27. April - Mauerfall

Guten Tag und Guten Appetit,


Today, a historic event occurred: the Wall came down. I do not mean that there was a Pink Floyd concert--had there been one, I'd have been absent today--but rather, that the "Berlin Wall" we made as a class a few weeks ago was rent asunder with great wrath.
I shall start from the beginning.

To open class, the instructions were for everyone to write at least 5 random words (Deutsch!) in the following categories: Jobs, Names, Vehicles, Careers, Numbers, Animals, Foods, Hobbys. They were not told why to do this. Also, they were to write down, randomly, any questions on any topic at all that they could think of, (e.g. "Wo ist mein Schuh?" "Wie steht die Uhr?" "Wer ist Hans?" usw.)
Shortly afterward, we did our final listening comprehension of the year, "Dein Herz" by L'Ame Immortelle, an extremely silly love song so very over the top that translating it lead to endless giggles. This is one of my personal favorites.
Finally, the reason for the initial exercise was finally revealed: they were to use them in a role play. The students were divided into pairs: 2 were the Parents/Grandparents, and 2 were the kids. They were playing families that had been divided by the Berlin Wall for 40 years, and who were finally getting to see each other for the very first time after travel restrictions had been lifted on 9.Nov.1989.
The parents/grandparents (and sometimes crazy aunts/uncles when we had an odd number) were to ask their kids/grandkids the following questions which I wrote on the board:

1. Was macht ihr zum Beruf? (answer: list a 'job' word)
2. Wie viel Kinder habt ihr? (answer: list a number word)
3. Wie heißen sie? (Names)
4. Habt ihr Haustiere? Wie heißen sie? (Animals, Names)
5. Was sind eure Lieblingsspeisen? (Food)
6. Was sind eure Hobbys? (Hobbys)
7. Wie heißen eure Kinder? (names)
8. Was fährt ihr? 

And finally, in response to all this, the 'kids' had to turn around and ask their long-last parents the random questions they had previously written down. This lead to such exchanges:

Parent: "Was macht ihr zum Beruf? Und was fährt ihr?"

Kid1: "Ich bin Zahnartz. Ich habe kein Auto."

Kid2: "Ich bin Drachenflieger. Ich fahre tausende Katzen."

P: "Wie viel Kinder habt ihr?"

K1: "1294."

K2: "3."

P: "Wie heißen sie?"

K1: *Deep breath, starts saying names....*

K2: "Hans, Gretel, Hans Jr."

My favorite exchange:

P: "Habt ihr Fragen für mich, liebe Kinder?"

K1: "Wo ist mein Schuh?"

K2: "Wo ist die Toilette!?"

P: "Ich gehe nach Haus." 

I suppose you could call that, "Family Reunion Mad-Libs." 

Afterward, we all tore down the wall, yelling "FREIHEIT!" 

After the break, we went over the content of the test for 2 weeks from now, and I took any questions they may have over the material:

• Modal verbs (use, meaning, conjugation)
• Regular verbs (conjugation and place in a sentence)
• Time (12 hr, 24 hr)
• Food vocab
• Family vocab
• Articles (der, die, das, in accusative and nominative)
• Possessives (mein(e), dein(e), sein(e), euer/eure, ihr(e))

Most kids had questions over how to tell time, so we reviewed this and then played "Herr Fuchs" outside until Singprobe. 

I recommend they begin studying this week, or at least looking over past notes and homework, so that the final week's studying isn't such a burden. Next week will be our review day, meaning we shall play Jeopardy.

Mit Vergnügen~

21 April '13 - Eilmeldung

Guten Morgen,

Getting to school yesterday was quite an adventure due to the flooding still rampant in some areas, but I eventually made it.
Most of our class time was spent on an activity known as "Der Tagesschau," wherein the kids paired off, one of them being a news anchor, the other being the one who was reported over. So while one of them read off the "breaking news, happening right now!" the other acted out what was being reported. Many paper houses were stomped on by many mysterious, radioactive giants from outer space.

