Urteilstag und gern Haben - 28.1

Guten Tag,

Today was the day the class received their Zeugnisse. Enclosed were both the 'subjective' grades, wherein I gave my assessment of the students' overall skill levels as well as behavior, and the 'objective' semester average, wherein the grades for each assignment collected were listed out along with the average for the first half of the year.
The subjective part went as follows: (1-6, 1 being the best score)

• Betragen (conduct)
• Fleiss (effort)
• Schulbesuch (attendance)
• Grammatik (grammar skills)
• Lesen (reading ability)
• Hörverständnis (listening comprehension)
• Rechtschreiben (writing ability)

I'm available to answer any questions about the grades given should you have any. Please send the Zeugnisse back next week, signed. 

We did another Hörverständnis exercise today with the semi-romantic song, "Ohne Dich" by Rammstein. This segued into a further lesson on the accusative case, whereupon we reviewed previously established points and elaborated further with the introduction of accusative pronouns, namely "mich" and "dich."

From there, we played a game, a variant of the classic "Hast Du Mein Obst" called "Ich habe dich gern."

Kids said to each other, "Ich habe dich gern. Hast du mich gern?" and were answered with, "NEIN!" the object being to make one another laugh. Whoever laughed in this exchange (the one professing they like the other, or the one doing the rejecting) was out. 

FYI--I did my best to emphasize the use of "gern haben" in the casual, 'liking' sense to keep it appropriate.

Also covered was communicating not just liking, but 'favorites' as well, including using Liebling--- and "am liebsten haben." 

After the midday break, we reviewed the previously-covered modal verbs ('möchten', dürfen) and added können to the mix. We played "Was Kann Ich?" which was essentially charades with the added bonus of the kids having to guess in complete sentences, e.g. "Er kann schwimmen!" if a boy was up in front miming he was swimming, etc. 

We ended the day with a communication exercise; the kids filled out questionnaires listing their favorite things in several categories (lieblingstier, lieblingssport, usw.) and had to ask other students what they liked as well. Those who found matches then communicated this to the group at the end, e.g. "Ich habe Snickers gern. Snickers ist mein Lieblingscandy. Soandso hat es auch gern!" 

The homework is as follows: 

Arbeitsbuch

P.71

#13-15

~Mit Vergnügen

Wieder Da! 21.1.12

Did anyone else notice that today's date is a palindrome?

I've finally returned to teaching after 5 weeks off, this length break having been due to both the Christmas/New Year's holidays as well as a business trip to France that occupied far more time than I would have liked (but that's what happens when you get bought by a French company).

The report I received from the substitute, Hr. Bauer, was excellent, and I was simply overjoyed!

Today's lesson found us starting off with a listening-comprehension exercise, the song being "Nichts Bringt Mich Runter" by Ich&Ich. I highly recommend the group, by the way.

From there, we delved into a subject that will be repeated throughout the rest of the year: the accusative case and the corresponding declensions of definite articles, indefinite articles and the 1st-person pronoun (mich). This was followed by a rousing game of "Wer Hat Den Schlüssel?"

Today also saw another point of this year's Landeskunde theme over the DDR and Reunification: "Selbstidentifizierung der DDR gegenüber den Westen." The children were divided into two groups and given selections from a young adult book, Die Flaschenpost, about a pair of 12-year-olds from opposite sides of the Berlin Wall who end up being accidental penpals when one of them throws a message-in-a-bottle (Flaschenpost) into the Spree River, hoping it'd go off to faraway lands.

The two groups answered questions about the reading selections and summarized their selections for the other group. It went marginally well--I think the passages may have been too difficult, but it was worth a try. We will if the selections for next weekend go over better.

And now, the homework.

Hausaufgabe:

• DDR Brieffreunde
• Act as though you have a penpal in the old DDR. They can be named whatever you like. Write them a letter asking questions about what their life is like, anything you want to know about. 
• Total of 10 sentences. 

Weihnachtspause

Grüße,

We are now in our Christmas/New Years' break for the next several weeks, reconvening for 2012 on 7 January.

This past Saturday had us taking our semester exam, which went rather smoothly as it was apparent that most students had indeed studied thoroughly! Any students who were not present to take the exam will need to do so when school begins again. They will be allowed to take the test before class, if they wish to arrive early, or during the break.

The rest of the morning was taken up with Singprobe.

This was a short entry, but a sweet one.

Mit Vergnügen~

3. Dezember - Review Day

Guten Tag,

Today we spent the day doing two activities to wrap-up the semester:

• Playing Jeopardy (our test review game)
• Writing our 1st semester essay for the Sammelmappe

If your child was not present today, then they shall be expected to turn in their essay next class period. It is 15 sentences in the present tense over what they like to do in their free time. 

The test next week will be over what we have covered so far this semester, concentrating on the following:

• Conjugation of regular verbs
• Conjugation, meaning and use of Haben and Sein
• Telling time, including 24-hr time and the use of "halb" and "viertel"
• Food, drink, clothing, family and school supplies vocabulary
• Modal verbs-to-date: dürfen, möchten, können
• Pronouns, their use and meaning (especially the differences between "du," "ihr" and "Sie")

For any questions regarding test content or studying recommendations, I am at your disposal.

