verb möchten and introducing dürfen, we went over the basic use of modal verbs including the proper structuring of a compound verb phrase. This lead into what is easily one of the sillier games in our repertoire, "Lehrer Darf Ich?" a variation of the classic "Mother May I?" In essence, commands were given, then confirmed by saying the title phrase, and silliness ensued. That is probably the first time I've ever seen someone attempt to follow the commands "Sleep," "run," "sing" and "fly" simultaneously.
Finishing off the day after lunch in the time we had left before Singprobe, we discussed thankfulness and brainstormed about the things for which we are thankful. We then made posters with the phrase, "Ich bin dankbar für..." followed by drawings of what we're thankful for paired with the words for them, e.g. "meinen Hund" followed by a picture of a dog.
And now, the homework, to be turned in on 1. December:
P. 47, Exercises 5,6
P.50, Exercises 2,3
Finish the, "Ich bin dankbar für..." poster if not completed in class
Mit Vergnügen!
Saturday, November 10, 2012
10.November - St Martins Tag
Grüß an euch alle!
As you may have noticed, I was not present last week. While there was homework, if your child was not present in class and as such did not get the assignment, there will be no penalty. Those who did the homework will be given a 100.
Today we had a Pop Quiz over how to tell time, as this was the subject that was introduced last week by the sub, Hr. Bauer. Adding onto the time unit, we learned today also about the 24-hr clock used for official schedules and public transportation across Europe, as well as how to use the phrases "halb (vor/nach)" and "viertel (vor/nach)" (half to/after, quarter to/after).
The quiz went well, and I was pleased how much they had learned the previous week.
Then we had a roleplay break. Set into pairs, one student playing a boss, the other an employee, they made dialogues about why the employee was late to work, e.g. "Die Polizei folgten mir nach, denn ich war zu Schnell unterwegs, dann kommt der Dinosaur..."
Our activity to follow-up was to learn the vocabulary for school subjects (p.35 of the textbook) and then make our own school schedules accordingly, e.g. "Um 10 Uhr lernen wir Mathematik..."
Post-lunch, we re-introduced the idea of St. Martin's day, going over the legend of St. Martin of Tours. Just in time for the parade that yearly comes by, all the other classes going around with lanterns, singing the "Laterne, Laterne..." song, our class laid in wait. As has become a tradition of the 5. Klasse in recent years, we made goose puppets. We waited until the parade went by, then hopped out of the classroom right behind the group and followed along, honking our little hearts out like good geese.
Then we had singing practice, and that was the day.
Now as was promised/warned each class period for the last month, the day will finally come NEXT WEEK that we have a quiz over our Hörverständnis vocabulary, taking selections from the vocab banks of all our previously-done song exercises.
Here is what will be on the quiz:
The verbs: brennen, kommen, haben, sehen, stehlen
The words: der Gruß, das Lied, der Balloon, der Krieg, das Kind/die Kinder, der Freund, die Freundin
die Zeit, die Leute, die Macht, das Jahr, das Fernsehen, Deshalb, Nie/Niemals, das Herz
So long as they know these words in both languages, that will be sufficient.
Mit Vergnügen!
As you may have noticed, I was not present last week. While there was homework, if your child was not present in class and as such did not get the assignment, there will be no penalty. Those who did the homework will be given a 100.
Today we had a Pop Quiz over how to tell time, as this was the subject that was introduced last week by the sub, Hr. Bauer. Adding onto the time unit, we learned today also about the 24-hr clock used for official schedules and public transportation across Europe, as well as how to use the phrases "halb (vor/nach)" and "viertel (vor/nach)" (half to/after, quarter to/after).
The quiz went well, and I was pleased how much they had learned the previous week.
Then we had a roleplay break. Set into pairs, one student playing a boss, the other an employee, they made dialogues about why the employee was late to work, e.g. "Die Polizei folgten mir nach, denn ich war zu Schnell unterwegs, dann kommt der Dinosaur..."
Our activity to follow-up was to learn the vocabulary for school subjects (p.35 of the textbook) and then make our own school schedules accordingly, e.g. "Um 10 Uhr lernen wir Mathematik..."
Post-lunch, we re-introduced the idea of St. Martin's day, going over the legend of St. Martin of Tours. Just in time for the parade that yearly comes by, all the other classes going around with lanterns, singing the "Laterne, Laterne..." song, our class laid in wait. As has become a tradition of the 5. Klasse in recent years, we made goose puppets. We waited until the parade went by, then hopped out of the classroom right behind the group and followed along, honking our little hearts out like good geese.
Then we had singing practice, and that was the day.
Now as was promised/warned each class period for the last month, the day will finally come NEXT WEEK that we have a quiz over our Hörverständnis vocabulary, taking selections from the vocab banks of all our previously-done song exercises.
Here is what will be on the quiz:
The verbs: brennen, kommen, haben, sehen, stehlen
The words: der Gruß, das Lied, der Balloon, der Krieg, das Kind/die Kinder, der Freund, die Freundin
die Zeit, die Leute, die Macht, das Jahr, das Fernsehen, Deshalb, Nie/Niemals, das Herz
So long as they know these words in both languages, that will be sufficient.
Mit Vergnügen!
Saturday, October 27, 2012
27.Oktober - der schaurigste Schultag!!!!
Today was scary, absolutely terrifying. It was also the day when we unofficially celebrated Halloween.
The spooky day was begun with a spooky listening comprehension exercise courtesy of Rammstein's Rosenrot. I will remind again that there will before long be a quiz over the vocabulary-to-date from these listening comprehension exercises, so please make sure your child keeps these somewhere they can be retrieved when need arises.
We then stretched our spooky brain muscles with a scary essay, "Das Schaurigste Ding," wherein each child described in at least 10 sentences what to them seemed to be the scariest thing of all. Answers ranged from such staples as zombies and more zombies to invisible cats, fry cooks and 'blood and eyes'. Not disembodied or haunted blood and eyes, but just plain blood and eyes, apparently. At least one kid will not grow up to be a surgeon or taxidermist, it seems.
Expounding upon the previously learned my (mein(e)) and your (dein(e)) possessive adjectives, we went over kein(e) as well, which lead us into the beard game. "Bart, Kein Bart" is basically a mimicking game--each child would say a collection of phrases (Bart, Kein Bart, Mein Bart, Dein Bart) and do motions associated with them, and another child would have to mimic them exactly or else be cast forth from the game.
To exorcise our wiggles after lunch, we played "Vampir," a variant on "Stasi Mann" from earlier in the year. In a nutshell, each round the König(in)vampir would claim another victim, who would join the secret vampire army. Each round, the vampires grew in number. If the child who was the Polizist did not correctly guess who the König(in)vampir was in time, he would be overrun by vampires and lose the game. Out of 5 games, the Polizist only survived twice.
And then suddenly, there was a parade. We went ahead and joined this, marching around the school in costume. In case you were at all curious, my outfit was that of a Stasi Agent, for they can look like anyone.
Ending the day, candy was distributed, but only if the children used the terms they were taught for expressing desire (gern haben) and requesting (möchten, bitte). They were then allowed to trade candy amongst themselves as well, but only if they continued using the proper phrasing.