This was followed up by a game of surrealist charades after lunch (the joy of trying to act out "orange juice" knows no bounds) and then the singing practice.

For homework, I would like the former activity to be continued.

Hausaufgabe:
Make your own news report. Report on something that is currently happening somewhere, stating the following:

• Your name and the name of your station
• What is happening
• Who is doing it
• Where they are

The story must have an ending. If a giant is running around down town, the Army must come in and stop it, etc., to bring it to a close. It should last for at least 2-3 minutes. 

Whatever your script says, another student is going to have to act out on-the-fly at the beginning of class. 

Mit Vergnügen

13 April '13 - Ein Tag im Weltraum

Guten Tag,


Today we spent the day in outer space. Thankfully, with sufficient foresight, we managed to delay the onset of explosive decompression and instead everyone was just fine.
In reality, we wrote our 2nd long essay of the year, this one being on the topic, "Ein Tag im Weltraum" or a day in outer space.
This was 20 sentences long, in the present tense, describing what one does in outer space for the day, including answering such questions as:

• Who comes with you?
• What do you bring?
• What do you see?
• What can you do in space? What can't you do?
• How do you get to space?
• How do you get back?

For the latter part of the day, we reviewed accusative prepositions and the accusative form of possessive pronouns, and then played Telephone. 

Those who were not present will need to write the essay and bring it to class the next time they are present. Thanks again to those of you who let me know about an absence or tardiness-to-be-expected today. 

Those who were present today have no further homework. 

Mit Vergnügen~

6.April '13 - Guten Morgen, Hans!

Guten Tag!


Today we had a triumphant return to the last leg of the school year with 5 in attendance, so thank you for sending your child to school; for those who were sick, I hope you get well soon.

Class began with everyone reading their Hans essays aloud, the homework from the previous week wherein they had to describe what Hans die Katze does every morning. The winner got to cat-sit Hans for the rest of the day. For no immediately apparent reason, I also had everyone write down a random list of adjectives and nouns of their choice to be used later.

We went over certain words for morning routines, namely the differences between Wecken (to wake, transitive) aufwachen (to wake up) and aufstehen (to get up). We then added to our repertoire of modal verbs (sollen, können, möchten, dürfen, wollen) "müssen" (must) and did little roleplays with them.

Finally we came to the reason why we had written down random words at the beginning of class. With all students keeping their eyes closed, I asked for certain words (e.g. "noun!") and when all was completed, they opened their eyes to find what madness their word choices had wrought upon the world: yes, we did madlibs.
My favorite was, "Hans die Katze will im Apfel mit Käse schwimmen, aber er kann nicht, denn die Polizei sind in der Nähe."

The day wrapped up with some grammar exercises, followed by Singprobe.

Our homework:

Workbook
P. 103, ex. 15

and

Ground Rules for Hans:
Hans die Katze is spending a week at your house. Make 10 rules for him, 5 things he MAY do (using dürfen) and 5 things he MUST do (using müssen) while a guest in your home.

Schöne Pause!

Grüße!

For the next two weekends, there shall be no German school. By a fluke of this year's calendar, Spring Break and Easter are back to back, so we'll be seeing you in April.

Saturday's summary:

To begin with, we presented the fashion catalogues from last class and then briefly re-introduced the concept of possessives (my/mine, your/yours...) before adding more to the list:  mein(e), dein(e), and just added were eu(e)r(e), ihr(e) and sein(e).

Our class mascot, Hans die Katze, held reign over the class period and decided how the day would proceed.  According to the Will of Hans, and his partner Gretel (yes, they are a pair of cat dolls), the kids engaged in a number of conversational exercises to have them practice what I managed to instruct them over, including arguing amongst themselves about who owned Hans, whose shoes were whose, and similar. Most noteworthy was a roleplay in which one student was a mom, and two others were siblings, both of whom tried to convince "Mom" that it was their turn to play with Hans.

Later, Gretel wanted to play hide and seek, and so we played "Wer hat Gretel?" wherein one child closed his/her eyes while the rest of the class hid Gretel somewhere, the location of which had to be guessed.

