18.Januar - Storytime

Guten Tag!

Saturday began with our presenting the homework assignments, rhymes describing ourselves, which were then shuffled, given to me, and I read them aloud for the class to get which was about whom.

Our main lesson for the day was adding on to last week's introduction to the simple past of haben and sein. We have now become acquainted with the past tense (present perfect) formed with the helping verbs haben and sein. The guiding principle we're going on is that transitive verbs tend to use haben in the past, and intransitive tend to use sein, e.g. werfen (throw) uses haben since it takes an object, whereas fliegen (fly) uses sein since it does not take an object.

And so began storytime! As an activity, in pairs, the students wrote short stories around a word bank I gave them with character names, verbs, and objects that needed to be incorporated.

After lunch, we sat around a circle doing "popcorn" style reading of rhymes and riddles and nonsense words for fun and pronunciation practice.

Aaaaaaand now the homework.

Please navigate to this page, whereupon there is a veeeeeery large worksheet. I only want them to do part B. PART B. It will take hours if they do the whole thing. JUST PART B. It is only 15 questions, the object of which is to choose the right helping verb, haben or sein, for each sentence.

http://www.nthuleen.com/teach/grammar/perfekt1.html

Mit Vergnügen

11.Jan '14 - Rappenkrieg

"Herr Walker, where do you come up with such random things?"
That was about the reaction I was expecting to the introductory activity of "compose a rhyming couplet."

Today, we spent most of our time locked in the most time honored of all forms of combat, rap battles. Two groups developed a rhyming rap of a minimal 15 lines long, and then rehearsed their performance, including beat boxing and dancing. We then took it "to the streets" and let the harshest of audiences (the 1st grade class) be the judges as to which group was better.

We also had an introduction to the simple past today with a lesson on hatten (from haben) and waren (from sein). This was followed by a game that relied mostly on observational skills and/or paranoia called, "Ich war's nicht" where an individual with their eyes closed had to guess who in the classroom kept running up and poking them.

The second rap battle didn't go as well, probably because it took too much concentration for so late in the day, but it was worth a try.

The homework for today:

• Compose a poem of at least 3 lines (auf Deutsch!) which rhyme
• The topic is describing yourself. These will be mixed up next class period and then read aloud, and the class must guess whom each poem describes. 

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)