14.Dez. '13 - Jeopardy

Guten Morgen!


Yesterday we spent the class period locked in a glorious battle of the minds between two warring factions: "Obst" and "Gemüse," as we reviewed the content covered this semester.
So in other words, we played Jeopardy in teams.

In the end, Gemüse won by one of the narrowest of possible margins, 150 points (the value of half a question) due to a team member having been highly skilled at searching for hidden shoes.

Next week will be the last class period of the year, and we will reconvene in January 2014. Yes, there is school next week.

Those who attend next week will have a great deal of fun in my class, so come to German School!
Also, if any of your children are allergic to the contents of a frosted sugar cookie--my documentation doesn't indicate as such, but thought I'd ask just in case--PLEASE let me know.

Mit Vergnügen

7.Dez. '13 - Haariger als Sven?

Today we compared ourselves to the unattainable specimen of perfection that is our beloved Sven.

First we began by correcting the homework together and reading the results aloud, then switching it up a bit and making the previously first-person statements of comparison to Sven be 3rd person, so we all talked about how we all compared to dear old Sven.

We went back over the comparatives unit from before Thanksgiving, and added onto it the superlatives (Am besten, am größten, der/die/das Beste, der/die/das Größte, etc.) and some dialogues/roleplaying exercises to go with them.

We also took as many chances as we could to go bother the 8th grade class with what we've learned, such as running over there, saying, "Wir sind am klugsten!" nice and loud and then running away, because it builds community. That was my reason. Of course it was.

Singprobe happened just before lunch, so we then did lunch and our Ruhepause, nice little block of time there, and wrapped up with some further dialogue exercises, including mad lib versions of the ones from last week.

And now, the homework:

Workbook page 12, #10; page 11, #6


Fahrvergnügen

23 November '13 - Logic is a little bird

Guten Morgen,


As you are doubtless aware, there is no school next week due to that little holiday known as Thanksgiving.

For Saturday's class, we spent most of our time working through logic puzzles designed to challenge, well, logic skills, as well as reviewing the dative case, family vocabulary, and comparative statements.

The rest of class was spent doing dramatic readings of dialogues intended to reinforce the common dative-pronoun phrases, including "es tut mir weh," "es tut mir leid," "wie geht's dir?" usw. They were quite dramatic! The two character parts in these were Jan Jakob and Jingleheimer Schmidt. Think about it for a second.

Homework for next class is as follows:

Compare yourself to Sven, our class mascot. In 10 full sentences, how are you alike or different? Use comparative statements.

Mit Vergnügen.

16. November '13 - "Besser schöner reicher schneller!"

"Your face is disruptive!"
My favorite quote from today. It's followed closely by,

"Ich bin nicht so haarig wie Sven."
Also true. No one is as hairy as Sven.

Today we covered comparatives, so we opened class by comparing ourselves with one another in an of course professional, academic, and orderly fashion. In groups of 3, each group compared themselves with the other group in up to 5 ways with adjectives provided on the board, e.g. klug, schön, haarig, groß, klein, etc. Apparently there was disagreement as to which group was haariger, as both group were convinced it was the others. We thankfully avoided debating this as things could've otherwise gotten truly hairy.
We went over basic comparisons: "so (or genauso) _____ wie" (just as ____ as), "nicht so _____ wie" (not as ____ as) and "____er als" (something-er than, e.g. "taller than")
Then in pairs, we compared people in the class with celebrities, with my having assigned the celebrity and the pairs choosing a person. Students were compared to Elvis Presley, Selena Gomez, Barack Obama, and I tried to assign my favorite actors, but none of them had any idea who Hugh Jackman is, and only one of them knew Clark Gable (guess who).

And then there was lunch and the Ruhepause for those who brought homework. Please write homework answers on separate sheets of paper instead of in the book--it makes life easier for all involved.

Between the Pause and the singing, we went over dative declination of the pronouns "ich" "du" and "ihr," so "mir" "dir" and "euch." This was followed up with the most common phrases that use dative pronouns, which are used VERY commonly in everyday conversation:

• "Wie geht's dir?"
• "Mir ist kalt/heiß"
• "Es tut mir leid"
• "Es tut (mir) weh!" 

We had a lot of unexpected fun with those last two phrases. 

Then we played, "Ich und Sven," where we sat in a circle, threw Sven at each other, and whoever caught Sven had to both make a comparative statement aloud about themselves and Sven (hence the quotation up top) AND repeat the statement made by the person before them before tossing Sven onward.

And then there was singing. So very much singing. We're only 6 weeks away from Christmas, folks.

And then the day came to a close. 

Homework:

Workbook (yes, I remembered we had those)

P. 16, #4 (a-c)

P. 20, #6

Mit Vergnügen

9.Nov '13 - Rettet den Sven! und St.Martins Tag

Guten Abend!


I'm back, having taken last weekend off for a family getaway down to Southern Illinois. Ever been to Decatur? It's exciting. So very, very exciting. Yep, Decatur.