Now, the homework:
Workbook
P.20, Exercises 4,5
P.22, Exercise 9
P.23, Exercises 1-3
Mit Vergnügen!
The spooky day was begun with a spooky listening comprehension exercise courtesy of Rammstein's Rosenrot. I will remind again that there will before long be a quiz over the vocabulary-to-date from these listening comprehension exercises, so please make sure your child keeps these somewhere they can be retrieved when need arises.
We then stretched our spooky brain muscles with a scary essay, "Das Schaurigste Ding," wherein each child described in at least 10 sentences what to them seemed to be the scariest thing of all. Answers ranged from such staples as zombies and more zombies to invisible cats, fry cooks and 'blood and eyes'. Not disembodied or haunted blood and eyes, but just plain blood and eyes, apparently. At least one kid will not grow up to be a surgeon or taxidermist, it seems.
Expounding upon the previously learned my (mein(e)) and your (dein(e)) possessive adjectives, we went over kein(e) as well, which lead us into the beard game. "Bart, Kein Bart" is basically a mimicking game--each child would say a collection of phrases (Bart, Kein Bart, Mein Bart, Dein Bart) and do motions associated with them, and another child would have to mimic them exactly or else be cast forth from the game.
To exorcise our wiggles after lunch, we played "Vampir," a variant on "Stasi Mann" from earlier in the year. In a nutshell, each round the König(in)vampir would claim another victim, who would join the secret vampire army. Each round, the vampires grew in number. If the child who was the Polizist did not correctly guess who the König(in)vampir was in time, he would be overrun by vampires and lose the game. Out of 5 games, the Polizist only survived twice.
And then suddenly, there was a parade. We went ahead and joined this, marching around the school in costume. In case you were at all curious, my outfit was that of a Stasi Agent, for they can look like anyone.
Ending the day, candy was distributed, but only if the children used the terms they were taught for expressing desire (gern haben) and requesting (möchten, bitte). They were then allowed to trade candy amongst themselves as well, but only if they continued using the proper phrasing.
Now, the homework:
Workbook
P.20, Exercises 4,5
P.22, Exercise 9
P.23, Exercises 1-3
Mit Vergnügen!
Saturday, October 20, 2012
20.Oktober - neue Freunde auf dem Mond
Today we learned that the best places to make new friends are where you'd least expect it, such as on the moon or during the middle of a zombie attack.
The day began with another handout from the Sandra and Woo comic. This then lead into a quick review of the conjugation of regular verbs as well as "sein," and then we did a listening comprehension exercise with Mein Herz Brennt from Rammstein. Please do remind your children to keep all listening comprehension exercises as we will, before long, have a quiz over their vocabulary selections.
Now for the bit that will make the introductory statement make sense. Divided up into partners, the students made interrogative dialogues with one another. They played the roles of people who ran into each other in whatever situation they could imagine, and then they would ask each other questions they thought would be relevant to get to know each other in these situations. For some reason, it seems the most relevant questions to ask a new friend during a zombie attack are such as, "Was trinkst du?" or "So... wie findest du diese Zombies?"
One partner pair that may or may not have just been me talking at myself played a pair of astronauts unexpectedly running into each other on the moon.
For the rest of the afternoon after lunch, after going further into interrogative words (wo, wie, wer, was, warum, wohin, woher) we played "Stasimann," a game where one person in the class was a stasi agent or informant, and every round, someone was taken off to prison for unlawful conduct. The class was then allowed to ask one question of me, the narrator, to figure out who the Stasi was. Some questions were gamebreakers, e.g. "Ist es ein Mädchen?" when we only had two boys in the class, whereas others weren't particularly helpful, e.g. "Was ist die Farbe seines Schuhes?" (every kid but one had black shoes).
And now, for the homework:
Workbook
The day began with another handout from the Sandra and Woo comic. This then lead into a quick review of the conjugation of regular verbs as well as "sein," and then we did a listening comprehension exercise with Mein Herz Brennt from Rammstein. Please do remind your children to keep all listening comprehension exercises as we will, before long, have a quiz over their vocabulary selections.
Now for the bit that will make the introductory statement make sense. Divided up into partners, the students made interrogative dialogues with one another. They played the roles of people who ran into each other in whatever situation they could imagine, and then they would ask each other questions they thought would be relevant to get to know each other in these situations. For some reason, it seems the most relevant questions to ask a new friend during a zombie attack are such as, "Was trinkst du?" or "So... wie findest du diese Zombies?"
One partner pair that may or may not have just been me talking at myself played a pair of astronauts unexpectedly running into each other on the moon.
For the rest of the afternoon after lunch, after going further into interrogative words (wo, wie, wer, was, warum, wohin, woher) we played "Stasimann," a game where one person in the class was a stasi agent or informant, and every round, someone was taken off to prison for unlawful conduct. The class was then allowed to ask one question of me, the narrator, to figure out who the Stasi was. Some questions were gamebreakers, e.g. "Ist es ein Mädchen?" when we only had two boys in the class, whereas others weren't particularly helpful, e.g. "Was ist die Farbe seines Schuhes?" (every kid but one had black shoes).
And now, for the homework:
Workbook
S.12, Übung 11, S.15, Übung 1, 3, S. 19, Übung 3
Mit Vergnügen~
Saturday, October 13, 2012
13.Oktober - EXTREME Hopscotch
Your first reaction to the title of this blog entry might be that I'm exaggerating or just typing in random words for the sake of getting your attention. Fortunately for the both of us, neither is the case. This is an actual game.
The day began with the children presenting the Speisekarte they made for homework--as always, they were absolutely darling! I'm did wonder why almost every single one of them made pretzels the most expensive thing on the menu, though. Were they just incredible pretzels?
This was followed up by jumping into our next vocabulary unit: Familie! The necessary terms are on page 19 of the kursbuch, and in addition we learned a few complementary words:
Die Geschwister - siblings
Das Haustier - pet
Das Lebensmittelgeschäft - grocery store (it just came up over the course of the day)
Adding to this was a short unit over personal descriptive adjectives, such words to describe oneself and others as klug, groß, klein, gemein, nett, usw. We then divided up into pairs and described an imaginary friend using 'sein' and the adjectives list. The vast majority of them were small, nice and in possession of far more limbs than would be considered normal. One of them was a rainbow pinata-shaped creature that eats children.
After lunch, the game that is the namesake of this entry was played: EXTREME Hopscotch (tm)
Essentially, it goes like this: a hopscotch course is laid on the floor, each space being a pronoun (ich, du, er, sie, es, Sie, ihr, wir...). On the other end of the course, about 6 feet away, were four buckets, each labeled with a verb ending (e, t, st, en). For each student's turn, I would say a conjugated verb, e.g. "Ich spiele." They would then run the course, stopping at the appropriate pronoun, and then throw a tennis ball into the appropriate basket (so in this example, hop through the course to 'ich,' then throw a ball into 'e.')
For double or triple points, they could repeat what I had said and then say what it meant. The game-winning score was "Du spielst."
With that, we ended the day.
Now for the homework!
Stammbäume (family trees):
Make a family tree.
The day began with the children presenting the Speisekarte they made for homework--as always, they were absolutely darling! I'm did wonder why almost every single one of them made pretzels the most expensive thing on the menu, though. Were they just incredible pretzels?
