Die Kleine Raupe Nimmersatt (The Very Hungry Caterpillar)

This week, we read Die Kleine Raupe Nimmersatt which is the German version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. A lot of people don't realize this, but Eric Carle's parents were actually German immigrants. His mother was so homesick, however, that she brought the family back to Germany when Eric was six years old. He was raised in Germany. His father was drafted to serve in World War II and was captured by the Soviets. He came home weighing only 85 pounds. Eric was forced to dig trenches for the Siegfried Line at the age of 15. He went studied art in Stuttgart, but always wanted to return to America, the place of his happiest childhood memories. So after graduation, he moved to New York with his art degree and $40 in his pocket.

This is an adorable little animation of the story in German to help your children learn more of the vocabulary found in the story.




And if your children enjoy songs, here is the story, sung in German.



This is a short activity to practice the days of the week. We have not gone over this a great deal in class, but it is in the story and in their minibooks they brought home. In the activity, the speaker asks "Welcher Tag ist heute?" (What day is today?). It then says the day and circles it in the calendar. Type the name of the day correctly in the blank (just copy what is circled and don't forget to capitalize the first letter). Good luck!

Next week, there is no class. After that, we will be celebrating St. Nicholas Day with cocoa, a specialty cookie from East Frisia, some holiday Bingo and we'll practice Oh Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree) to sing at the talent show. Parents are more than welcome to join us for class. I'll have extra cookies for everyone!

Martinstag ~ The Feast of St. Martin

This week, we learned about Martinstag, celebrated November 11 throughout much of Germany. We read a popular story (available alongside notebooking paper and other activities as a pdf) about St. Martin, a Roman soldier who took pity on a poor beggar. While riding home through snow and ice, he came across a man dressed only in rags. He cut his own cloak in half to share with the poor man. At home, he dreamed that Jesus praised him for his kind act and thus came to the faith. Later, the church wanted to make him a Bishop, but he was a humble man and didn't want such recognition. He hid in a goose pen, but was given away by the squawking of the geese and ended up becoming a Bishop afterall.

The generosity and love of St. Martin is celebrated today with soft, warm pretzels (a symbol of neighborly love) and evening parades through the streets where the children carry lanterns, sing about St. Martin and their lanterns and are rewarded with candy and other goodies as they stop at houses along the way.

This first video shows some of the festivities. It starts out with the song we learned in class and will be practicing again next week for our own lantern parade and includes a brief re-enactment of the story we read in class.

 This video begins with another very popular song sung this time of year and then shares the story of St. Martin. It is a little longer and more complicated than the story I read in class, however, it is illustrated and your children should already know the basics of the story so they should be able to tell what is going on and hopefully recognize a few words as well.




And this final Martinstag video is of the song we practiced in class for our parade next week. It includes the music and text. The song has multiple verses, but we will only be singing the first verse (included on the coloring sheet I sent home) so that is all they need to practice. Unfortuntely, embedding has been disabled on this video, so you'll have to watch it on YouTube.

Laterne, Laterne, Sonne Mond und Sterne

For a little practice, this reviews counting to ten. This one is a song about ten little beetles and this quick activity has you match the word to the numeral by dragging and dropping.

Finally, this week's post is a little heavier in videos than I normally do so I thought about skipping our weekly TroTro, but the children really seem to be enjoying it.

In this episode, TroTro doesn't want to share. Children should recognize the color words while he's arguing with his friend over crayons and may be able to pick out the words for the individual toys he is hoarding to himself. The story is clear enough from the illustrations, but I may come back and make an introduction later because there are good phrases for new learners to learn as well.



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

~Frau Hanley

Learning words for extended family

Today we finished off learning words for family members by practicing words for grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle and male and female cousins. This fun little song we went over in class practices them all.



This quick online activity has students complete a family tree. When you click on a person's face, a voice will tell you who it is. Place it in the correct place to complete the family tree. Once it is finished, you will also have all the answers to the worksheet I sent home.

