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
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Saturday, February 16, 2013
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~
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~
Saturday, February 9, 2013
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!
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!
Saturday, February 2, 2013
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!
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!
Saturday, January 5, 2013
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
Sunday, December 16, 2012
15.Dezember - Keksentag
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~
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 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~
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