This was followed up by jumping into our next vocabulary unit: Familie! The necessary terms are on page 19 of the kursbuch, and in addition we learned a few complementary words:
Die Geschwister - siblings
Das Haustier - pet
Das Lebensmittelgeschäft - grocery store (it just came up over the course of the day)
Adding to this was a short unit over personal descriptive adjectives, such words to describe oneself and others as klug, groß, klein, gemein, nett, usw. We then divided up into pairs and described an imaginary friend using 'sein' and the adjectives list. The vast majority of them were small, nice and in possession of far more limbs than would be considered normal. One of them was a rainbow pinata-shaped creature that eats children.
After lunch, the game that is the namesake of this entry was played: EXTREME Hopscotch (tm)
Essentially, it goes like this: a hopscotch course is laid on the floor, each space being a pronoun (ich, du, er, sie, es, Sie, ihr, wir...). On the other end of the course, about 6 feet away, were four buckets, each labeled with a verb ending (e, t, st, en). For each student's turn, I would say a conjugated verb, e.g. "Ich spiele." They would then run the course, stopping at the appropriate pronoun, and then throw a tennis ball into the appropriate basket (so in this example, hop through the course to 'ich,' then throw a ball into 'e.')
For double or triple points, they could repeat what I had said and then say what it meant. The game-winning score was "Du spielst."
With that, we ended the day.
Now for the homework!
Stammbäume (family trees):
Make a family tree.
- Include pictures (photos, clip art, celebrity pics from magazines, hand drawn, usw..)
- Include names and family relations (e.g. "Onkel Jim")
- Use at least all the terms on page 19 of the book, but feel free to go further
- For 10 bonus points, write 5 sentences describing family members
- Make it pretty (lines and stick figures on notebook paper will not be accepted!)
Mit Vergnügen!
Sunday, October 7, 2012
6.Oktober - Essen macht alles besser
Guten Morgen, Sonnenschein!
Saturday saw us once again opening the day with a comic worksheet, and once again I was pleasantly surprised at how well the kids understood what was going on and their ability to describe a dialogue that was entirely in German.
We reviewed haben and sein, and then segued into something we will be touching upon throughout the year, namely regular verb conjugation. The way I've traditionally presented this is by introducing guidelines for how regular verbs are handled:
Saturday saw us once again opening the day with a comic worksheet, and once again I was pleasantly surprised at how well the kids understood what was going on and their ability to describe a dialogue that was entirely in German.
We reviewed haben and sein, and then segued into something we will be touching upon throughout the year, namely regular verb conjugation. The way I've traditionally presented this is by introducing guidelines for how regular verbs are handled:
- The stem of a regular verb remains the same
- The endings for the conjugations are easily predictable and hang on the pronoun choice
Ich: stem + e
Du: stem +st
er/sie/es: stem + t
Wir: stem + en
ihr: stem + t
Sie/sie: stem + en
The reasoning I've tried to hammer home behind this is that, through memorization of these guidelines, the students should be able to make an educated guess as to how to conjugate a regular verb they've never so much as seen before.
Following this, we went over food vocabulary and played a memory game to go with them. These we will cover again, and they will be included on our first quiz in coming weeks.
And now.... the homework.
Speisekarten (menus)
- Create a menu for your own, made-up restaurant.
- Name the restaurant whatever you'd like
- List out the foods and drinks (including articles) in German
- Include pictures (either drawn, clipart, pics from online, magazines...)
- Include prices (no need to attempt to accurately guess the market price)
- MAKE IT PRETTY!!!!!! These will be displayed in the classroom for posterity for coming years to see.
Mit Vergnügen
Sunday, September 30, 2012
29.September - Stasi sind überall
Guten Abend, liebe Eltern!
Today we celebrated German American Friendship Day, beginning today's class with a trivia game lead by Fr. Lussem. Candy was on the line, so naturally the kids did their best to win, though in the end, only one could come out the other side a champion.
We reviewed Haben and Sein both with making up non-sequiturs/sentences and acting them out--my favorite thing to do--and doing a crossword.
Today also was our first time this school year to engage in a listening comprehension exercise. The song of the day was 99 Luftballons by Nena. As will be done intermittently throughout the year, basically we listened to the song, then followed along with lyric sheets that had words omitted. The objective was to fill in the missing words (provided also in a wordbank) based on what was heard. Whenever this is done, and this is important, the kids are supposed to keep the sheets afterward. Every so often, we will have a quiz over the vocabulary from these exercises.
This song exercise also served as a nice and convenient transition point to our historical/geographical theme for the year: The GDR. We discussed the tension of the Cold War that this song is about, and then gave an overview of Germany's division, life under Soviet rule and finally re-unification. Throughout the year, we will have different historical units going into detail over different elements of life in the GDR, so today was basically the intro session.
And now.... the homework.
Answer the following 5 questions with complete sentences. Please choose either English or German. It will be worth double points if answered in complete, German sentences.
Mit Vergnügen
Today we celebrated German American Friendship Day, beginning today's class with a trivia game lead by Fr. Lussem. Candy was on the line, so naturally the kids did their best to win, though in the end, only one could come out the other side a champion.
We reviewed Haben and Sein both with making up non-sequiturs/sentences and acting them out--my favorite thing to do--and doing a crossword.
Today also was our first time this school year to engage in a listening comprehension exercise. The song of the day was 99 Luftballons by Nena. As will be done intermittently throughout the year, basically we listened to the song, then followed along with lyric sheets that had words omitted. The objective was to fill in the missing words (provided also in a wordbank) based on what was heard. Whenever this is done, and this is important, the kids are supposed to keep the sheets afterward. Every so often, we will have a quiz over the vocabulary from these exercises.
This song exercise also served as a nice and convenient transition point to our historical/geographical theme for the year: The GDR. We discussed the tension of the Cold War that this song is about, and then gave an overview of Germany's division, life under Soviet rule and finally re-unification. Throughout the year, we will have different historical units going into detail over different elements of life in the GDR, so today was basically the intro session.
And now.... the homework.
Answer the following 5 questions with complete sentences. Please choose either English or German. It will be worth double points if answered in complete, German sentences.
- How was Germany divided up by the allies after WW2 (what country controlled each part)?
- What were the two Germanies called, and when was each officially founded?
- Why was the Wall built? When was it built?
- Who were the Stasi and what did they do?
- When did the Wall come down?
Mit Vergnügen
Saturday, September 22, 2012
22.September - Deutsch können wir, Englisch leider nicht
Guten Tag, Sonnenschein! Die Erde grüßt dich und küsst dich!
Today we began what looks to be the beginnings of a new tradition in the 5.Klasse, namely introducing a daily 'ice breaker' exercise. We always did these before, but they tended to vary pretty wildly from morning to morning. Now, I'm hoping to standardize them a bit more.
What we're starting to do is use comics written in German with questions listed below them in English, which the kids then answer based on what the comic says, what's going on, usw. It went rather well today, so I hope to continue doing it.
We reviewed the material from last week:
Today we began what looks to be the beginnings of a new tradition in the 5.Klasse, namely introducing a daily 'ice breaker' exercise. We always did these before, but they tended to vary pretty wildly from morning to morning. Now, I'm hoping to standardize them a bit more.