Class today began with acknowledgement of St. Martin's Day, segued into a group activity. Instead of simply telling the story of Martin of Tours and/or singing a song, making lanterns, making geese, or any of those other things, I divided the class in half and had each group write out, and then act out, a summary of the two main parts of the Martin story: the story where he was a legionnaire who shared his cloak with a beggar, and the part where the people of Tours tried to make him Bishop and he hid in a barn full of geese.
One of my favorite parts of this was when one of the girls went around 'shivering' saying "SO KALT!" while "St. Martin" rode up on his horse and heroically surveyed the situation in a Superman-esque pose.

The main lesson covered contractions of prepositions in dative and accusative (ins, ans, aufs, im, am) and then lead into an activity that we've never tried before: battle plans.
This was called, "Retten des Svens" and the object was to, well, rescue Sven (our historical class mascot, the Iron Age teutonic warrior) from the Romans. On the board was drawn stick figure Sven in a forest with trees and a river, with angry-faced Roman legionnaires stationed around the board between him and his goal on the other side, Svens Haus. Using basic commands ('du' imperatives) and directions (nach links, rechts, oben, unten) and I apologize if random english words pop up--the autocorrect is going insane--in two teams, the students directed Sven how to get home safely.
Rules included:

• Be specific! State the desired location in relation to other things (e.g. "Hinter den Bäume, Spring in den Fluss und Schwimm, komm aus zwischen dem Legionär und den 2 Bäume….)
• Sven can only take down one Legionär at a time so don't send him plowing into them
• Legionärs can see up to an inch away from them (lines of aggro drawn around them)

One group got Sven safely home via the river and then an empty field, and the other got him home then had him double back and take out half a legion since they finished quicker than the other group and it seemed like a fun idea. 

Then there was lunch.

Then there was cleaning of the main hall since it was our class' turn. 

Then there was the debate as to the merits of the Pretty Pretty Princess board game, ending in a stale mate

Then there was the Umzug, wherein instead of honking or singing, one of our very own donned a cape, legionnaire helmet, horse and sword, and rode around the school as Martin while the rest of us wandered around saying, "WO BIST DU, SANKT MARTIN?" until it was time for the group assembly.

The Homework:

Workbook

P. 9, Exercises 8 and 9

We will start work on dative-only verbs, dative and accusative pronouns and common phrases that use these pronouns (mich/mir, dich/dir, etc) 

19. Oktober '13 - "Gib mir den Ball!"

Guten Abend!

We started out with the students switching homework assignments with one another, correcting them, and then analyzing the sentences on the board for what was right versus grammatically wrong.

Then there were *FIRE ALARM FIRE ALARM FIRE ALARM* Huh? Oh, it's a fire drill.

Now where were we? Then there were two group activities involving vocabulary we have learned in previous weeks.
At first, I drew a house floor plan on the board, with each room and significant furniture piece labelled, and the students copied this down and translated it all into German in pairs. Then, likewise in pairs, they re-designed it into their own houses, potentially "Dream Houses" involving such things as indoor swimming pools or, for some reason, a fountain filled with Arizona Tea. Mine had a king-size hammock and a water slide that lead from the bedroom to a giant indoor pool to make waking up in the morning easier.

Getting back to the current grammar unit, we reviewed what we had learned to date on the Dative case, and then went further by delving into the idea of indirect versus direct objects, and how the Dative is used for indirect, whereas direct objects take the Accusative. As a warm up, afterward, we did a challenging group exercise with the class divided into two teams.
A slew of truly random words, including 6 nouns, 3 prepositions, and 3 verbs were written on the board, and the two teams had to somehow form these into coherent sentences with correct verb conjugation and noun declensions. While at first deemed impossible, the results were laudile.

And then there was pizza.

Post-pizza, we threw projectiles at one another, as is our preferred learning style.
This game is called, "Gib mir den Ball!" wherein names are called, responses of "Gib mir den Ball!" are given, and then the ball is tossed to another player, and this continues around the circle. We had 3 balls and a dictionary in the air at once. Anyone who failed to say the phrase correctly or who missed a catch (usually me) crouched in the center of the circle, and then was tagged back in when someone else was knocked out of play.

Now for the homework:
Translate the following, paying careful attention to both the dative (for indirect objects) and accusative (for direct) declensions.

• I’m throwing the football to my brother
• I’m throwing my brother to the football.
• The football is throwing me to my brother
• The football is throwing my brother to me
• I am running in the room
• I am running into the room
• The dog is throwing the football and my brother to me in the room.

Mit Vergnügen

12.Oktober '13 - Das Svenwerfen

We threw a viking around for at least 20 minutes.

Now that I have your attention, today started out rather normally. We went over the homework results, including correcting the most commonly seen errors together on the board.

We then reviewed the Dative case and the common prepositions (in, an, auf, vor, hinter, neben, zwischen) before loading the kids up with sugar. I had brought donuts this morning, and as one student put it, "With Herr Walker, everything has a catch." Donuts were placed throughout the room, and students took turns saying which donuts they wanted and then stating their location with the dative case.
Ex: "Dieser Schokoladedonut! Der Donut ist auf dem Tisch."

