There are some times when the imagination of a child is a wondrous thing. There are other times when it is perplexing and even startling. Today was one such time, as we spent the class period inventing our own board games.
These games ran the gamut from playing with numbers, to gathering money, to avoiding elaborate death traps and a grisly demise. They were truly noteworthy, and honestly in some cases, if they were to hit the market, I'd buy a copy.
The games were written entirely in German (naturally), using recently-acquired grammatical skills. The class paired with the 8th graders to complete this project, working in trios to completion.
Later on, we shall play the finished products.
Mit Vergnügen.
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Saturday, February 17, 2018
17. Februar '18 - Einhörnerjagd
Today we hunted unicorns.
It started off like any other day: we listened to a bunch of hilarious riddles and did our best to solve them, and then did several student "Meine Nächste Woche" presentations.
As a review of the dative case (when used in prepositional phrases), we had a scavenger hunt; specifically, the class had to track down 10 little plastic unicorns that I had hidden throughout the school, using only the riddles I gave them as their guides. Once found, they confirmed the location with me, wrote down their finishing time, and had to write out exactly where they were (e.g. "Das Einhorn war in dem Kühlschrank.").
Afterward, we had a quiz over the dative case.
Next week we will do a combined activity with the 8th grade class.
MitVergnügen~
It started off like any other day: we listened to a bunch of hilarious riddles and did our best to solve them, and then did several student "Meine Nächste Woche" presentations.
As a review of the dative case (when used in prepositional phrases), we had a scavenger hunt; specifically, the class had to track down 10 little plastic unicorns that I had hidden throughout the school, using only the riddles I gave them as their guides. Once found, they confirmed the location with me, wrote down their finishing time, and had to write out exactly where they were (e.g. "Das Einhorn war in dem Kühlschrank.").
Afterward, we had a quiz over the dative case.
Next week we will do a combined activity with the 8th grade class.
MitVergnügen~
Saturday, February 10, 2018
10. Februar '18 - TMPO was his Name-O
Despite the snow and silliness of the midwest in the wintertime, we managed to have school and a fully attended class, much to my surprise and elation.
We had a student "Meine Nächste Woche" presentation, and did "Mein Fahrrad" by Die Prinzen for our listening comprehension. We also had an open-notes pop quiz over modal verbs to finish out that unit. I made it open-notes to encourage good note taking, which I consider far more important of a skill and a habit than simply memorizing things.
Our lesson was over prepositional phrases. We introduced another acronym, "TMPO" (time, manner, place, object) to cover proper word order in prepositional phrases, introduced the common/two-way prepositions (an, auf, hinter, vor, neben, über, unter, zwischen) and did the obligatory dance to go with them. This segued into covering what direct and indirect objects are, and how they use the accusative and dative cases respectively.
We will continue to deep dive into this grammar unit over the next few weeks.
Thank you all for coming today!
Mit Vergnügen
We had a student "Meine Nächste Woche" presentation, and did "Mein Fahrrad" by Die Prinzen for our listening comprehension. We also had an open-notes pop quiz over modal verbs to finish out that unit. I made it open-notes to encourage good note taking, which I consider far more important of a skill and a habit than simply memorizing things.
Our lesson was over prepositional phrases. We introduced another acronym, "TMPO" (time, manner, place, object) to cover proper word order in prepositional phrases, introduced the common/two-way prepositions (an, auf, hinter, vor, neben, über, unter, zwischen) and did the obligatory dance to go with them. This segued into covering what direct and indirect objects are, and how they use the accusative and dative cases respectively.
We will continue to deep dive into this grammar unit over the next few weeks.
Thank you all for coming today!
Mit Vergnügen
Saturday, February 3, 2018
3.Februar '17 - Gebote
Guten Tag!
Today we began with a student presentation of "Meine Nächste Woche" and continued with a classic song, "Millionär" from Die Prinzen.
Our lesson and main activity was around the modal verbs again. We reviewed the pairings from the previous week, those being Können and Dürfen, Möchten and Wollen, and then plunged into new territory with Sollen and Müssen.
