German articles of clothing and random history

This week, we practiced vocabulary related to clothing by listening to a cute German children's song and making our own "Hampelmann." Homework was just a short worksheet answering questions about what your Hampelmann is wearing. This is the song we learned in class.

And here are some activities to practice as well:

A game of memory
Listen and find (click on an article of clothing. The narrator will say the article of clothing and you search for it in the list. Once you've found everything, hit check.)
PacMan We haven't talked a lot about gender, but try your best with identifying the correct gender of the articles of clothing. If you get it right, you're immune to the ghosts. If you get it wrong, your turn ends and you get to start over.

While we worked on our Hampelmänner, we discussed a little of the history of English. I don't know why this video doesn't say it outright, but the influence from Scandinavia comes from the Vikings. Just an interesting note if you are at all interested in linguistics, history and anthropology: Historians look at language to see the relationships between people groups. The kinds of words we borrow from other languages tell a lot about the relationships between groups of people even if historical records weren't kept. So it isn't surprising that words like "ransack," "slaughter" and "die" come from the Vikings. But it might surprise you that words like "leg," "window," and "husband" do as well! Here is a list of words we can thank the Vikings for.

We also talked a little about the Holocaust and the special case of Denmark who resisted the Nazis efforts to round up the Jews. This video talks about the night the Nazis tried to round up 11,000 Jews and how almost all of them got away.

If you are interested, this article has more details. Only 70 Danish Jews lost their lives. An incredible testament to the care and compassion of the Danish people!

And finally, another episode of Tro Tro! As we learn more German, hopefully you understand more of what is going on. He gets himself dressed in this episode so listen carefully for the articles of clothing we talked about in class!

Auf Wiedersehen!

~Frau Hanley

Body Parts, German Word Order and Reviewing German numbers

Guten Tag!

We worked on a lot this week and the students did a great job!

We're still working on counting to ten. This video counts to ten and back to zero with a (kind of) catchy song. Students should recognize the number words. The refrain "Wieviel kostet das?" means "How much does it cost?" "Toll! Ich nehme es!" means "Great! I'll take it!" Then they go back to counting. OK, so it is actually kind of cheesy, but it is short and the song gets stuck in my head and it will help learn the numbers!

This link will take you to a page to practice numbers with some activities. The site can be a little awkward to navigate at first but it has a lot of great activities and I'll be using it fairly regularly. I think it is better than sending home worksheets because you get instant feedback and a chance to correct your mistakes. There are four online activities. Click on the first one and there's a link to instructions and near the top of the page you'll notice arrows to go to the previous or next lesson and you can use that to go through each one: German Numbers 1 - 10

Next, we introduced body parts in German. Herr Antrim has a lot of great videos for learning German. In this one, you can watch him sing Kopf, Schulter, Knie und Fuß until he collapses.

And Herr Antrim again, teaching body parts with his Mr. Potato Head doll.

And some activities to practice the vocabulary at home. This is the same site as the one I gave above to practice numbers. You can complete as many of the activities as you would like. Some of them are more challenging than others: German Parts of the Body.

Our grammar lesson for this week focused on German word order. We worked on a worksheet in class. The remaining questions are NOT homework. This is the heart of German grammar and is a lot to tackle at first because it is different from English. The German verb comes in the second position, but the subject does not have to come first as it is in English. This video explains the English grammar and then explains the German grammar. After discussing statements, she moves into questions which we haven't covered yet, so don't worry about that!

And finally something just for fun! We read a story in class about a little doormouse. This video is in English and discusses what a dormouse is. It's a popular little animal in Europe but not as well known here. We will read more about them next week.

And this is the story I read. We will be looking at it more closely to learn some vocabulary and a little German grammar and then we'll use it to start learning to read German so familiarity with the story will help!

Auf Wiedersehen!

~Frau Hanley

Welcome to Elementary German!

Welcome to Elementary German! This year, I made each of the students a sort of lapbook we'll be working on filling up this semester. We're going to try to do a little grammar, a little vocabulary and a little culture or geography each week. This week, we focused on telling someone what your name is, conjugating a German verb, simple commands, the German coat of arms and first day of school customs.