What we're starting to do is use comics written in German with questions listed below them in English, which the kids then answer based on what the comic says, what's going on, usw. It went rather well today, so I hope to continue doing it.
We reviewed the material from last week:
- Greetings for different times of day
- Introducing oneself
- Numbers 1-1000
As part of this review, we played a memory game where they had to match up cards in pairs, listing both the written-out numbers and the actual digits.
After the break, we introduced the two 'cornerstone' verbs, Haben and Sein. This was followed up by one of the most unique sessions of board races I've seen so far in the last 5 years. Typically, they spelled the German spot on! But they kept on misspelling the English words. Would you believe the word that needed to be re-written the most, out of ALL the German we did, was 'Sandwich'?
And now, the homework:
Workbook
P. 8
Exercises 8,9
and
Conjugate out Haben and Sein in the present tense.
Mit Vergnügen
Saturday, September 15, 2012
15. September 2012, Erster Schultag!!!!
Grüzi alle,
Welcome to another year of the weekend German school! I am your host and guide through this, another academic year, and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you and you children.
To give you a little bit of background on myself, in case you didn't read the blurb, this is my 5th year teaching at the German school, and I like to think that I'm getting better with age. My bachelor's degree is in German and Philosophy, and during the week I do a professional variation on the same thing I do here, teaching people, only my 'day job' is actually teaching corporate reps how to use software.
My intention for the year is for us to learn as much as possible in as fun a manner as possible.
In order to facilitate this, I ask just a few things of you:
Welcome to another year of the weekend German school! I am your host and guide through this, another academic year, and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you and you children.
To give you a little bit of background on myself, in case you didn't read the blurb, this is my 5th year teaching at the German school, and I like to think that I'm getting better with age. My bachelor's degree is in German and Philosophy, and during the week I do a professional variation on the same thing I do here, teaching people, only my 'day job' is actually teaching corporate reps how to use software.
My intention for the year is for us to learn as much as possible in as fun a manner as possible.
In order to facilitate this, I ask just a few things of you:
- Please make sure your child always brings pencils, a notebook, scratch paper and their books (both course and work) to class
- Please remind them to bring their homework. I do not accept late work. If a child is absent, then I expect them to bring the homework for each class period missed with them the day of their return. Alongside the skill assessments in each semester's report cards, I do also give objective grades based on these assignments.
- Please give minimal help with the homework. If they are struggling with understanding what to do, then by all means please assist, but please, under no circumstances give them the answers or help them write anything.
- Whenever you or the student have questions about material covered in class or assigned for homework, please contact me.
Today was an introductory and review session, focused primarily on getting to know one another and acquainting ourselves with the classroom procedures. My general method of teaching is "Learn then Play," as in we go over some concept, then play a game based on it. These games often times start out rather easy when a concept is still new, and then grow increasingly complex once we are exploring concepts further or are reviewing them. This is why we've consistently been the loudest classroom--not a day goes by without playing.
We began with a survey wherein the students wrote out such things as "Ich heisse...." "mein Lieblingsessen ist...." "mein Lieblingsschulfach ist...." and of course, "Ich will Deutsch weiterlernen, weil...."
This lead into review of some basics:
- Greetings for different times of day (Guten Tag/Abend/Morgen, Gute Nacht)
- Introducing oneself and asking someone's name
- Days of the week, months of the year
The game we played was what I've affectionately dubbed, "I need to name this game." We sat in a circle and had different motions associated with each greeting. Each child had to make the appropriate motion to match the greeting said to them by a neighbor, or they were out.
Following up, we did another getting acquainted exercise, the People Search, where we asked each other questions about favorite things, preferences, until our forms were filled out, then presented who liked what of each category.
To end the day, we played a classic game, "Hast Du Mein Obst?" the objective of which is to make your neighbor laugh by asking "Hast du mein obst?" in as amusing/disquieting a manner as you can while they try to answer "Nein, ich habe dein Obst nicht."
And now, the moment of truth!
Hausaufgabe:
Arbeitsbuch
P. 6-7
Exercises 2-6
Please photocopy the pages or write down the answers on a separate sheet of paper. Do not just write in the book, because then they have to tear out the pages and mutilate the poor thing.
Mit Vergnügen
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Test Day, 12. May
On this fine and glorious Saturday past, we took our test.
That is really all that happened, as this was followed immediately afterward by Singprobe and rehearsal for the Mother's Day program.
Please remember to have your children return their textbooks next weekend, and bear in mind as well that report cards will be handed out. If you or your child cannot stop by next Saturday, then the report card will be mailed to you.
Mit Vergnügen!
That is really all that happened, as this was followed immediately afterward by Singprobe and rehearsal for the Mother's Day program.
Please remember to have your children return their textbooks next weekend, and bear in mind as well that report cards will be handed out. If you or your child cannot stop by next Saturday, then the report card will be mailed to you.
Mit Vergnügen!
Saturday, May 5, 2012
5.Mai - Jeopardy
Guten Abend,
Especially to those of you celebrating 5.Mai this evening. As you may have heard from the kids, I am starting to get somewhat sick right now; I'm not certain yet what I have, but hopefully I will manage to tough it out through these last few weeks of the year. Should anything change in this regard, I will be certain to let you know.
Today was rather straightforward; we reviewed the curriculum-to-date via the ever-classic medium of Jeopardy. Our teams this time were "Die Pizzahunden" versus "Käsepommes." The former ended up winning by a margin of about 4000 points (roughly 30% of the available points).
The test next week shall be over the following:
Especially to those of you celebrating 5.Mai this evening. As you may have heard from the kids, I am starting to get somewhat sick right now; I'm not certain yet what I have, but hopefully I will manage to tough it out through these last few weeks of the year. Should anything change in this regard, I will be certain to let you know.
Today was rather straightforward; we reviewed the curriculum-to-date via the ever-classic medium of Jeopardy. Our teams this time were "Die Pizzahunden" versus "Käsepommes." The former ended up winning by a margin of about 4000 points (roughly 30% of the available points).
The test next week shall be over the following:
- Regular verb conjugation
- Haben and Sein
- Modal verbs (meaning, usage and conjugation)
- Time (24hr and 12hr)
- Seasons, Months
- Clothing, family and food vocabulary
- The accusative case
- Possessive adjectives
- Direct and Indirect Articles
The test shall be quite similar in format to the test administered at the end of the first semester, as well as the pop quiz given about a month ago, should they wish to study these as opposed to their notes.
Please also note that books are now due; please return them either this upcoming week (12.Mai) or the next (19.Mai). Zeugnisse will also be distributed in the near future with the final grades and assessment scores.
Mit Vergnügen~
Saturday, April 28, 2012
28.April - Aufsatztag
Guten... Morgen?
While technically it is Sunday, I am going to act as though it were in fact still Saturday.
Today's class period found itself spent mostly on writing our essays over the topic, "Ein Tag im Weltraum" or "A Day in Space." For at least 15 sentences, each student went over the following:
If they were able to spend a day in outerspace...
While technically it is Sunday, I am going to act as though it were in fact still Saturday.
