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.

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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