The only homework we had this week was to try to watch these videos if possible. Next week, we'll start working on colors and I will send home a short homework assignment.

This is a nice, three minute lesson on introductions.



We did not work on the alphabet in class. However, students should have a sheet in their booklet that has the alphabet and an approximate pronunciation guide. This is my favorite alphabet song on YouTube because it goes through the alphabet at a nice pace and the letters actually fit in the tune.

"Wunderbar" means "wonderful."
"Das ist nett." means "That is nice."




This video goes through each letter at a speaking pace after singing the alphabet. It also has a German word to go with each so your students can learn some vocabulary as well as hear the pronunciation of each letter more clearly.




This was our culture lesson for this week. On the first day of school (especially on the first day of kindergarten), German families give their children a "Schultuete" or "school cone." The first video is just to give an idea of the size and how they are presented to the children. The second video shows the kinds of things typically found in a Schultuete.






And for a little fun, Tro Tro! He was very popular with my class last year. This one is probably the easiest to follow without knowing any German, but I'll start off with a short video I made last year that goes over some of the vocabulary used and gives your children some phrases to listen for.




And the cartoon! Enjoy!



As always, if you have any questions, let me know!

Easter in Germany

We had a great time in class learning a little about Easter week and and German customs. We even got to go outside and throw boiled eggs in a kind of relay. This is one of many North German traditions I remember from my exchange year in Germany. For this week's post, I wanted to share some more about the Easter celebration in Germany. It's important to remember that Northern Germany is Protestant while Southern Germany is Catholic. This influences the celebrations in the different regions of Germany. There are also heavy pagan influences to the festivities that date back to long before Germany was Christianized and can still be seen in some of the celebrations. Enjoy this little tour of different traditions from different parts of Germany!

In Lügde, the Osterräderlauf is still celebrated. What can be more festive than stuffing a tractor tire full of straw, lighting it on fire and then rolling it down the hillside? This dates back to the heathen-Germanic sun worship, where the flaming wheel was representative of the sun. "Ostara," the German goddess of spring, was also connected to the original celebration. Now it is just a lot of fun to watch a flaming wheel roll down the side of a hill.

More common is the Easter bonfire where everyone drags out their old Christmas trees (and anything else flammable they happen to have lying around) to burn at a large celebration in the evening.

In class, we talked about the Easter week, starting with Palm Sunday. There were a couple of questions I looked up the answers to:

1) Why is it called "Gründonnerstag"? The students saw the word green and wondered what that had to do with Maundy Thursday. I wondered, too, and found out that though it looks like the German word for green, that isn't actually it's origin. It comes from Old High German 'gronan' which is more closely related to the English word for groaning than it is to the German word for green! (It means "to cry.")

2) Why is Good Friday called "Karfreitag"? It's also known as "der stille Freitag" or "silent Friday" because the church bells fall silent on Thursday and erupt again for Easter services Sunday morning. But why "Kar?" It comes from the Old High German "kara" which means "lamentation." 

This video goes over several traditions, some of which are very regional (probably as regional as the egg games we played in class). 

And the video makes reference to hanging plastic eggs from trees. Highly decorated eggs which are given as gifts, hung as ornaments or displayed through the season are also very appreciated in Germany. This particular tree is not typical of an Easter Tree, but is gorgeous. Many families will have a branch in their house with several beautifully decorated eggs hanging from it as a centerpiece.

And Sunday morning, many families will wake up to hunt Easter Eggs, attend services and eat chocolate bunnies, much like many families here in the United States. Lamb shaped cakes are also popular as well as lamb shaped butter served with sweet breads. Many families will serve lamb for dinner.

I hope you enjoyed this look at Easter in Germany and have a great week!

Elementary German -- How are you!

A little behind this week, so I just have a couple of videos to practice what we learned on Tuesday. We're working on "Wie geht's?" (How are you?) The class can answer "gut" (good) or "schlecht" (bad).