Today's class period found itself spent mostly on writing our essays over the topic, "Ein Tag im Weltraum" or "A Day in Space." For at least 15 sentences, each student went over the following:
If they were able to spend a day in outerspace...
- How can they get to space?
- What should they do to prepare?
- Who may go with them?
- What do they want to do in space?
- What do they find in space?
The intention was to use regular verbs, Haben and Sein and modal verbs to form a coherent body of prose. For those that did not finish, or were not in attendance, completing the essay shall be homework.
Along with the essay itself, each student is expected to provide a colored illustration of their day in space.
Next week shall be the review day; we will be playing Jeopardy as usual. The week afterward (12. May) shall be the test date.
Mit Vergnügen!
Saturday, April 21, 2012
21.April - Letztes Stück der Normalität
Guten Abend,
This class period marked our final "normal" class of the school year. As mentioned last week, the upcoming classes shall be as follows:
28.4 - Aufsatz (essay) Tag
5.5 - Review Day
12.5 - Test Day
19.5 - Watch-the-graduation-ceremony-and-then eat-hotdogs day.
Today, we began with a quick introduction to the verbs and vocabulary associated with morning routines (page 91 in the textbook) and wrote out and presented descriptions of our typical mornings.
We also finished up our unit on modal verbs by introducing "müssen" to the mix, bringing our list to the following: können, dürfen, sollen, wollen, möchten, müssen.
Before breaking for lunch followed by Singprobe, we had a raucous round of board races with the two teams, "Erdbeerhunden" and "Schokoladenkatzen" going head to head with translation questions. In the end, Schokoladenkatzen came out victorious.
Now then, the homework is as follows:
Arbeitsbuch
S. 103, example 15
Prepare ideas for next week's essay: "One day in outerspace" (Ein Tag im Weltraum), wherein the students shall describe what they would do if they had a day to explore space. Please note this is to be written in the simple present tense, not the subjunctive.
Mit Vergnügen!
This class period marked our final "normal" class of the school year. As mentioned last week, the upcoming classes shall be as follows:
28.4 - Aufsatz (essay) Tag
5.5 - Review Day
12.5 - Test Day
19.5 - Watch-the-graduation-ceremony-and-then eat-hotdogs day.
Today, we began with a quick introduction to the verbs and vocabulary associated with morning routines (page 91 in the textbook) and wrote out and presented descriptions of our typical mornings.
We also finished up our unit on modal verbs by introducing "müssen" to the mix, bringing our list to the following: können, dürfen, sollen, wollen, möchten, müssen.
Before breaking for lunch followed by Singprobe, we had a raucous round of board races with the two teams, "Erdbeerhunden" and "Schokoladenkatzen" going head to head with translation questions. In the end, Schokoladenkatzen came out victorious.
Now then, the homework is as follows:
Arbeitsbuch
S. 103, example 15
Prepare ideas for next week's essay: "One day in outerspace" (Ein Tag im Weltraum), wherein the students shall describe what they would do if they had a day to explore space. Please note this is to be written in the simple present tense, not the subjunctive.
Mit Vergnügen!
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Der Annatanz - 14.April
Guten Abend,
The rest of the school year is scheduled as follows:
21.4 - normal class period
28.4 - Aufsatztag (be present to write our final long-essay in class)
5.5 - Wiederholungstag (be present for the test review)
12.5 - Prüfungstag (test day)
19.5 - Final Day
Today started out like any other class day:
We began with a partner activity, wherein the students made argument dialogues about what to do when terribly, terribly bored on a weekend. This lead to such gems as "Basketball? Ich hasse Basketball! Das ist doof!" "Dein Gesicht is doof!" and the like.
This was followed up by a review of the possessive adjectives learned to date:
mein(e) - mine
dein(e) - yours
To which we have now added:
euer/eure - yours (plural)
ihr(e) - hers
sein(e) - his
We then played "Hast du mein Obst?" for the first time in quite a while to refresh our memory on possessive adjectives, and that's when the madness was born. One student's turn in the game (the goal of which being to make one's neighbor laugh) ended up being an unusually elaborate dance during which she sang the standard line of "Hast du mein Obst?" for a good 30 seconds at least. This caught on and quickly became a meme.
At the end of the day, after we did a reading comprehension exercise over a Deutsche Welle article (www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6441611,00.html) and shortly before doing Singprobe, we did a little parade.
With the two boys playing improvised drums (banging on notebooks and a basketball) and the girls dancing and singing, we performed the song and dance routine, now affectionately dubbed "Der Annatanz" up and down our section of the hallway for about a minute before running back inside.
And now, the homework:
Workbook
P. 83, Exercise 8
P. 85, Exercise 12
The rest of the school year is scheduled as follows:
21.4 - normal class period
28.4 - Aufsatztag (be present to write our final long-essay in class)
5.5 - Wiederholungstag (be present for the test review)
12.5 - Prüfungstag (test day)
19.5 - Final Day
Today started out like any other class day:
We began with a partner activity, wherein the students made argument dialogues about what to do when terribly, terribly bored on a weekend. This lead to such gems as "Basketball? Ich hasse Basketball! Das ist doof!" "Dein Gesicht is doof!" and the like.
This was followed up by a review of the possessive adjectives learned to date:
mein(e) - mine
dein(e) - yours
To which we have now added:
euer/eure - yours (plural)
ihr(e) - hers
sein(e) - his
We then played "Hast du mein Obst?" for the first time in quite a while to refresh our memory on possessive adjectives, and that's when the madness was born. One student's turn in the game (the goal of which being to make one's neighbor laugh) ended up being an unusually elaborate dance during which she sang the standard line of "Hast du mein Obst?" for a good 30 seconds at least. This caught on and quickly became a meme.
At the end of the day, after we did a reading comprehension exercise over a Deutsche Welle article (www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6441611,00.html) and shortly before doing Singprobe, we did a little parade.
With the two boys playing improvised drums (banging on notebooks and a basketball) and the girls dancing and singing, we performed the song and dance routine, now affectionately dubbed "Der Annatanz" up and down our section of the hallway for about a minute before running back inside.
And now, the homework:
Workbook
P. 83, Exercise 8
P. 85, Exercise 12
Monday, March 26, 2012
Frühlingspause - bis 7. April
Guten Tag,
For the next two weekends, we will not be meeting for class. I know, I'm sad about it too, but what can you do? I'll have to find something else to do with my next few Saturdays.
This past Saturday we spent the majority of the class period doing two things:
The assignment was as follows:
Make your own fashion catalogue
After the quiz and catalogue, we spent the remaining class time, which wasn't much, playing a new game: "Wo ist mein Schuh?" wherein one person's shoe was hidden somewhere in the classroom, and the student had to find where it was by asking the others a maximum of 3 questions, e.g. "Ist es IN etwas?" "Ist es in einem Schreibtisch?" and so on.
The homework to be turned in the next class period is as follows:
Page 79 (workbook)
Exercises 8-9
And
Fashion Catalogue (if not done in class or not finished)
I'll be seeing you in April.
For the next two weekends, we will not be meeting for class. I know, I'm sad about it too, but what can you do? I'll have to find something else to do with my next few Saturdays.