Then it came time to throw a viking around. Sven, our actually-a-viking-but-supposed-to-be-a-Teuton doll was thrown around a field that was filled with highly-visible objects (shoes, books, sweaters). The 8th grade class joined us for this one, Das Svenwerfen. Sven was thrown, and the thrower then had to call out where he landed (e.g. "Sven ist unter dem Baum," "Sven landet auf Herr Walker")

Since everyone brought their homework, we took our Ruhe around lunch, and then we hopped into a review of house/room vocabulary using concept mapping to determine what sort of room has what in it, and what one does in which room. We introduced verbs such as "duschen" and "schlafen" and so on.

Then we put a paper bag over someone's head and lead them blind around the school.
This is a game called "Wo bist du?", the object of which is to lead a disoriented, blinded individual around the school and then have them say where they are, e.g. "Ich bin in der Küche?" The highlight to me was walking into the 8th grade classroom, Frau K. having agreed to total silence, and having the paper bag-headed child try to guess aloud where they were. Each child was lead by the hand in front, guided from behind, and had others on either side of them to avoid injury.

And now for the homework.

Use the words below in 5 coherent sentences using the Dative case.
Each sentence must be complete, using at least one regular verb conjugated correctly for the subject of your choice.

• der Ball
• die Stuhl
• die Schwester
• der Hund
• der Gabel
• der Kühlschrank
• die Socken
• das Brot
• das Wohnzimmer
• die Hexe

5.Oktober '13 - Ein Rätsel

What do you get when you combine 1000 popsicle sticks, 5 sheets of felt, two hot glue guns, 50 refill glue sticks, 4 pounds of 'magic model clay,' 6 7th graders and 3 hours of time?

A mess of epic proportions. I think we broke the vacuum cleaner. Suffice to say, it was awesome.


Today began relatively innocently; the students presented their homemade decorations (the pie plate axe was especially intimidating) and read aloud 2-3 sentences auf Deutsch over each while showing them to the class. We then set about hanging them on the wall with varying degrees of success.
Please keep them coming! Even something as simple as posters or printouts of all things Rome and Ancient Germania (busts of Caesar, maps, etc) would be greatly appreciated to adorn our walls.

The class was then introduced to Sven, our mascot, a viking doll I got in Norway an ancient Teuton warrior here to grace the school with his presence as we learn about his time period. He was presented with a sparkly-haired Barbie horse noble steed by one of the girls, upon which he shall proudly stride into battle!

We began a unit on spatial location and the dative case today, learning the basics of dative declension of definite articles (der/das - dem, die - der, die (pl) - den) and the meaning of dative ("staytive") as, among other things, denoting something's location. We then took notes and made examples with the essential dative prepositions: An, auf, hinter, vor, neben, über, unter, zwischen

This transitioned into shear madness an activity called "Wo ist Sven?" where Sven was hidden in various places throughout the room, sometimes in plain sight, and the students, divided into two competitive groups, had to describe (coherently and correctly, articles and everything) where Sven was in relation to objects, people and furniture.
"Sven ist unter dem Tisch!" "Sven ist in dem Schrank." "Sven ist unter dem Pferd under der Stuhl neben der Ziege unter Herrn Walker" and so on.

For the rest of class, as promised, we made a big mess.

Our end product was a Roman Villa made out of white clay, including wooden furniture, clay fruit, a clay garden with crops, and surprisingly enough, a pool. The other group made a mud-and-wood Germanic hut with Beer kegs, a wood-burning 'stove' hutch, a partitioned space for the goats, a rather sad looking patch of crops, and an accompanying barn.

Much thanks to all who brought supplies for today's lesson! It wouldn't have gone anywhere near as well without your contributions.

And now for the homework:

"Wo ist Sven?"

• Draw Sven in a location somewhere within an imaginary house. So draw Sven and the room he is in. It may be fantastical and strange if you'd like.
• Describe where Sven is in comparison to at least 4 different things. 
• Remember to use the Dative!

Mit Vergnügen

28.9 - All a Matter of Perspective

Guten Morgen, Sonnenschein!


I was very proud of the way class turned out this Saturday; your kids showed more critical understanding than I had originally estimated. To be truthful, I was nervous about this one, but the lesson turned out very well.

The class started out with everyone reading aloud their homework (as is our habit), followed by a
cooperative learning exercise (you'll see lots of vocab like this since I'm currently in an MAT program and kind of got into the habit of using it) where we divided into two groups, each group being tasked with filling out a vocabulary list of "Zimmer und Zuhaus" words which we would use later. The group that finished first and most accurately received points. Then the two groups were pitted against each other in a board race for further points. The winners were promised their choice of Starbucks beverages at the beginning of next class.

We then learned about the Roman Empire and its interactions with ancient Germany in the 1st Century AD. It was a quick little introduction; we covered the basics overview at first, what the Roman Empire looked like at that time under Augustus, what life was like for an average Roman, and most importantly how the Romans tended to treat other nations.
This lead to a "think - learn - do": we webbed out associations with Rome and how the kids thought they would treat their neighbors, then went into a lecture/discussion about what it was ACTUALLY like, followed by the mixed reactions to Roman incursions on the part of ancient Germanians.
The high point of the class was when one student chimed in, "There were no good guys or bad guys. It's all perspective!" I was so proud.