And this week's episode of TroTro is again fairly concrete. Which is good because I lost my voice this afternoon! TroTro has a little trouble getting up because he's still tired. His mother tells him to wash himself. And after breakfast, he has to do it all over again. Your children should hear a few words we have gone over in class (parts of the body, including hands, face, hair and teeth). Enjoy!


~Frau Hanley

Learning words for family members

This week, we learned about our immediate family: der Vater (father), die Mutter (mother), der Bruder (brother) and die Schwester (sister).

To introduce the words for family members, I showed them Die Mausfamilie, a finger play about a family of mice that also reviewed some of the body parts we already have learned. This one is a little different than the one I did, but was the clearest of the ones I found on YouTube and uses words for body parts we have already practiced.




We then glued pictures of our immediate family into our folders with simple sentences to practice introducing family members. ("Das ist mein Vater," means "That is my father.") Everyone did very well as I went around and asked them in German to point to family members and introduce them to me in German. If they didn't finish, just have them glue down their pictures. There isn't room for multiple brothers and sisters, so just have them staple the pictures together or glue them to small pieces of paper and staple those together to place in the appropriate places. Their homework practices introductions by asking the names of various family members. If they don't have brothers or sisters, just leave those questions blank. If they have multiple, they only need to answer with one (it is about the practice more than anything) but they can certainly write out everyone's names if they wish!

This is just for fun, but I also came across an interactive site with simple games to teach German vocabulary. This is a simple tic-tac-toe game that can be played by one or two players to review body parts. The start button is kind of small, so you'll have to look for it, but then it just requires you to select your space, listen for the body part, and select the correct word from a list. I thought it would make a good review. I will begin including one of these games in these weekly posts for some additional practice and you are welcome to explore the site on your own. Some of the games require correct spelling and for now, I won't be including any of those, but you are certainly welcome to try them out!

And to finish off, our weekly episode of TroTro! In this episode, TroTro is a little afraid to sleep in his bed alone. He joins his parents who are a little desperate to get him to go back to his own bed.


Mutter and Vater are the more formal German words for mother and father. Listen closely to see what TroTro calls his parents. As we talked about in class, these are very familiar words used in many languages. Enjoy!

Learning articles of clothing

To introduce articles of clothing, we learned Das Hamplemannlied, a fun little song about a jumping jack toy. There are several versions of the song, so I modified it a little to fit the most important articles of clothing I wanted to teach. This version is similar to what we sang in class and has pictures of the articles of clothing to help students learn the words.




Homework for this week was to color the Hamplemann anyway they wished and then to describe their Hampelmann. The articles of clothing they need are written on their Hampelmann and then they just need to write in the color in the blanks. A couple of children were not able to finish making their toy in class. The directions for making the Hampelmann is here. It also includes the template I used (I modified it slightly to write the clothing words on it) if you are missing parts or would like to make one for other children in your family.  (The link in the materials list doesn't work, but the one in the directions does.)

This week's episode of TroTro includes the little donkey dressing himself. I decided not to do a separate introduction for this one because it is pretty concrete. He grabs each article of clothing as he says it. Enjoy!

Learning Body Parts

This week I introduced body parts with a very popular children's song known in many cultures: Kopf, Schulter, Knie und Fuß (literally, Head, Shoulders, Knee and Foot).  After that, we played a little Simon Sagt (Simon Says), and finished by coloring a monster. I gave directions in German while the children colored.

In the following video, Herr Antrim plays Kopf, Schulter, Knie und Fuß until he collapses. This is an excellent little song for children of all ages to learn some basic body parts.

I also wanted to start sharing episodes of a cute, three minute German cartoon: TroTro. It is about a young donkey exploring his world. Given the simple dialog and the adventures taken from the every day, the stories are very simple to understand. Even my two year old begs to watch more and it is my children's favorite part of their practice.

In this episode, TroTro pretends to be a little monster and scares his teddy bear, his friend in the sandbox, his mom while she tries to bake a cake and his father.. He goes off looking for someone else to scare when he is frightened by a little spider and runs back to his mom.