After lunch, Frau Wiegert and Frau Großkopf gave a talk and Q&A session for the classes 5-8 over the post-war experience of the Volksdeutsch.

the homework is as follows:

Hausaufgabe:

P. 83, Ex. 8

P. 85, Ex. 12

P. 101, Ex. 10

-------And ----

Using the vocabulary on pages 90 and 93 (breakfast words and morning routine verbs), describe in at least 5 sentences an ideal morning for Hans. The most appealing essay to Hans will be rewarded with that student getting to ke

9.März - Fashion Week!

The most fabulous times were had today at the fabulous German School!

As mentioned in last week's email, today we made our fabulous, fabulous fashion catalogues with the help of the various magazines and ad papers that the children brought with them. Thanks for remember to have those brought to class!
We spent most of the day making the Modekatalogen and affixing brand names, vocabulary words and prices (in Euros) to each item.
Accompanying this, we had a brief lesson over digit demarcation in Germany ("," for decimals, "." for thousands, millions and billions), the verb Kosten (Not to be confused with Kotzen!), and the phrases "wie viel" and "wie viele" (how much and how many respectively).

Further, we held the quiz over vocabulary from the Hörverständnis exercises. Those not present today will need to make this up later.

And now, for the homework:
P.79
Exercises 8-9
and
Fashion Catalogue (for those not present or those who did not finish)

• Make a catalogue of clothes or sporting goods
• Write down the German word for each item next to it
• Also write down the price of each in Euros (it can be entirely made-up)
• Use either hand-drawings, photos or cut-outs from magazines
• Name your store as well!
• At least 3 pages

Mit Vergnügen~

2.März - Hotdog Day

Guten Morgen,


Saturday played host to an outbreak of that uncontrollable contagion known as "Witzensucht," called in English, "The Giggles." No matter what was going on, what the topic at hand was, or what we were in fact doing, sporadic bursts of uncontrollable, even involuntary laughter seemed to follow at our heels.
Everything from, "how do you conjugate sollen?" to "turn in your homework" was met with laughter.
As one child put it, "It's hot dog day!" I guess it was just hot dog day.

The day opened with a listening comprehension exercise with the song "Sie erfasst mein Herz" by Elis.
From there, we went over the different forms of negation and similar words used in conversation (nicht, nichts, nie, niemals, niemand, doch)
Later, we took back up the topic of modal verbs and added sollen (should) to our repertoire that so far consists of können, dürfen, möchten, wollen. 

After the break, we ended the day with a verbal exercise of the most cerebral sort, one designed to challenge the childrens' language skills as well as their abstract thinking. I am, of course, referring to 20 Questions. A student was given a word, and then they stood up in front while the rest of the class asked them yes or no questions (up to 20) until the word was found out. For this, we combined with Fr. Nölke's 7th grade class to give us a better-sized crowd. And there was much rejoicing.

For next week, there will be a vocabulary quiz over the words we have used so far in listening comprehension exercises this semester. I would highly recommend flash cards be used in studying. The songs are "Nichts bring mich runter" by Ich & Ich, "Küssen Verboten" and "Gabi & Klaus" by Die Prinzen, and "Sie erfasst mein Herz" by Elis.

The list is as follows (with articles):

Der Schmerz – pain

Die Liebe – love

Die Stimme -  voice

Das Meer - sea

Das Herz - heart

Der Kreis- circle

Der Sand – sand

Gemein- mean

Einsam- lonely

Zu viel- too much

Wo- where

Weiter- further

Nichts - Nothing 

Die Zeit - Time

Das Licht  - Light

Nicht - Not/None 

Mehr - More 

Leise - Quiet 

Wieder - Again

Doch - However/On the Contrary 

Mein - My/Mine 

Nie - Never 

Schön - Pretty

Das Geschenk - Present

and the verbs

Hören - hear

Sehen - see

Glauben - believe

Küssen- kiss

Folgen – follow

Vergessen - forget

Sagen- say

Verstehen - understand

Mit Vergnügen