After comparing lifestyles and cultures of Imperial Romans and the teutonic tribes, we then spent our time using the vocab from earlier to design both Roman Villas and Germanic steads (huts + farms). The class voted on the best two, and those are what we will make in class next week. I will make a run to Hobby Lobby for felt, popsicle sticks, paper and hot glue, but if you have any of the above lying around, please feel encouraged to donate them to the cause of creative anarchy for next week!

Homework for the week:

DECORATE THE CLASSROOM!
Choose two of the following to make at home and then bring to class to decorate the walls:

• Germanic or Roman swords, helmets, armor, spears
• Maps of Germania or the Roman Empire
• Roman-style Tapestries
• Fake "animal skin" rugs, wall hangings or beds

Also great but not required would be any posters, prints, or printouts of pictures of anything Imperial Roman, e.g. maps, busts of Caesar, and so forth. 

The room will be divided into the "Germania" side and the "Rome" side with the Rhein running down the center. 

My recommendations for making things such as weapons would be to cut shapes out of cardboard (like from boxes), then color and cover with either foil, glitter, or colored paper. Wonderful Roman pyla (cavalry spears) can be made from 5-6 paper towel rolls taped together with a cardboard spear tip at the top.

21.9 - EXTREM DEUTSCHES HOPSCOTCH

Hello All,

This Saturday had a bigger class in attendance, of 5 students, so thank you for that! Also thanks to those of you who sent your kids to school with a sports event schedule in hand. Those are very helpful, especially since I do not always have time to check my email on Friday nights (I work very strange hours). Please send me a copy of your child's events schedule--games, meets, etc--such that I can more readily plan for however many students I am going to have on Saturday.
As a wise man once said, "A lesson plan is a terrible thing to waste."

Saturday was our benchmark day, wherein through rigorous academic exercise (mostly games) we managed to determine:

• how much has been retained over the years
• what knowledge has been gained or built upon

Aside from reviving some old classics that I know they had missed since leaving 5th grade ("Hast du mein Obst?" and "Board Scrambles"), we revived the most dangerous game of all: EXTREM DEUTSCHES HOPSCOTCH, wherein hopscotch, recitation from memory, yelling things out loud, and throwing projectiles at the teacher all come together for the sake of learning/re-learning conjugation rules. 

I'm happy to report that most seem to recall how to conjugate haben, sometimes sein, and the guidelines for regular verbs. They have also learned how to use dictionaries, which warmed my heart to no end. I could not tell you the number of times I'd seen verbs used in place of nouns and such in papers.

This having been shown, I'd like to emphasize that my goal this year is to track mastery as best as I can, and not to worry about grades. That being said, with each homework assignment, please avoid helping them. Give your child absolutely zero assistance on homework, please, unless otherwise specified, so that I can accurately track understanding and growth. 

Next week, should all go well, we will be learning about this year's historical-cultural theme, "Ancient Germany and the Roman Empire," an oft overlooked topic near and dear to my heart, and accordingly decorating our classroom. The walls are bare right now, but shall soon be covered with decorations made by your children! We should begin learning about this topic and decorating the classroom next week.

Erster Schultag - 14.9.13

Guten Abend, alle!

Welcome to the new school year with the 7.Klasse of the German School! I'm pleasantly surprised that you all seem to be pleasantly surprised at the pleasant surprise of my being your children's teacher once again, which I find surprisingly pleasant.

Our attendance today was rather sparse, with 4 students at the beginning which ended up dwindling down to 1 by the last hour. To avoid miscommunications and planning difficulties, I'd asked those present to present me next class, or whenever possible, with schedules for their sporting events and the like for my reference. This way, I can easily check these calendars to know in advance who is going to be absent, which is extremely helpful, so please turn in to me all event calendars/meet schedules and such at your earliest convenience.

Most of our time was spent creating the class charter, or the rules and expectations for this year, as a collaborative effort, hoping to inspire 'ownership' of the class and investment in its orderliness and success. The best part, I'd say, was that those who bring their homework to class will be allowed 10-15 minute break (possibly nap time) after lunch each day, whereas those who don't will need to use this time to do the homework.

Next class we will begin our more academic forays, and possibly go pearl diving off the coast of the Virgin Islands, if all goes well.

Mit Vergnügen~

18.Mai - Letzter Schultag

Guten Abend, liebe Leute aus Lernenland!


Today was our last day of German school for the '12-'13 school year, to recommence in September of this upcoming Fall.

For the duration of our class time, we played GEIST (it's like "SPUD," apparently) with the 7th grade class as lead by Fr. Noelke. This we did up until the Graduation Ceremony and subsequent picnic.

Report cards were handed out, and all past assignments that had been posted on the wall throughout the classroom were taken down to be brought back home.

Those not present will have their report cards mailed to them by Fr. Lussem.

Much was learned this year, much was played, much was eaten, and there was definitely children in attendance most of the time: this much is certain. Thank you for the privilege of teaching your kids, and I hope you all grace us with your continued presence and patronage in upcoming years.