This is a brief introduction to the cartoon I made to help children get more out of watching the cartoon. I provide some simple words and phrases as well as a few short sentences for them to listen for while they watch.

And finally, enjoy the show! I hope to share a new cartoon each week until the end of the semester. I hope your children look forward to them as much as my children do!

Learning simple directions

This week, we learned simple directions with a very simple song/dance that is sometimes sung at festivals or large parties. The lyrics in German and in English:

nach vorne                                                    forwards
nach hinten                                                   backwards
nach links und nach rechts                         to the left and to the right
nach oben                                                      up
nach unten                                                    down
nach links und nach rechts.                        to the left and to the right.




This is obviously a nice little song for introducing simple directions, but it also should give students a good pattern for something they will learn much later in their studies. In German, there are two words that mean to: nach and zu. That can be very confusing for Americans because we only have one word and tend to use zu where we should use nach. Through learning these and other songs, however, children have the opportunity to hear these words used correctly and even to memorize some lines. Then when they are introduced to nach and zu in a grammar lesson some day, it will not be a totally new concept. By then, some may have started developing a feel for the difference between these two difficult prepositions, making the lesson easier for them to learn. That is why I like singing these children's songs with them and speaking so much German. We are a long way from a formal grammar lesson, but they have heard the basics so when we finally get there, the grammar will really be more of an explanation of things they already know.

The project we began in class and that most of the children took home to finish uses the words from this song. The table should go in the middle and be attached so there is a little pocket for the cat to tuck into. The cat should be taped to a string so that it can moved to each of the arrows. It doesn't matter which arrow points which direction, so long as one points up, down, left and right and then one should point behind the table and one in front of the table. They should have words to glue on the appropriate arrows.

Important: Make sure not to glue anything into the center of the folder. Later, we will staple these along the folder's fold line and hold punch them so that they can all be bound together into one picture dictionary. 

(You should be able to click on the image for a larger view.)


The sentences are basic and we did practice them a little in class. The first one is:

Die Katze geht nach ___________________.
(The cat goes _______________.)

The blank should be left blank. It is just to remind students of the sentence structure so that they can recite the directions the cat is going to you. So for example, you or your child should be able to put the cat over the up arrow and your child should be able to say, "Die Katze geht nach oben."

The second and third sentences are:

Meine Katze ist ____________________.
(My cat is ___________________.)
Meine Katze heißt _____________________.
(My cat's name is _____________________.)

In the first sentence, they are supposed to complete it by writing what color their cat is. In the second, they are supposed to name their cat. This is just for a little review of colors and how to introduce someone. The funny looking letter that almost looks like a B is called an s-set and makes the same sound as "ss."

I will make a short video tomorrow going over this with the proper pronunciation so that students may practice more effectively at home and listen to the new vocabulary again.

Learning colors

We took advantage of our co-op's Color Day and all of our brightly colored clothing to learn our colors in German today. After talking about the colors everyone was wearing, we learned what is perhaps the most well-known German children's song: Grün, grün, grün sind all meine Kleider. There are several different versions to the song. What we learned in class follows this version almost exactly. The video, however, says the careers twice and at the end of the song, we used a Künstler (artist) whereas it is a Maler (painter) in the version below. We also added in a Feuerwehrmann (fireman) so that we could add red to the song.



The children have coloring homework which matches the song so if they forget the German word between class and when they start on the homework, all the answers are in this video. Feel free to email me or leave a comment if you have any questions.

The last box on their homework says, "Ich trage ____________!" It means "I wear ________________!" There is no wrong answer. They can fill in any color word there and draw a picture of themselves wearing that color.

If you are able to take a little time to have them practice saying, "Ich trage _____________" with different colors, it will help them learn their colors and will also help prepare them for an upcoming lesson. In about three weeks, we will learn about clothes and if they have this sentence mastered, they only have to add on the names of the different articles of clothing and they will already be able to describe their outfits in German!

