30.Okt - The Princess Games

It happened. The Princess Games 2016 have come and gone!

Our winner was (as always), Princess Luna, Princess of the Night, Co-Sovereign of Canterlot Castle.

Class began with each group putting the finishing touches on their campaign presentations from last week, and then we went from class to class.

After the speeches were made and presentations given, the breakdown from across the school (including Frau Rill and the parents who were volunteering this week) was as follows:

• Luna: 5 classes
• Twilight Sparkle: 2 classes
• Celestia: 0 classes

As usual, it went overwhelmingly in Luna's favor. Maybe we should look into term limits for Pony Princesses, going forward.

We then did "Meine Woche" and the first of our student-provided listening comprehension exercises, "Lass jetzt Los" (Let it Go, from Frozen). And of course, it was stuck in everyone's head for the next 17 years as a result. 

Finally, we did our quiz over comparatives and superlatives. I am giving those who were absent the option to either

A) do the quiz at home with parental supervision (I'll email you a PDF copy)

B) do it the next time they attend German school.

Please let me know your preference. 

Next week, we begin a new unit. Please bring mobile devices capable of wifi for research. These may be phones, tablets, or laptops. 

Mit Vergnügen~

22.Okt '16 - PrinzessInnen Spiel

Guten Tag,

Today we talked about princesses.

We began with two Kahoot games, reviewing both all that we learned about the different German-speaking countries in the world and also the comparatives and superlatives that we spent the last 4 weeks going over.

There will be a quiz over comparative and superlative adjectives next week, wrapping up the unit.

We also watched one of my favorite videos, 10 Tipps für faule Menschen.

Our big activity, after a review of superlatives, was the Princess Games, whereupon we talked (in superlative, descriptive language) about each of the 4 pony princesses from My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle, Cadence, Luna, and Celestia and what makes each of them special.

Then we were randomly divided up into groups with the task of campaigning for "best princess." Each group is making a poster and a list of reasons why their princess is the best. Next week, we will go classroom to classroom to campaign, and the winning pony will be Prettiest Pony Princess Prancing in the Paddock.

Group members should be finishing their assigned tasks for the Princess Games as well as preparing for next week's quiz.

Those not present should prepare for next week's quiz. Those not present next week; I will share the questions here after the quiz has been taken in class.


Mit Vergnügen

15.Okt - Sprachraum 2.Teil, Geister, Schweine

Guten Tag,

Today was a great deal like other Saturdays. We had a significant number of absences, so thank you to those who alerted me to this beforehand! It saved a small part of the rainforest as I didn't print extra copies that would've been unnecessary.

Also, a big stack of graded papers was given back today. If your child came home with no papers at all, then be suspicious.

Our song for the day was "Sei ein Mann" from the German dub of Disney's Mulan, a perennial classic (just wait until we do Frozen).

We did Meine Woche, which had an interesting story about a "haunted bathroom," that I'm sure your kids will share, as well as the saga of the missing tape.

Our lesson was over the Superlative, continuing off the Comparative that we had been covering over the last few weeks.

We discussed how superlative statements are, in essence, "the most something of all," e.g. "the biggest," "the strongest," "the prettiest," "the smallest."

Much like with comparatives, an adjective with only one main vowel is given an umlaut (ö, ä, ü).
For superlatives, also add an -ste at the end unless the adjective ends in s, z or ß
So we have, for instance:
größte (groß with an ¨, -te at the end since it already has an ß)
stärkste (stark with an ¨, and -ste at the end)
kleinste (klein with an -ste at the end)

A superlative noun (e.g. "The Prettiest," "The Strongest") is just the superlative adjective with the appropriate article and ending.
Der Beste (the best of all)
Der Kleinste (the smallest of all)

Alternatively, to say something is the most ____, use the phrase am ____sten.
"Ich bin am kleinsten" (I'm the smallest)
"Du bist am doofsten" (you're the dumbest)

Lastly, superlatives can simply be used like any other adjective, stuck in front of a word.
"Ich bin der schönste Pony in der Park" (I am the prettiest pony in the park)
"Sie ist die reichste Prinzessin in dem Land" (she is the richest princess in the land)


To use this, we did part two of "Deutsches Sprachraum" and researched how each German speaking country stands out from the rest (e.g. the richest, the biggest, etc).