This past Saturday we spent the majority of the class period doing two things:
- The quiz over the vocabulary from our Hörverständnis exercises
- Making our own fashion catalogues
The assignment was as follows:
Make your own fashion catalogue
- Include both pictures (handdrawn, clip art, magazine clippings etc) and the words for each type of clothing, e.g. "Das Hemd, der Schuh"
- Include prices in Euros
- Name your fashion company as well
After the quiz and catalogue, we spent the remaining class time, which wasn't much, playing a new game: "Wo ist mein Schuh?" wherein one person's shoe was hidden somewhere in the classroom, and the student had to find where it was by asking the others a maximum of 3 questions, e.g. "Ist es IN etwas?" "Ist es in einem Schreibtisch?" and so on.
The homework to be turned in the next class period is as follows:
Page 79 (workbook)
Exercises 8-9
And
Fashion Catalogue (if not done in class or not finished)
I'll be seeing you in April.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
17.März - St. Patricks Tag
Guten Morgen,
Today we began with one last Hörverständnis exercise before our quiz this upcoming week. We did the song "Tage wie dieser" by Juli.
The quiz next week will include vocabulary from the following songs:
Today we began with one last Hörverständnis exercise before our quiz this upcoming week. We did the song "Tage wie dieser" by Juli.
The quiz next week will include vocabulary from the following songs:
- Rammstein - Ohne Dich, Ich Will
- Elis - Sie Erfasst Mein Herz
- Die Prinzen - Mein Fahrrad
- Juli - Tage wie dieser
I would recommend using flash cards.
We learned another modal verb today from the lyrics of the song: sollen (should). Our repertoire of modal verbs is nearly complete now: sollen, wollen, können, dürfen, möchten
To hone our conversational skills, we played a game of "20 Fragen." It went surprisingly well, and I was also pleasantly surprised at the creativity of the kids. One of the unguessable things was me, oddly enough, though I stumped the kids at my turn: no one ever expects your topic to be "Ohio."
To celebrate the day, we played bingo with regular verb conjugation, and each bingo won a green donut. That is, until we started to run low on time, so alternative donut-earning acts included conjugating "können" all the way and wishing the birthday girl (Jillian) a happy birthday in German.
Homework for the week:
Study for the upcoming quiz.
Mit Vergnügen
Saturday, March 10, 2012
10 März: Der ewige Streit
Guten Abend,
Today, as part of our unit on arguments and dialogue, we as a class tackled one of the most important issues of our time: pirates vs. ninjas. After a short review of argument words (nicht, nichts, nie, niemals, niemand, doch) and a pop quiz over modal verbs, regular verbs and the accusative case, we divided into two groups. One half of the class argued that Pirates are better than Ninjas, and the other argued the reverse. After a half hour of discussion, the two groups presented their points.
Ninjas:
Today, as part of our unit on arguments and dialogue, we as a class tackled one of the most important issues of our time: pirates vs. ninjas. After a short review of argument words (nicht, nichts, nie, niemals, niemand, doch) and a pop quiz over modal verbs, regular verbs and the accusative case, we divided into two groups. One half of the class argued that Pirates are better than Ninjas, and the other argued the reverse. After a half hour of discussion, the two groups presented their points.
Ninjas:
- They have nerf guns (?)
- They have free wi-fi (apparently)
- They are honorable
- The don't go around hunting for stupid treasure all day
- They are, and I quote, "faster than snipers."
Pirates:
- They're rich because of all that treasure they gather
- They are multicultural and speak many languages (french, spanish, english) whereas ninjas tend to be culturally-isolated
- Parrots
- They have more movies about them, and their movies are consistently better than ninja movies
- Johnny Depp
Conclusion: Ninjas won because pirates don't have internet access.
The class ended with a quick review on time-telling (24-hr, 12-hr) and a game of "Herr Fuchs."
Homework for the week is as follows:
Arbeitsbuch
P. 78, Exercises 4, 6
P. 82, Exercises 5, 6
Saturday, March 3, 2012
3. März - Fahrräde!!!!!!!
Guten Tag,
Today we started off by playing a game that the children had prepared themselves. Two weeks ago, you may recall we spent class time divided into group with the assignment of making new games for the class. So, first thing today we were finally able to try them out. We played "Wer bin ich?," where the children wrote beforehand 5 sentences each, describing themselves. We then sat in a circle with one child in the center as all the others read out sentences from one person's sheet. The person in the center then had to guess whom it was describing.
From there, we went into our hörverständnis exercise, "Mein Fahrrad" from Die Prinzen, all about one person's absolutely insane love of his bicycle, which provided the perfect segue into today's topic: accusative prepositions.
I was rather surprised that the kids did not know what prepositions were, so after a short explanation, we covered some basic accusative preposition-article combinations (as shown on page 69 of the textbook). The catchphrase we used, which is what I learned back when I learned this topic, was "accusative = movative." Silly, I know, but the point being that, with these prepositions (and with most cases in German), moving toward a place takes the accusative case.
In den
Ins
In die
Auf die
Auf den
Aufs
The lesson was followed up with some partner work out of the workbook (page 72).
After lunch, the class was down to 2 students. I'm sensing a pattern here.
We went over negation (nicht, nichts, nie, niemals, niemand, kein) and learned a new phrase: "doch." This introduced us to a VERY German idea: ARGUING.
Which brings us to today's homework:
10 lines of dialogue:
An argument between two people over one of the following topics:
Today we started off by playing a game that the children had prepared themselves. Two weeks ago, you may recall we spent class time divided into group with the assignment of making new games for the class. So, first thing today we were finally able to try them out. We played "Wer bin ich?," where the children wrote beforehand 5 sentences each, describing themselves. We then sat in a circle with one child in the center as all the others read out sentences from one person's sheet. The person in the center then had to guess whom it was describing.
From there, we went into our hörverständnis exercise, "Mein Fahrrad" from Die Prinzen, all about one person's absolutely insane love of his bicycle, which provided the perfect segue into today's topic: accusative prepositions.
I was rather surprised that the kids did not know what prepositions were, so after a short explanation, we covered some basic accusative preposition-article combinations (as shown on page 69 of the textbook). The catchphrase we used, which is what I learned back when I learned this topic, was "accusative = movative." Silly, I know, but the point being that, with these prepositions (and with most cases in German), moving toward a place takes the accusative case.
In den
Ins
In die
Auf die
Auf den
Aufs
The lesson was followed up with some partner work out of the workbook (page 72).
After lunch, the class was down to 2 students. I'm sensing a pattern here.
We went over negation (nicht, nichts, nie, niemals, niemand, kein) and learned a new phrase: "doch." This introduced us to a VERY German idea: ARGUING.
Which brings us to today's homework:
10 lines of dialogue:
An argument between two people over one of the following topics:
- Katze oder Hunde?
- Vanilla oder Schockolade Eis?
- Hamburgers oder Hotdogs?
- Nintendo Wii oder PS3?
- Deutsch oder Spanisch lernen?
