22.September - Deutsch können wir, Englisch leider nicht

Guten Tag, Sonnenschein! Die Erde grüßt dich und küsst dich!

Today we began what looks to be the beginnings of a new tradition in the 5.Klasse, namely introducing a daily 'ice breaker' exercise. We always did these before, but they tended to vary pretty wildly from morning to morning. Now, I'm hoping to standardize them a bit more.
What we're starting to do is use comics written in German with questions listed below them in English, which the kids then answer based on what the comic says, what's going on, usw. It went rather well today, so I hope to continue doing it.

We reviewed the material from last week:

• Greetings for different times of day
• Introducing oneself
• Numbers 1-1000

As part of this review, we played a memory game where they had to match up cards in pairs, listing both the written-out numbers and the actual digits. 

After the break, we introduced the two 'cornerstone' verbs, Haben and Sein. This was followed up by one of the most unique sessions of board races I've seen so far in the last 5 years. Typically, they spelled the German spot on! But they kept on misspelling the English words. Would you believe the word that needed to be re-written the most, out of ALL the German we did, was 'Sandwich'? 

And now, the homework:

Workbook

P. 8

Exercises 8,9

and

Conjugate out Haben and Sein in the present tense.

Mit Vergnügen

15. September 2012, Erster Schultag!!!!

Grüzi alle,

Welcome to another year of the weekend German school! I am your host and guide through this, another academic year, and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you and you children. 

To give you a little bit of background on myself, in case you didn't read the blurb, this is my 5th year teaching at the German school, and I like to think that I'm getting better with age. My bachelor's degree is in German and Philosophy, and during the week I do a professional variation on the same thing I do here, teaching people, only my 'day job' is actually teaching corporate reps how to use software. 


My intention for the year is for us to learn as much as possible in as fun a manner as possible. 
In order to facilitate this, I ask just a few things of you:

1. Please make sure your child always brings pencils, a notebook, scratch paper and their books (both course and work) to class
2. Please remind them to bring their homework. I do not accept late work. If a child is absent, then I expect them to bring the homework for each class period missed with them the day of their return. Alongside the skill assessments in each semester's report cards, I do also give objective grades based on these assignments. 
3. Please give minimal help with the homework. If they are struggling with understanding what to do, then by all means please assist, but please, under no circumstances give them the answers or help them write anything.
4. Whenever you or the student have questions about material covered in class or assigned for homework, please contact me.

Today was an introductory and review session, focused primarily on getting to know one another and acquainting ourselves with the classroom procedures. My general method of teaching is "Learn then Play," as in we go over some concept, then play a game based on it. These games often times start out rather easy when a concept is still new, and then grow increasingly complex once we are exploring concepts further or are reviewing them. This is why we've consistently been the loudest classroom--not a day goes by without playing. 

We began with a survey wherein the students wrote out such things as "Ich heisse...." "mein Lieblingsessen ist...." "mein Lieblingsschulfach ist...." and of course, "Ich will Deutsch weiterlernen, weil...." 

This lead into review of some basics:

• Greetings for different times of day (Guten Tag/Abend/Morgen, Gute Nacht) 
• Introducing oneself and asking someone's name
• Days of the week, months of the year

The game we played was what I've affectionately dubbed, "I need to name this game." We sat in a circle and had different motions associated with each greeting. Each child had to make the appropriate motion to match the greeting said to them by a neighbor, or they were out. 

Following up, we did another getting acquainted exercise, the People Search, where we asked each other questions about favorite things, preferences, until our forms were filled out, then presented who liked what of each category. 

To end the day, we played a classic game, "Hast Du Mein Obst?" the objective of which is to make your neighbor laugh by asking "Hast du mein obst?" in as amusing/disquieting a manner as you can while they try to answer "Nein, ich habe dein Obst nicht." 

And now, the moment of truth!

Hausaufgabe:

Arbeitsbuch

P. 6-7

Exercises 2-6

Please photocopy the pages or write down the answers on a separate sheet of paper. Do not just write in the book, because then they have to tear out the pages and mutilate the poor thing. 

Mit Vergnügen

Test Day, 12. May

On this fine and glorious Saturday past, we took our test.

That is really all that happened, as this was followed immediately afterward by Singprobe and rehearsal for the Mother's Day program.

Please remember to have your children return their textbooks next weekend, and bear in mind as well that report cards will be handed out. If you or your child cannot stop by next Saturday, then the report card will be mailed to you.

Mit Vergnügen!

5.Mai - Jeopardy

Guten Abend,

Especially to those of you celebrating 5.Mai this evening. As you may have heard from the kids, I am starting to get somewhat sick right now; I'm not certain yet what I have, but hopefully I will manage to tough it out through these last few weeks of the year. Should anything change in this regard, I will be certain to let you know.