Wie immer, mit Vergnügen~

11. Mai '13 - Götterdämmerung

Ragnarok is upon us! To arms, brave teutons! To arms! Loki's brood falls upon the world of men!

Being slightly less dramatic, today was indeed the test day, the day where all the knowledge that has managed to seep into the brains of the 5.Klasse over the course of the year was tested, set through the crucible. I will have the graded tests next week. So far, they're looking rather nice. I'm very proud of the progress your kids have made this year.

I was subbing for the 6.Klasse today, leaving the 5.Klasse in the capable hands of Fr. Lussem, who proctored the test and monitored the children during the well-earned frolicking and frivolity that followed. Thanks goes out especially to those children such as Max who helped Fr. Lussem in tidying up the building as well in preparation for the Mothers' Day celebration.

Next week shall be the picnic, end of the year wrap-up, presentation of awards and graduation of the 8.Klasse. Usually I'm also given a flower that I subsequently give to my mother-in-law to plant in her garden since every plant I take care of dies. So be present for that--it's a fun time. It really is, especially the part where they give us food. Food is very German.

Zeugnisse will be given out next week, and those who are absent will receive it in the mail. There are currently 2 students who have not yet turned in their books; please do so lest you be charged the price of them.

Mit Vergnügen~

4.Mai '13 - Jeopardy

Guten Abend,


Today we played our traditional review game of Jeopardy. The teams were 3 vs. 3, "Hans die Katze" versus "Nuddelsuppe." Nuddelsuppe won by a margin of about 600 points.

The test will be next week, covering the following topics from all that we went over during the year:

• Modal verbs - meaning, usage, syntax
• Regular verbs - conjugation rules
• Articles - definite, indefinite
• Pronouns - meaning and usage (e.g. "difference between 'du' and 'ihr' and 'Sie')
• Accusative case
• Possessive adjectives
• Food vocabulary
• Family vocabulary
• Time (12 hr, 24 hr, quarter or half 'til/after, days, months, seasons, time of day)
• Numbers

Neither books, nor notes, nor dictionaries, nor thesauruses are allowed during the test. 

For questions, please get in touch with me as I would want to make sure your child is clear on what to study. 

~Mit Vergnügen

27. April - Mauerfall

Guten Tag und Guten Appetit,


Today, a historic event occurred: the Wall came down. I do not mean that there was a Pink Floyd concert--had there been one, I'd have been absent today--but rather, that the "Berlin Wall" we made as a class a few weeks ago was rent asunder with great wrath.
I shall start from the beginning.

To open class, the instructions were for everyone to write at least 5 random words (Deutsch!) in the following categories: Jobs, Names, Vehicles, Careers, Numbers, Animals, Foods, Hobbys. They were not told why to do this. Also, they were to write down, randomly, any questions on any topic at all that they could think of, (e.g. "Wo ist mein Schuh?" "Wie steht die Uhr?" "Wer ist Hans?" usw.)
Shortly afterward, we did our final listening comprehension of the year, "Dein Herz" by L'Ame Immortelle, an extremely silly love song so very over the top that translating it lead to endless giggles. This is one of my personal favorites.
Finally, the reason for the initial exercise was finally revealed: they were to use them in a role play. The students were divided into pairs: 2 were the Parents/Grandparents, and 2 were the kids. They were playing families that had been divided by the Berlin Wall for 40 years, and who were finally getting to see each other for the very first time after travel restrictions had been lifted on 9.Nov.1989.
The parents/grandparents (and sometimes crazy aunts/uncles when we had an odd number) were to ask their kids/grandkids the following questions which I wrote on the board:

1. Was macht ihr zum Beruf? (answer: list a 'job' word)
2. Wie viel Kinder habt ihr? (answer: list a number word)
3. Wie heißen sie? (Names)
4. Habt ihr Haustiere? Wie heißen sie? (Animals, Names)
5. Was sind eure Lieblingsspeisen? (Food)
6. Was sind eure Hobbys? (Hobbys)
7. Wie heißen eure Kinder? (names)
8. Was fährt ihr? 

And finally, in response to all this, the 'kids' had to turn around and ask their long-last parents the random questions they had previously written down. This lead to such exchanges:

Parent: "Was macht ihr zum Beruf? Und was fährt ihr?"

Kid1: "Ich bin Zahnartz. Ich habe kein Auto."

Kid2: "Ich bin Drachenflieger. Ich fahre tausende Katzen."

P: "Wie viel Kinder habt ihr?"

K1: "1294."

K2: "3."

P: "Wie heißen sie?"

K1: *Deep breath, starts saying names....*

K2: "Hans, Gretel, Hans Jr."

My favorite exchange:

P: "Habt ihr Fragen für mich, liebe Kinder?"

K1: "Wo ist mein Schuh?"

K2: "Wo ist die Toilette!?"

P: "Ich gehe nach Haus." 

I suppose you could call that, "Family Reunion Mad-Libs." 

Afterward, we all tore down the wall, yelling "FREIHEIT!" 