Mit Vergnügen.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Aus 4, 2 - 25.2
Guten Abend,
Today's lesson began with an introduction to "Zungenbrecher," tongue twisters. I introduced the class to a few of my favorites, to start off:
Today's lesson began with an introduction to "Zungenbrecher," tongue twisters. I introduced the class to a few of my favorites, to start off:
- Fischer Fritz ißt frische Fische, frische Fische ißt Fischer Fritz
- Am Zehnten Zehnten um Zehn Uhr Zehn zogen zehn zahme zarte Ziegen zehn Zentner Zücker zum Zoo
- Hinter Herman Hannes Haus hängen hundert Hemden raus; hundert Hemden hängen raus hinter Herman Hannes haus
usw...
Then it was time to go about making our own! First this was done individually, then the class came together as a group to make up one.
After the break, it turned out that our class of 4 had become a class of 2. So the boys and I finished out the day watching "Monsters Inc."
The lesson as planned shall continue next week.
Homework for the week shall be in preparation for next week's lesson:
Arbeitsbuch
P. 73, Exercise 5
P. 77, Exercises 1-2
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Modal Verbs and New Inventions - 2.18
Hello everyone,
Today we had the modal verb quiz, as promised/forewarned last week. I will be handing those back along with the pop quizzes next week.
Aside from that bit of fun, we did a little review today over previously-covered topics, beginning with a round of Bingo to remind us of the conjugation rules of regular verbs. Despite my having upped the anté several times, the class still managed to meet the goal I'd set for them: if at least 5 of them got "Bingos" within the last 15 minutes before lunch, I would have to bring them donuts next time. Now I have to bring them donuts next time. I suppose that's my own fault for not thinking they could pull it off.
We did a sentence-construction (syntax) exercise in the second half of class, wherein the students divided into 2 teams and attempted to outdo each other with guessing how to put a set of words on the board in the correct order, e.g. I'd write "ICH DICH GERN HABE NICHT" and they would have to arrange them in the proper order for a point.
We also show-cased the games that they had mostly finished developing as a group last time, and I will be reviewing these for feasibility. Should they seem manageable to use for the class, then next class period we will be playing some of these games.
I do not have Hausaufgabe scheduled for this week since I have been rather quiz-heavy lately. Consider this a breather period as there will, indeed, be homework again beginning next time.
Cheers!
Mit Vergnügen
Today we had the modal verb quiz, as promised/forewarned last week. I will be handing those back along with the pop quizzes next week.
Aside from that bit of fun, we did a little review today over previously-covered topics, beginning with a round of Bingo to remind us of the conjugation rules of regular verbs. Despite my having upped the anté several times, the class still managed to meet the goal I'd set for them: if at least 5 of them got "Bingos" within the last 15 minutes before lunch, I would have to bring them donuts next time. Now I have to bring them donuts next time. I suppose that's my own fault for not thinking they could pull it off.
We did a sentence-construction (syntax) exercise in the second half of class, wherein the students divided into 2 teams and attempted to outdo each other with guessing how to put a set of words on the board in the correct order, e.g. I'd write "ICH DICH GERN HABE NICHT" and they would have to arrange them in the proper order for a point.
We also show-cased the games that they had mostly finished developing as a group last time, and I will be reviewing these for feasibility. Should they seem manageable to use for the class, then next class period we will be playing some of these games.
I do not have Hausaufgabe scheduled for this week since I have been rather quiz-heavy lately. Consider this a breather period as there will, indeed, be homework again beginning next time.
Cheers!
Mit Vergnügen
Sunday, February 12, 2012
2.11 Mitten Februar
Hello everyone,
Sorry that this post is a little late; my wife and I both have been sick this week and took turns taking care of each other. I spent the week sick, so it was apparently her turn this weekend. Don't worry--I've been fine for a few days now.
Saturday's class period began with our writing paragraphs describing our favorite animals such that the rest of the class would have to guess what they were, e.g. "mein Lieblingstier hat 8 Beine, wohnt tief im Meer und frisst Fische gern..."
Our modal verbs unit continued with the addition of the verb "wollen," leaving us with a list as follows: Dürfen, Können, Möchten, Wollen. There will be a quiz over the meaning, conjugation and usage of these verbs next weekend. We then played a round of mad-libs to practice proper syntax with modal verbs and helping verbs in standard, single-clause sentences.
We also played a revised version of the game that was played earlier in January while a sub was present, "Folge den Leiter," wherein one person commanded a group of his/her blindfolded classmates through an obstacle course using basic imperatives: "Geht nach Links/Rechts/Gerade aus/Rückwarts," "HALT!" usw.
After the break, the class earned a pop quiz by deciding to spend the lunch period hiding all my dry-erase markers. Every minute spent hunting down my markers and/or being loud earned a quiz question, leaving us with an 18-question pop quiz over modal verbs, regular verbs and imperatives. I will be returning these with the other pending papers to be graded.
To end the day, I asked the children to split into groups and try to invent their own games over any of the grammar points we have learned so far throughout the year. Their results will be presented next class period.
And now, for the homework.
Hausaufgabe: study for the modal verbs quiz. Review conjugation and meaning of each verb as well as how to form sentences with modal verbs and helping verbs.
Sorry that this post is a little late; my wife and I both have been sick this week and took turns taking care of each other. I spent the week sick, so it was apparently her turn this weekend. Don't worry--I've been fine for a few days now.
Saturday's class period began with our writing paragraphs describing our favorite animals such that the rest of the class would have to guess what they were, e.g. "mein Lieblingstier hat 8 Beine, wohnt tief im Meer und frisst Fische gern..."
Our modal verbs unit continued with the addition of the verb "wollen," leaving us with a list as follows: Dürfen, Können, Möchten, Wollen. There will be a quiz over the meaning, conjugation and usage of these verbs next weekend. We then played a round of mad-libs to practice proper syntax with modal verbs and helping verbs in standard, single-clause sentences.
We also played a revised version of the game that was played earlier in January while a sub was present, "Folge den Leiter," wherein one person commanded a group of his/her blindfolded classmates through an obstacle course using basic imperatives: "Geht nach Links/Rechts/Gerade aus/Rückwarts," "HALT!" usw.
After the break, the class earned a pop quiz by deciding to spend the lunch period hiding all my dry-erase markers. Every minute spent hunting down my markers and/or being loud earned a quiz question, leaving us with an 18-question pop quiz over modal verbs, regular verbs and imperatives. I will be returning these with the other pending papers to be graded.
To end the day, I asked the children to split into groups and try to invent their own games over any of the grammar points we have learned so far throughout the year. Their results will be presented next class period.
And now, for the homework.
Hausaufgabe: study for the modal verbs quiz. Review conjugation and meaning of each verb as well as how to form sentences with modal verbs and helping verbs.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Superhelde!!!!!!!!!!! 4.2.12
Guten Abend,
We had an unexpectedly small class today, but we managed to get through most of the material that I had hoped to cover. While I seldom send out responses to emails notifying me of absences, I do take them into account when planning the day, and they are very much appreciated when I receive them.
The class period began with another Hörverständnis exercise, "Ich Will" from Rammstein, which served as a nice and natural segue into learning another modal verb, "wollen" (to want). Covered modal verbs so far would then be the following:
Wollen, Dürfen, Können, "Möchten"
After a break for a few games (4 kids are somehow rowdier than 9 kids), the majority of the class time was spent on an in-class essay, "Ich bin Superheld!" wherein the students described themselves as superheroes in the first person. Those not present will need to do this essay for homework.