This is a quick song that practices the question and a few different answers. Just click play and the English translation is in the left sidebar.

This video is quick, but goes over most of the introductory phrases we learned last semester (Ich komme aus -- I come from, Ich wohne in -- I live in). It's only 37 seconds long but gives a nice quick review.


And last but not least, some German teenagers greeting people in the streets. Germans aren't the most open to strangers approaching them in the street. I remember trying to complete a survey in Berlin and not being able to find anyone who would answer the questions! Small warning: a group of intoxicated men walk by part way through. They don't do anything other than say, "Hello" but you can definitely tell they've been drinking. It is very good to have a chance to listen to native speakers speaking at a normal rate. Don't worry about understanding everything they say. Just listen for the "hallo" and "wie geht's."

And in our Tro Tro for this week, things aren't going so well for Tro Tro. Teddy has disappeared! He searches everywhere for his little bear.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Frau Hanley

Elementary German - Farm Animals

Welcome to a new semester of Elementary German! We had a great first day of class, reviewed some simple commands, basic introductions and learned names for some different farm animals. I read a short book, Mamas mit ihren Kindern

 Then we worked on a mini-book with the names of mother animals and their babies. The older kids did a great job reading it and the younger children in the class worked on identifying the animals while they colored.

We're working on this song which I tentatively am planning to use for the talent show. It is pretty easy to learn and I think will work well for the younger children in class who can do the actions.

We finished up with a game of hotter/colder to practie superlatives. (One student leaves the room while someone hides an object. Then the student is invited back in and the class calls out "heißer" and "kälter" to guide them to it.)

Each week, I try to post three to five videos so students can continue to practice at home. They are usually pretty short (under five minutes), but allow even those students who have no one to practice wih at home to continue hearing and practicing the language. I know weeks are busy, but the idea is to watch one a day for a little practice and to keep hearing the sounds of the language, even if they don't understand everything in the video.

This first video is sort of like video flashcards with pictures of farm animals and their German names. It then repeats with a pause to give students a chance to think of the name.


This video is similar, but with short videos of the animals followed by a sentence describing what the animals are doing (mother pig nursing her piglets, the sheep eating the green grass, the goats playing on the farm, hen and chicks pecking at their food and the cows grazing in the pasture).


This video is mostly a review for returning students, but there are several greetings we haven't covered. Herr Antrim has a whole series of videos for beginning German students. I've linked to his videos before and most likely will again! If you turn on the annotations, there is additional information about
 what he is saying, but it moves too fast to read without pausing).


The audio on this isn't as good, but it is an excellent review of the basics we have learned and would be very good for the new students to practice with. It covers "My name is . . . ", counting, colors and some basic vocabulary.

And last but not least, TroTro! TroTro is a brief German language cartoon about a sweet little donkey exploring his world. In this one, he builds a snowman and wants to bring him inside. There are more episodes after that which of course the students can watch if they wish!



If you have any questions, let me know!

Auf Wiedersehen! Frau Hanley

Articles of clothing and the fat dormouse

After a little review with a fun little song about body parts, we dived right in to learning articles of clothing and described what we were wearing and identified articles of clothing on a worksheet. 

The first video this week is a traditional children's song we may learn in class. It is about a Hampelmann (Jumping Jack) getting dressed in the morning. Students should recognize most of the clothing words. 

Then we read our first story about Bobo Siebenschläfer, a sweet little dormouse who ends almost all of his little adventures fast asleep. Bobo is a popular German character for young children and the pictures and simple language make it especially easy for children to follow along. This is the same story we read and talked about in class.



 And since we don't have much experience with dormice here in the United States ("der Siebenschläfer" may be their first word they learned in German before learning in English!), a short video in English about this cute little rodent. 

Did you know the fat dormouse, or edible dormouse, got it's name because Roman soldiers caught them and ate them as snacks when marching? 

And finally, another episode of TroTro. In this episode, TroTro is getting dressed and students should recognize many of the words for the clothes he puts on since he puts on most of his wardrobe!

Have a great week!