After the break, we went over the content of the test for 2 weeks from now, and I took any questions they may have over the material:

• Modal verbs (use, meaning, conjugation)
• Regular verbs (conjugation and place in a sentence)
• Time (12 hr, 24 hr)
• Food vocab
• Family vocab
• Articles (der, die, das, in accusative and nominative)
• Possessives (mein(e), dein(e), sein(e), euer/eure, ihr(e))

Most kids had questions over how to tell time, so we reviewed this and then played "Herr Fuchs" outside until Singprobe. 

I recommend they begin studying this week, or at least looking over past notes and homework, so that the final week's studying isn't such a burden. Next week will be our review day, meaning we shall play Jeopardy.

Mit Vergnügen~

21 April '13 - Eilmeldung

Guten Morgen,

Getting to school yesterday was quite an adventure due to the flooding still rampant in some areas, but I eventually made it.
Most of our class time was spent on an activity known as "Der Tagesschau," wherein the kids paired off, one of them being a news anchor, the other being the one who was reported over. So while one of them read off the "breaking news, happening right now!" the other acted out what was being reported. Many paper houses were stomped on by many mysterious, radioactive giants from outer space.

This was followed up by a game of surrealist charades after lunch (the joy of trying to act out "orange juice" knows no bounds) and then the singing practice.

For homework, I would like the former activity to be continued.

Hausaufgabe:
Make your own news report. Report on something that is currently happening somewhere, stating the following:

• Your name and the name of your station
• What is happening
• Who is doing it
• Where they are

The story must have an ending. If a giant is running around down town, the Army must come in and stop it, etc., to bring it to a close. It should last for at least 2-3 minutes. 

Whatever your script says, another student is going to have to act out on-the-fly at the beginning of class. 

Mit Vergnügen

13 April '13 - Ein Tag im Weltraum

Guten Tag,


Today we spent the day in outer space. Thankfully, with sufficient foresight, we managed to delay the onset of explosive decompression and instead everyone was just fine.
In reality, we wrote our 2nd long essay of the year, this one being on the topic, "Ein Tag im Weltraum" or a day in outer space.
This was 20 sentences long, in the present tense, describing what one does in outer space for the day, including answering such questions as:

• Who comes with you?
• What do you bring?
• What do you see?
• What can you do in space? What can't you do?
• How do you get to space?
• How do you get back?

For the latter part of the day, we reviewed accusative prepositions and the accusative form of possessive pronouns, and then played Telephone. 

Those who were not present will need to write the essay and bring it to class the next time they are present. Thanks again to those of you who let me know about an absence or tardiness-to-be-expected today. 

Those who were present today have no further homework. 

Mit Vergnügen~

6.April '13 - Guten Morgen, Hans!

Guten Tag!


Today we had a triumphant return to the last leg of the school year with 5 in attendance, so thank you for sending your child to school; for those who were sick, I hope you get well soon.

Class began with everyone reading their Hans essays aloud, the homework from the previous week wherein they had to describe what Hans die Katze does every morning. The winner got to cat-sit Hans for the rest of the day. For no immediately apparent reason, I also had everyone write down a random list of adjectives and nouns of their choice to be used later.

We went over certain words for morning routines, namely the differences between Wecken (to wake, transitive) aufwachen (to wake up) and aufstehen (to get up). We then added to our repertoire of modal verbs (sollen, können, möchten, dürfen, wollen) "müssen" (must) and did little roleplays with them.

Finally we came to the reason why we had written down random words at the beginning of class. With all students keeping their eyes closed, I asked for certain words (e.g. "noun!") and when all was completed, they opened their eyes to find what madness their word choices had wrought upon the world: yes, we did madlibs.
My favorite was, "Hans die Katze will im Apfel mit Käse schwimmen, aber er kann nicht, denn die Polizei sind in der Nähe."

The day wrapped up with some grammar exercises, followed by Singprobe.

Our homework:

Workbook
P. 103, ex. 15

and

Ground Rules for Hans:
Hans die Katze is spending a week at your house. Make 10 rules for him, 5 things he MAY do (using dürfen) and 5 things he MUST do (using müssen) while a guest in your home.

Schöne Pause!

Grüße!

For the next two weekends, there shall be no German school. By a fluke of this year's calendar, Spring Break and Easter are back to back, so we'll be seeing you in April.

Saturday's summary:

To begin with, we presented the fashion catalogues from last class and then briefly re-introduced the concept of possessives (my/mine, your/yours...) before adding more to the list:  mein(e), dein(e), and just added were eu(e)r(e), ihr(e) and sein(e).

Our class mascot, Hans die Katze, held reign over the class period and decided how the day would proceed.  According to the Will of Hans, and his partner Gretel (yes, they are a pair of cat dolls), the kids engaged in a number of conversational exercises to have them practice what I managed to instruct them over, including arguing amongst themselves about who owned Hans, whose shoes were whose, and similar. Most noteworthy was a roleplay in which one student was a mom, and two others were siblings, both of whom tried to convince "Mom" that it was their turn to play with Hans.

Later, Gretel wanted to play hide and seek, and so we played "Wer hat Gretel?" wherein one child closed his/her eyes while the rest of the class hid Gretel somewhere, the location of which had to be guessed.