And now, the homework!
Arbeitsbuch
P. 75, ex. 11-12
Essay: "Ich bin Superheld!"
10-15 sentences (bonus points will be awarded for those who do 15)
Use Haben, Sein, and at least 1 modal verb (preferably "Können") to describe yourself.
We had an unexpectedly small class today, but we managed to get through most of the material that I had hoped to cover. While I seldom send out responses to emails notifying me of absences, I do take them into account when planning the day, and they are very much appreciated when I receive them.
The class period began with another Hörverständnis exercise, "Ich Will" from Rammstein, which served as a nice and natural segue into learning another modal verb, "wollen" (to want). Covered modal verbs so far would then be the following:
Wollen, Dürfen, Können, "Möchten"
After a break for a few games (4 kids are somehow rowdier than 9 kids), the majority of the class time was spent on an in-class essay, "Ich bin Superheld!" wherein the students described themselves as superheroes in the first person. Those not present will need to do this essay for homework.
And now, the homework!
Arbeitsbuch
P. 75, ex. 11-12
Essay: "Ich bin Superheld!"
10-15 sentences (bonus points will be awarded for those who do 15)
Use Haben, Sein, and at least 1 modal verb (preferably "Können") to describe yourself.
- What is your superhero name?
- What is your normal name?
- What does your costume look like?
- What are your superpowers? (Superkräfte)
- What do you do with your powers? (fight crime, win the lottery, join the Army, etc...)
- How did you get your powers?
- Who are your enemies? What do they do?
- Who are your friends?
Please note I will also be expecting report cards from those who were not present today.
Mit Vergnügen~
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Urteilstag und gern Haben - 28.1
Guten Tag,
Today was the day the class received their Zeugnisse. Enclosed were both the 'subjective' grades, wherein I gave my assessment of the students' overall skill levels as well as behavior, and the 'objective' semester average, wherein the grades for each assignment collected were listed out along with the average for the first half of the year.
The subjective part went as follows: (1-6, 1 being the best score)
Today was the day the class received their Zeugnisse. Enclosed were both the 'subjective' grades, wherein I gave my assessment of the students' overall skill levels as well as behavior, and the 'objective' semester average, wherein the grades for each assignment collected were listed out along with the average for the first half of the year.
The subjective part went as follows: (1-6, 1 being the best score)
- Betragen (conduct)
- Fleiss (effort)
- Schulbesuch (attendance)
- Grammatik (grammar skills)
- Lesen (reading ability)
- Hörverständnis (listening comprehension)
- Rechtschreiben (writing ability)
I'm available to answer any questions about the grades given should you have any. Please send the Zeugnisse back next week, signed.
We did another Hörverständnis exercise today with the semi-romantic song, "Ohne Dich" by Rammstein. This segued into a further lesson on the accusative case, whereupon we reviewed previously established points and elaborated further with the introduction of accusative pronouns, namely "mich" and "dich."
From there, we played a game, a variant of the classic "Hast Du Mein Obst" called "Ich habe dich gern."
Kids said to each other, "Ich habe dich gern. Hast du mich gern?" and were answered with, "NEIN!" the object being to make one another laugh. Whoever laughed in this exchange (the one professing they like the other, or the one doing the rejecting) was out.
FYI--I did my best to emphasize the use of "gern haben" in the casual, 'liking' sense to keep it appropriate.
Also covered was communicating not just liking, but 'favorites' as well, including using Liebling--- and "am liebsten haben."
After the midday break, we reviewed the previously-covered modal verbs ('möchten', dürfen) and added können to the mix. We played "Was Kann Ich?" which was essentially charades with the added bonus of the kids having to guess in complete sentences, e.g. "Er kann schwimmen!" if a boy was up in front miming he was swimming, etc.
We ended the day with a communication exercise; the kids filled out questionnaires listing their favorite things in several categories (lieblingstier, lieblingssport, usw.) and had to ask other students what they liked as well. Those who found matches then communicated this to the group at the end, e.g. "Ich habe Snickers gern. Snickers ist mein Lieblingscandy. Soandso hat es auch gern!"
The homework is as follows:
Arbeitsbuch
P.71
#13-15
~Mit Vergnügen
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Wieder Da! 21.1.12
Did anyone else notice that today's date is a palindrome?
I've finally returned to teaching after 5 weeks off, this length break having been due to both the Christmas/New Year's holidays as well as a business trip to France that occupied far more time than I would have liked (but that's what happens when you get bought by a French company).
The report I received from the substitute, Hr. Bauer, was excellent, and I was simply overjoyed!
Today's lesson found us starting off with a listening-comprehension exercise, the song being "Nichts Bringt Mich Runter" by Ich&Ich. I highly recommend the group, by the way.
From there, we delved into a subject that will be repeated throughout the rest of the year: the accusative case and the corresponding declensions of definite articles, indefinite articles and the 1st-person pronoun (mich). This was followed by a rousing game of "Wer Hat Den Schlüssel?"
Today also saw another point of this year's Landeskunde theme over the DDR and Reunification: "Selbstidentifizierung der DDR gegenüber den Westen." The children were divided into two groups and given selections from a young adult book, Die Flaschenpost, about a pair of 12-year-olds from opposite sides of the Berlin Wall who end up being accidental penpals when one of them throws a message-in-a-bottle (Flaschenpost) into the Spree River, hoping it'd go off to faraway lands.
The two groups answered questions about the reading selections and summarized their selections for the other group. It went marginally well--I think the passages may have been too difficult, but it was worth a try. We will if the selections for next weekend go over better.
And now, the homework.
Hausaufgabe:
I've finally returned to teaching after 5 weeks off, this length break having been due to both the Christmas/New Year's holidays as well as a business trip to France that occupied far more time than I would have liked (but that's what happens when you get bought by a French company).
The report I received from the substitute, Hr. Bauer, was excellent, and I was simply overjoyed!
Today's lesson found us starting off with a listening-comprehension exercise, the song being "Nichts Bringt Mich Runter" by Ich&Ich. I highly recommend the group, by the way.
From there, we delved into a subject that will be repeated throughout the rest of the year: the accusative case and the corresponding declensions of definite articles, indefinite articles and the 1st-person pronoun (mich). This was followed by a rousing game of "Wer Hat Den Schlüssel?"
Today also saw another point of this year's Landeskunde theme over the DDR and Reunification: "Selbstidentifizierung der DDR gegenüber den Westen." The children were divided into two groups and given selections from a young adult book, Die Flaschenpost, about a pair of 12-year-olds from opposite sides of the Berlin Wall who end up being accidental penpals when one of them throws a message-in-a-bottle (Flaschenpost) into the Spree River, hoping it'd go off to faraway lands.
The two groups answered questions about the reading selections and summarized their selections for the other group. It went marginally well--I think the passages may have been too difficult, but it was worth a try. We will if the selections for next weekend go over better.
And now, the homework.
Hausaufgabe:
- DDR Brieffreunde
- Act as though you have a penpal in the old DDR. They can be named whatever you like. Write them a letter asking questions about what their life is like, anything you want to know about.
- Total of 10 sentences.
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