As an activity, we did some examples wherein the kids decided whether Sollen or Müssen was the more appropriate choice, and then as we have done every year, we made our own "10 Gebote" for the classroom. Each student made 10 gebote of their own, picked their top 4, and then we voted on a total of 10 for the classroom. These are now our official 'class commandments.'
I think my favorite was, "Du sollst nicht das Universum explodieren." That is definitely good advice.
We played a kahoot reviewing the modal verbs bisher, and then called it a day.
Student presentations of "Meine Nächste Woche" shall continue for the next three weeks. Each student knows precisely when they are expected to present.
Mit Vergnügen~
Today we began with a student presentation of "Meine Nächste Woche" and continued with a classic song, "Millionär" from Die Prinzen.
Our lesson and main activity was around the modal verbs again. We reviewed the pairings from the previous week, those being Können and Dürfen, Möchten and Wollen, and then plunged into new territory with Sollen and Müssen.
As an activity, we did some examples wherein the kids decided whether Sollen or Müssen was the more appropriate choice, and then as we have done every year, we made our own "10 Gebote" for the classroom. Each student made 10 gebote of their own, picked their top 4, and then we voted on a total of 10 for the classroom. These are now our official 'class commandments.'
I think my favorite was, "Du sollst nicht das Universum explodieren." That is definitely good advice.
We played a kahoot reviewing the modal verbs bisher, and then called it a day.
Student presentations of "Meine Nächste Woche" shall continue for the next three weeks. Each student knows precisely when they are expected to present.
Mit Vergnügen~
Sunday, January 28, 2018
27. Januar '18 - Being Polite
Guten Tag everyone!
This Saturday we began by finishing out the student-lead "Meine Woche" presentations and preparing to begin next week with the latest installment, finishing out our unit on the future tense: "Meine Nächste Woche."
Our song for the day was "Prokrastination" by Mirellativegal, which was hilarious and well-received.
We began our unit on modal verbs, starting with "Wollen" and "Möchten" in the context of how to politely and idiomatically correctly make requests. This lead to much hilarity when the students were tasked with roleplaying out the rules they learned, demonstrating politeness and prolific rudeness as they saw fit.
Generally speaking, when used to make a request, "Wollen" (want) is considered impolite. When simply expressing desire, such as "oooh I want that," it's fine, but barking "I WANT!" is childish, whereas a polite and cultured individual makes requests with "Möchten" (would like).
This went far quicker than I'd imagined it would, so we were able to move onto the second set of modal verbs, "Können" (can) and "Dürfen" (may). The rules of usage for these are quite similar to English: use "may" when asking for permission, since "can" is stating that one is indeed physically capable of doing something.
And that was the day!
Mit Vergnügen.
This Saturday we began by finishing out the student-lead "Meine Woche" presentations and preparing to begin next week with the latest installment, finishing out our unit on the future tense: "Meine Nächste Woche."
Our song for the day was "Prokrastination" by Mirellativegal, which was hilarious and well-received.
We began our unit on modal verbs, starting with "Wollen" and "Möchten" in the context of how to politely and idiomatically correctly make requests. This lead to much hilarity when the students were tasked with roleplaying out the rules they learned, demonstrating politeness and prolific rudeness as they saw fit.
Generally speaking, when used to make a request, "Wollen" (want) is considered impolite. When simply expressing desire, such as "oooh I want that," it's fine, but barking "I WANT!" is childish, whereas a polite and cultured individual makes requests with "Möchten" (would like).
This went far quicker than I'd imagined it would, so we were able to move onto the second set of modal verbs, "Können" (can) and "Dürfen" (may). The rules of usage for these are quite similar to English: use "may" when asking for permission, since "can" is stating that one is indeed physically capable of doing something.
And that was the day!
Mit Vergnügen.
Sunday, January 21, 2018
20. Januar '18 - Karneval
Howdy howdy howdy,
Our Saturday was an interesting one, as always. We began our day with a pair of students doing "Meine Woche," and as always their PowerPoint skills put mine to shame because life is just unfair like that.
We went through our listening comprehension exercise, this week being "der Pony Pokey" from the German dubbed season 1 of My Little Pony.