After lunch, Frau Wiegert and Frau Großkopf gave a talk and Q&A session for the classes 5-8 over the post-war experience of the Volksdeutsch.

the homework is as follows:

Hausaufgabe:

P. 83, Ex. 8

P. 85, Ex. 12

P. 101, Ex. 10

-------And ----

Using the vocabulary on pages 90 and 93 (breakfast words and morning routine verbs), describe in at least 5 sentences an ideal morning for Hans. The most appealing essay to Hans will be rewarded with that student getting to ke

9.März - Fashion Week!

The most fabulous times were had today at the fabulous German School!

As mentioned in last week's email, today we made our fabulous, fabulous fashion catalogues with the help of the various magazines and ad papers that the children brought with them. Thanks for remember to have those brought to class!
We spent most of the day making the Modekatalogen and affixing brand names, vocabulary words and prices (in Euros) to each item.
Accompanying this, we had a brief lesson over digit demarcation in Germany ("," for decimals, "." for thousands, millions and billions), the verb Kosten (Not to be confused with Kotzen!), and the phrases "wie viel" and "wie viele" (how much and how many respectively).

Further, we held the quiz over vocabulary from the Hörverständnis exercises. Those not present today will need to make this up later.

And now, for the homework:
P.79
Exercises 8-9
and
Fashion Catalogue (for those not present or those who did not finish)

• Make a catalogue of clothes or sporting goods
• Write down the German word for each item next to it
• Also write down the price of each in Euros (it can be entirely made-up)
• Use either hand-drawings, photos or cut-outs from magazines
• Name your store as well!
• At least 3 pages

Mit Vergnügen~

2.März - Hotdog Day

Guten Morgen,


Saturday played host to an outbreak of that uncontrollable contagion known as "Witzensucht," called in English, "The Giggles." No matter what was going on, what the topic at hand was, or what we were in fact doing, sporadic bursts of uncontrollable, even involuntary laughter seemed to follow at our heels.
Everything from, "how do you conjugate sollen?" to "turn in your homework" was met with laughter.
As one child put it, "It's hot dog day!" I guess it was just hot dog day.

The day opened with a listening comprehension exercise with the song "Sie erfasst mein Herz" by Elis.
From there, we went over the different forms of negation and similar words used in conversation (nicht, nichts, nie, niemals, niemand, doch)
Later, we took back up the topic of modal verbs and added sollen (should) to our repertoire that so far consists of können, dürfen, möchten, wollen. 

After the break, we ended the day with a verbal exercise of the most cerebral sort, one designed to challenge the childrens' language skills as well as their abstract thinking. I am, of course, referring to 20 Questions. A student was given a word, and then they stood up in front while the rest of the class asked them yes or no questions (up to 20) until the word was found out. For this, we combined with Fr. Nölke's 7th grade class to give us a better-sized crowd. And there was much rejoicing.

For next week, there will be a vocabulary quiz over the words we have used so far in listening comprehension exercises this semester. I would highly recommend flash cards be used in studying. The songs are "Nichts bring mich runter" by Ich & Ich, "Küssen Verboten" and "Gabi & Klaus" by Die Prinzen, and "Sie erfasst mein Herz" by Elis.

The list is as follows (with articles):

Der Schmerz – pain

Die Liebe – love

Die Stimme -  voice

Das Meer - sea

Das Herz - heart

Der Kreis- circle

Der Sand – sand

Gemein- mean

Einsam- lonely

Zu viel- too much

Wo- where

Weiter- further

Nichts - Nothing 

Die Zeit - Time

Das Licht  - Light

Nicht - Not/None 

Mehr - More 

Leise - Quiet 

Wieder - Again

Doch - However/On the Contrary 

Mein - My/Mine 

Nie - Never 

Schön - Pretty

Das Geschenk - Present

and the verbs

Hören - hear

Sehen - see

Glauben - believe

Küssen- kiss

Folgen – follow

Vergessen - forget

Sagen- say

Verstehen - understand

Mit Vergnügen

23 Februar '13 - Mauer Bauen

Guten Tag,


Saturday had a surprisingly small class with only 3 students present. I would ask that if your child is not going to be there, that you please let me know; activities planned for a full class do not necessarily work with 1-3 kids, so you'd be saving me a great deal of hassle. Thanks to those of you who let me know in advance.

This week, we took the time to discuss the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, and to build our own, complete with all the necessary accoutrements to make it 'historically accurate': bricks, the occasional bullet hole, and oodles upon oodles upon oodles of graffiti. My instructions for the graffiti were simply, "write whatever you can think of in German." As a result, our wall is splattered with such niceties as, "SCHNITZEL!" "KATZEN!" "GRUNE HAARE" and so forth.
This also lead to the creation of our classes' new unofficial mascot, "Hans die Katze," whose visage was also drawn all across the wall.
At the very end of the year, on the last day of class, we will all take part in tearing our wall to shreds.