Mit Vergnügen. 

19. November - Auf der Jagd nach Truthähne

Grüzi,


This weekend was important for our class for two reasons: first and foremost, this is the last class period we will have for the next two weeks as we are not meeting next weekend (26 November). I believe that has something to do with this "Thanksgiving" I keep hearing people talk about.
Secondly, we had the promised Vocabulary Quiz on Saturday over the first three Hörverständnis exercises (Juli - Ein Gruß, Rammstein - Rosenrot, Nena - 99 Luftballoons). This is the first of several such quizzes we will be having throughout the year.

We also moved forward in our cultural-historical study of the DDR by delving into the German socialist educational system from Kinderkrippe up through University, including along the way the quintessential ossi phenomenon that was the Young Pioneers. We sang "Unsere Heimat" and went through the history and cultural importance of the organization behind this retro-earworm. Seriously--I've had it in my head for the last week and a half now.

The lesson for the week included as well a review of the modal verb (functionally) möchten and the introduction both of the verb dürfen and of the use of helping verbs paired with modal verbs.
After learning about dürfen, we played "Darf Ich?" which was basically like "Mother May I?" minus the confusing part where I would have been referred to as "mother" by a bunch of other people's kids.

To finish up the day, before going off to Singprobe, we played a rousing game of "Ente Ente Truthahn." Much to my chagrin, the students found it far preferable to say "Ent" and "Crouton." I'll admit it actually was pretty funny, though.

The homework for the week (due on 3 December) is as follows:
Workbook
P. 47 Ex. 5, 6
P. 50 Ex. 2, 3


Please note also that they will be writing the first of our Sammelmappe essays the next class period, this one being 15 sentences (present tense) over their free-time hobbies. I would strongly recommend going over with your children how to describe in German what they like to do in their free time. 
These will be written in class, graded on the spot and then expected to be turned back in, corrected, the next class period.

Mit Vergnügen!

12. November, Sanktmartinstag Feier

Grüße,

Today we celebrated the feast of Saint Martin, also known as "Lantern and Goose Day!" To celebrate, we took a slightly different turn from the usual marching in the Saint Martin's Day parade around the school; instead of participating, we made geese puppets and followed along behind the parade, honking! The students' puppets were excellent--mine looked a bit like a "demented penguin with pinkeye," according to some.

We also covered the history behind Saint Martin's Day, including both the Calling of Martin and his establishment as Bishop of Tours.

As promised, today we also had a quiz over what we'd learned last week about telling time, namely the use of the 24-hour clock, quarter before/after and half before/after.

Next week, as mentioned in last week's entry, we will be having a quiz over the vocabulary (Wortschatz)  of the last 3 Hörverständnis exercises.

• Rammstein - Mein Herz Brennt
• Nena - 99 Luftballoons
• Juli - Ein Gruß

If your child requires another copy of the exercise sheets in order to study the vocabulary, please feel free to ask. 

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for:

Hausaufgabe:

• Write a minimum of 10 sentences using words from the vocabulary lists. 

For the sake of studying, I'd recommend writing sentences with all of the words, but I will only require a list of 10 for grading. 

~Mit Vergnügen

5. November - Guy Fawkes' Day

Happy Guy Fawkes' Day, everyone!

We celebrated this British holiday by not mentioning it or doing anything even remotely related to it. Instead, we focused on German things. Yay!

Our class opened up with another listening comprehension exercise (seeing a pattern?), upon which time I dropped the news that, in two weeks, we shall be having a quiz over our Hörverständnisse to date. This will include Wortschätze from the following:

• Juli - Ein Gruß
• Nena - 99 Luftballoons
• Rammstein - Mein Herz Brennt

The primary lesson today was over telling time. We covered the following:

• Everyday 12-hour time telling using the format #Uhr# (e.g. 11Uhr22 or 11.22) 
• The use of 'quarter of' (viertel vor) and 'quarter after' (viertel nach)
• The use of 'half until' (halb vor) and 'half after' (halb nach)
• 24-hour time. AM being 0-12, PM being 13-23.

There shall be a short quiz over how to tell time next week as well.

This was accompanied by the classic game, "Herr/Frau Fuchs," otherwise known as "Mister Fox," wherein Hr/Frau Fuchs stands at one end of the field with the other children to his back, and the children ask "Hr. Fuchs, Hr. Fuchs, wie steht die Uhr?" He replies with a number (e.g. 10 Uhr!) and they take that many steps forward. When he replies, "Mahlzeit!" he turns around and chases the others until someone is caught and becomes the new Herr/Frau Fuchs. (It's pronounced "Foox")

Next we studied school vocabulary, namely school supplies (p. 40 in the textbook) and school subjects (p. 35). We then played the most surreal game of charades ever, having to pretend to be pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, notebooks...


And now for the grand finale.

Homework:

• Page 46, 1-3 (Arbeitsbuch)
• Study for the Time Quiz (especially quarter before/after, 24-hour time)