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!