The lesson for the day was about arguing: how to express disagreement/have a discussion with negation and agreement words. We followed this up with a class debate, boys (the one boy present and I) against girls (the two girls present) arguing on just that topic, "boys vs. girls." Each side presented their argument as to why they were superior, and then we formed rebuttals and presented them. The girls' reasons were far more numerous, albeit not especially compelling, so in the end we were forced to conclude that, "hey, it's lunch time."

The homework is as follows:
Workbook
P.78  ex. 4,6
P. 82  ex. 5,6

Mit Vergnügen

16.Februar '13 - Gebrochene Zunge

Grüße,


Today we spent the entire class period being silly in an entirely productive and educational way. As part of a unit designed to help improve Aussprache, we learned, recited, and even made our own tongue twisters or Zungenbrecher as a class.

My personal favorite is this one:

Schnecken erschrecken wenn Schnecken an Schnecken schlecken, weil zum Schrecken vieler Schnecken, Schnecken nicht Schmecken!

This went on for a while, and then after lunch we began learning about prepositions.
Specifically we covered:
an, auf, in, aus, vor, hinter, über, unter
By way of application, we did the guessing game, "Wo ist mein Schuh?" wherein a person's shoe was hidden somewhere in the classroom, and they had to guess where it was using prepositions, hints from the class (e.g. "Kalt" or "Warm") or by simply pointing at a direction and saying, "da?"

Now the homework:

Zungenbrecher!
Make your own. It must be about YOU, YOURSELF, in at least 10 words.

Mit Vergnügen~

9. February '13 - Secret Admirer

Grüße und Füße!


Today we continued the camping activity from last time, and went back into detail over the Junge Pioniere organization from the GDR. We even went so far as to listen to and follow along with "Unsere Heimat," the theme song of the Freie Deutsche Jugend. The camps that everyone made were either taken home or, if the students wanted to instead, put on display in the classroom for future years to see.

We did a further listening exercise with my favorite Valentine's day-appropriate song of all time, "Gabi und Klaus" from Die Prinzen. To follow up with the theme, we also did a new game that was just invented this past week. I think it went rather well. It's called, "Secret Admirer."
Basically, kids drew names out of a hat, and each person had to describe the one whose name they drew, while the rest of the class guessed who it was.

Now then, for the homework:

P. 73, Exercise 5
P. 77, Exercises 1-2

FYI next week we will begin learning about prepositional phrases in the accusative case.

Mit Vergnügen!

2.Februar 13 - Kampen Gehen!!!!!!

Grüß euch alle!


As you may have gathered, I have returned from my sojourn through the South and took back my place as benevolent leader of the 5.Klasse up here in the frozen North. Many thanks go out to Martin Bauer for subbing for me for those 3 weeks!

Just as had been forewarned, today we began the class period with a quiz over modal verbs, their meaning, usage, conjugation and place in the structure of a typical sentence. Verbs covered included können, wollen, dürfen, and so-called "möchten."

Afterward, we continued our historical-geographic unit on the former so-called GDR, this time covering the famous, state-run, semi-mandatory communist boyscouts, the Junge Pioniere.  We discussed how this and similar extra-curricular organizations, such as the Freie Deutsche Jugend for teenagers, combined socialist indoctrination with civic values, naturalism and year-round outdoor fun, e.g. camping and hiking. Accordingly, the activity we did up until the end of class was to make our campsites, replete with campfires, cabins, tents and the like--all out of popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, card paper; the usual craft materials.

We will continue making our campsites first thing next class period, especially seeing as how only 3 students were present for the activity today and it is far too fun of a craft for so many kids to miss out on!

This brings me to the homework.
Both for those who were present today and those who were not, prepare the following:
Make up your own camp!

• Name the camp (something in German)
• Explain in up to 5 sentences what activities there are to do there (German...)
• Make up a camp song or slogan, at least 3 lines in length. (Spanish. Just kidding, German)

These will be presented along with the finished camp grounds themselves next class period.

As always...

Mit Vergnügen!

5.January - Fußschmerzen

Grüß euch alle!


It was lovely seeing the class again after a long, well-deserved break. Thank you also to those who brought in belated Christmas gifts; having a second Christmas was a much-appreciated surprise!

Today began with something rather predictable, having everyone write 10 sentences about what they did for the Christmas break. Common trends were, "eating dinner," "opening gifts" and "forgetting to go to Church until the last minute when it was too late."

Our primary topic of the day was the different ways to say "you": du, Sie, ihr and their assorted meanings/situations in which they are used. This was followed by a game of "Lehrer Darf Ich?" (like Simon Says meets Mother May I?) My feet are still sore from having been so foolish as to think I could keep up with half a dozen 11-year-olds running and jumping all across a field.

After lunch, we went over ordinal numbers (p.55 in the Kursbuch), that being 1st (erste), 2nd (zweite) and so on. We spent some doing a homemade logic puzzle called "Das Wetrennen" wherein they had to follow clues to figure out who came first in a race. I'm rather proud of that one, even though every year I forget to write down the answers so I have to race to finish it myself before any of the kids do.

And now.... the homework.

The test from before the break shall be given again next week. Please study accordingly.
Also note I will be absent for the next 3 weeks. Herr Bauer will be my very highly appreciated sub for the duration.

~Mit Vergnügen