Today was rather straightforward; we reviewed the curriculum-to-date via the ever-classic medium of Jeopardy. Our teams this time were "Die Pizzahunden" versus "Käsepommes." The former ended up winning by a margin of about 4000 points (roughly 30% of the available points).

The test next week shall be over the following:

• Regular verb conjugation
• Haben and Sein
• Modal verbs (meaning, usage and conjugation)
• Time (24hr and 12hr)
• Seasons, Months
• Clothing, family and food vocabulary
• The accusative case
• Possessive adjectives
• Direct and Indirect Articles

The test shall be quite similar in format to the test administered at the end of the first semester, as well as the pop quiz given about a month ago, should they wish to study these as opposed to their notes. 

Please also note that books are now due; please return them either this upcoming week (12.Mai) or the next (19.Mai). Zeugnisse will also be distributed in the near future with the final grades and assessment scores.

Mit Vergnügen~

28.April - Aufsatztag

Guten... Morgen?

While technically it is Sunday, I am going to act as though it were in fact still Saturday.

Today's class period found itself spent mostly on writing our essays over the topic, "Ein Tag im Weltraum" or "A Day in Space." For at least 15 sentences, each student went over the following:
If they were able to spend a day in outerspace...

• How can they get to space?
• What should they do to prepare?
• Who may go with them? 
• What do they want to do in space?
• What do they find in space?

The intention was to use regular verbs, Haben and Sein and modal verbs to form a coherent body of prose. For those that did not finish, or were not in attendance, completing the essay shall be homework.

Along with the essay itself, each student is expected to provide a colored illustration of their day in space. 

Next week shall be the review day; we will be playing Jeopardy as usual. The week afterward (12. May) shall be the test date.

Mit Vergnügen!

21.April - Letztes Stück der Normalität

Guten Abend,

This class period marked our final "normal" class of the school year. As mentioned last week, the upcoming classes shall be as follows:
28.4 - Aufsatz (essay) Tag
5.5 - Review Day
12.5 - Test Day
19.5 - Watch-the-graduation-ceremony-and-then eat-hotdogs day.

Today, we began with a quick introduction to the verbs and vocabulary associated with morning routines (page 91 in the textbook) and wrote out and presented descriptions of our typical mornings.

We also finished up our unit on modal verbs by introducing "müssen" to the mix, bringing our list to the following: können, dürfen, sollen, wollen, möchten, müssen.


Before breaking for lunch followed by Singprobe, we had a raucous round of board races with the two teams, "Erdbeerhunden" and "Schokoladenkatzen" going head to head with translation questions. In the end, Schokoladenkatzen came out victorious.


Now then, the homework is as follows:

Arbeitsbuch
S. 103, example 15

Prepare ideas for next week's essay: "One day in outerspace" (Ein Tag im Weltraum), wherein the students shall describe what they would do if they had a day to explore space. Please note this is to be written in the simple present tense, not the subjunctive.

Mit Vergnügen!

Der Annatanz - 14.April

Guten Abend,

The rest of the school year is scheduled as follows:
21.4 - normal class period
28.4 - Aufsatztag (be present to write our final long-essay in class)
5.5 - Wiederholungstag (be present for the test review)
12.5 - Prüfungstag (test day)
19.5 - Final Day



Today started out like any other class day:
We began with a partner activity, wherein the students made argument dialogues about what to do when terribly, terribly bored on a weekend. This lead to such gems as "Basketball? Ich hasse Basketball! Das ist doof!" "Dein Gesicht is doof!" and the like.

This was followed up by a review of the possessive adjectives learned to date:
mein(e) - mine
dein(e) - yours

To which we have now added:
euer/eure - yours (plural)
ihr(e) - hers
sein(e) - his

We then played "Hast du mein Obst?" for the first time in quite a while to refresh our memory on possessive adjectives, and that's when the madness was born. One student's turn in the game (the goal of which being to make one's neighbor laugh) ended up being an unusually elaborate dance during which she sang the standard line of "Hast du mein Obst?" for a good 30 seconds at least. This caught on and quickly became a meme.

At the end of the day, after we did a reading comprehension exercise over a Deutsche Welle article (www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6441611,00.html) and shortly before doing Singprobe, we did a little parade.
With the two boys playing improvised drums (banging on notebooks and a basketball) and the girls dancing and singing, we performed the song and dance routine, now affectionately dubbed "Der Annatanz" up and down our section of the hallway for about a minute before running back inside.


And now, the homework:

Workbook
P. 83, Exercise 8
P. 85, Exercise 12