Counting to ten

All the students are doing a wonderful job watching and listening to figure out what I am asking them to do even though I'm speaking a lot of German. It can be very intimidating to be called on and know you are expected to do something but you aren't sure quite what. I am very encouraged that everyone is so willing to try . . . and that they obviously understand more than they think they do as they very cautiously offer the right answer or something very close to it!

Today, we reviewed the alphabet and began learning  a German counting rhyme. It is essentially the German equivalent of "One, two, Buckle my shoe." They are not expected to learn the rhyme this week. I am posting it here because it is more interesting than the other counting videos I found. Next week, we will concentrate on learning to count to three. Because Oktoberfest, the largest festival in the world, begins this weekend, we talked a little about its history as well. The German American Society in Omaha is also celebrating Oktoberfest this weekend and it is a wonderful opportunity to experience authentic German food, music, dance and dress. There is also a shop where you can buy articles from Germany. More information is available at the website of the German American Society.

Interestingly, MoDo, a German techno group, did a remix of this classic children's rhyme and it hit the top of the charts in Germany. This made it very difficult to find the traditonal rhyme online because all the search results are turning up MoDo's version and other modern dance mixes. There are several versions of this rhyme sung in Germany, including many parodies. The following is from a kindergarten class in Croatia and is slightly different than what we practiced in class.

We learned "drei vier Grenadier" (three, four, grenadier) whereas this version has "drei vier Offizier" (three four officer). It also ends differently with "schlafen gehen" (going to sleep) rather than "auf Wiedersehen" (goodbye).

And mostly because I find it very amusing to think of a song like this hitting the top of the dance charts, this is the techno version by MoDo. It's refrain is fairly simple and has two good phrases as well:

Ja ja ja
Was ist los?
Was ist das?

(Yes yes yes
What is wrong?
What is that?)

And I may as well finish off with a simple counting song. This is just the numbers from one to ten and then back to one.

Celebrating the first day of school, the alphabet and simple commands

We had a wonderful first day of class and I was impressed with how quickly all the children picked up what we were doing.

We started out by practicing simple commands and students figured out what I was asking them to do by watching and mimicking me. We also practiced basic introductions ("What is your name?" and "My name is . . . ")  I was very impressed with how quickly the children figured out what I was asking for and how willing they were to try, even when they weren't quite sure. I was also very impressed with how well they were able to pronounce the German "ch." It is typically a very difficult sound for Americans to produce. Now I have one whole mini lesson I may not have to do because I suspect they'll have the sound mastered before we get to it!

We introduced the alphabet. Whether or not your child is able to memorize the German alphabet this semester depends largely on how well they have mastered the English alphabet and how much opportunity they have to practice at home. I sent home a sheet with each child that gives an approximate English guide to pronouncing the letters. This is the song that we are using to learn the alphabet. If you are able to listen to it even once a day, it will help your child remember what we are working on.

"Wunderbar!" means "Wonderful!"
"Das ist nett!" means "That is nice!"



We won't be singing it as a round, though!

We finished off the half hour by learning about the "Schultuete," which is part of how German families build excitement about the first day of school. Your child should have the start of a lapbook on German culture that includes a picture of a Schultuete and a little information. Here is more about this custom if you are interested.

Welcome to Elementary German!

Welcome to the virtual home of Elementary German, the class I am teaching at our homeschool co-op. Each week, I will update this blog with an overview of what we worked on in class and include videos to help reinforce new concepts at home and give your children the opportunity to hear native speakers as well. Since this is an immersion class, I will be speaking very little English. I believe this is the best and most engaging way to learn a foreign language and is essentially how we learned English (and how I learned German while living with a German family and attending a German high school). Especially in the beginning, however, it may be difficult for your child to tell you exactly what we did in class. This blog will help you understand what we're doing each week.

This will also give your child the opportunity to listen and practice the language for five to ten minutes per day, even if there is no one else at home who speaks German. A week without practice is a long time when learning a foreign language, especially for this age group! The summary and new videos will go up each Tuesday.

If you have any questions at all, feel free to leave a comment here, email me or call me (you should have received all my contact information when you signed up for class). Thank you very much and I look forward to working with you and your child this semester!

~ Frau Hanley