We also held an election, with winners in the 3 categories: Verrückste, Schönste, Klügste
Among the winners, we then held a runoff for the title of Klassenprinzessin. The winner was (literally) showered with votes.

For those who were absent, do the following and turn it in the next time you are in class:
Write out (to be read aloud in class) 10 ways in which you are the most SOMETHING of everyone in the class. 

• Adjectives may each be used only once. 
• Use all 3 methods of superlative formation that I wrote earlier (as nouns, am__sten, as adjectives)

Mit Vergnügen

8.Okt - Deutsches Sprachraum

Today began like any other day, with a period of sunlight after a period of darkness.

We did "Meine Woche" as always, and then used a favorite song of mine, "Kein Vampir bleibt mehr hier" from My Little Pony.

After a review of the comparatives, we went into a group research assignment. In partners, students compared two German speaking countries.

This took the rest of class.

For those not present, the assignment was as follows:

Pick any two from this list of countries to compare. Look up information about your chosen two countries to answer the questions below:

Deutschland

Österreich

die Schweiz

Belgien

Liechtenstein

Luxemburg

Slowakei

Brasilien

1. Was sind die 2 Länder, die ihr vergleicht?
2.  Ist Deutsch die Hauptsprache oder eine Amtssprache?  
3. Welche andere Sprachen sprechen Leute in diesen Länder?
4. Welches Land ist größer? (Land)
5. Welches Land hat mehr Deutschsprecher?
6. Welches Land ist reicher? (GDP, GNP, average income)
7. In welchem Land sind Leute klüger? (Education level, average IQ)
8. Welches Land hat besseres Essen? Warum? (opinion)
9. Was ist etwas interessant über jedes Land? (opinion)
10.   Welches Land ist dein Lieblingsland und warum? (opinion)

The homework is to choose a German song (with video), podcast, or video for us to use at the beginning of class time. It should be no more than 5 minutes, school-appropriate, and you must explain auf Deutsch why you chose this one. 

1.Okt - Comparing

The class began like any other class, with German words. It also continued and eventually ended that way.

To be more specific, we began with "Meine Woche," and then had the quiz over favorites as had been promised.

Our listening comprehension was suitably silly to regain our energy after the quiz, namely "Der Käse Song" from my favorite Austrian, Michael Buchinger on YouTube. Those old timers in the audience will quickly realize it's a parody of a song from 1990. I'll leave it at that to let it be an age test for you.

Our lesson was beginning a unit on comparatives and superlatives, today being our initial foray into "Comparatives." We talked about how to form comparative adjectives,which I have broken down into a few general steps (bearing in mind there are plenty of irregulars out there):

For "More"

• Take a normal adjective and add an -er to the end
• If the adjective has one vowel (like "stark" or "groß") then add an umlaut
• use "als" to mean "than" in a comparative phrase

Ich bin groß becomes Ich bin größer als  (I'm big... I'm bigger than...) 

For "Less"

• nicht so {adjective} wie

Ich bin groß... Ich bin nicht so groß wie... (I'm big... I'm not as big as...) 

For examples, each student was semi-randomly assigned a celebrity to whom they would compare themselves in six ways. My favorites were "Ich bin nicht so reich wie Taylor Swift" and "Ich bin nicht so blau wie Snuggles."

To eat up our energy before lunch, we also had a game of DANGER ADJECTIVES which is a name I made up on the spot but think is pretty good. Basically we'd toss the sparkly koosh ball at one another in a circle while calling out a descriptor of that person.
Example: "Größer!" (small person throws ball at taller person)

After the break, we attempted a revamp of something I've tried in previous years that, well, has never gone quite as planned. I lowered the ante a bit, so instead of composing raps they simply had to make haikus. This went far better and won them sufficient bragging rights such that we marched into the 8th grade classroom and said "Wir sind besser!" in unison. It turned out the class wasn't there at the time, but at least we had the fun of confusing Frau Carlander. 

For next week, please bring a wi-fi capable device.