The bulk of our time we spent doing a still deeper dive into the Future tense, its mechanics, meaning, and usage. As an exercise, we did what I call "The Hat of Prophecy," which is where we each wrote down several potential actions (e.g. "Pasta essen" or "König sein") on little bits of paper, drew out several, and had to match them with time statements, such as "in 100 Jahre..."
This ended up with such predictions for our individual futures as, "Ich werde in 20 Jahre ein Haus essen."
After lunch, we spent a good bit of time listening to our guest speakers, the Prinz and Prinzessin from the Rheinischer Verein, teaching the school all about Fasching.
Report cards were also handed out today, to the joy of everyone.
Mit Vergnügen.
Our Saturday was an interesting one, as always. We began our day with a pair of students doing "Meine Woche," and as always their PowerPoint skills put mine to shame because life is just unfair like that.
We went through our listening comprehension exercise, this week being "der Pony Pokey" from the German dubbed season 1 of My Little Pony.
The bulk of our time we spent doing a still deeper dive into the Future tense, its mechanics, meaning, and usage. As an exercise, we did what I call "The Hat of Prophecy," which is where we each wrote down several potential actions (e.g. "Pasta essen" or "König sein") on little bits of paper, drew out several, and had to match them with time statements, such as "in 100 Jahre..."
This ended up with such predictions for our individual futures as, "Ich werde in 20 Jahre ein Haus essen."
After lunch, we spent a good bit of time listening to our guest speakers, the Prinz and Prinzessin from the Rheinischer Verein, teaching the school all about Fasching.
Report cards were also handed out today, to the joy of everyone.
Mit Vergnügen.
Saturday, January 13, 2018
13.Jan '18 - Opfergaben
Guten Abend,
Today began slowly. For the first half hour it seemed we would only have 2 students in attendance, which made me sad. Then suddenly the class doubled in size, and all was well.
We had two "Meine Woche" presentations, and had "Ich hab 'nen Traum" ('I've Got a Dream' from 'Tangled') as our listening comprehension exercise.
Once we were settled in, as refresher as well as a necessary exercise, we went through some of the fundamentals of pronunciation, focusing on common errors I've been noticing during presentations. To do so, we went through the perennial classic... Züngenbrecher. We upped the ante a bit and added projectiles to it, because of course we did.
We finished out the lesson over comparative iron age religion, this time covering the Germanic end of things, including how we still see remnants of these myths even to this day, e.g. in the days of the week (Thor's Day Thursday, Odin's Day Wednesday, Tyr's Day Tuesday, Frigg's Day Friday), pop culture (the Marvel movies, for instance) and our own modern day myths (Santa is Odin).
We then began our lesson on the future tense, diving into its usage, the verb Werden, and how the lessons we learned with the past tense (e.g. word order/syntax) still apply here with this tense as well.
Next week onward, we will continue to have "Meine Woche" presentations from the students, so those who were informed that they are coming next will need to be prepared.
Mit Vergnügen.
Today began slowly. For the first half hour it seemed we would only have 2 students in attendance, which made me sad. Then suddenly the class doubled in size, and all was well.
We had two "Meine Woche" presentations, and had "Ich hab 'nen Traum" ('I've Got a Dream' from 'Tangled') as our listening comprehension exercise.
Once we were settled in, as refresher as well as a necessary exercise, we went through some of the fundamentals of pronunciation, focusing on common errors I've been noticing during presentations. To do so, we went through the perennial classic... Züngenbrecher. We upped the ante a bit and added projectiles to it, because of course we did.
We finished out the lesson over comparative iron age religion, this time covering the Germanic end of things, including how we still see remnants of these myths even to this day, e.g. in the days of the week (Thor's Day Thursday, Odin's Day Wednesday, Tyr's Day Tuesday, Frigg's Day Friday), pop culture (the Marvel movies, for instance) and our own modern day myths (Santa is Odin).
We then began our lesson on the future tense, diving into its usage, the verb Werden, and how the lessons we learned with the past tense (e.g. word order/syntax) still apply here with this tense as well.
Next week onward, we will continue to have "Meine Woche" presentations from the students, so those who were informed that they are coming next will need to be prepared.
Mit Vergnügen.
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