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!

German: The book about me and fun with animals

This week in German, the kids put together what we've learned so far to write a book about themselves. They did a great job, worked diligently and were eager to read their books to the class when we were done so we got to know each other a little better!

This video is just for fun. It is a clip from a longer German cartoon, but there is no language in the video. It's about children exploring who they are and playing with language. Even if it isn't the "sheep" their parents speak!

To review the words for body parts, we started class of with a game of "Wer bin ich?" ("Who am I?") I described different animals in German and the class guessed what it was. They were very enthusiastic! This educational show starts off with the same game. "Ich kenne ein Tier . . . " means "I know an animal. . . " The children describe an animal and the artist draws what they're describing, getting it wrong most of the time. The language is kind of fast, but they use a lot of the vocabulary we have gone over in class. My children love the series, but understanding what is going on doesn't seem to be that important to them. Every child is different! After the guessing game, children introduce us to a little calf with a tummy ache. Then there is a clip of a cow who lost her spots, but there is no language in it so it is easy to understand!

And since the main part of our lesson was witing, 'Das Buch über mich' (The book about me), here is 'Das Lied über mich.' (The song about me.) She sings, "There are songs about dogs wau wau wau. There are songs about cats, miau miau miau. There's just one song that isn't yet, and that is the song about me. I have hands -- even two -- and hair -- more than three -- I have a round belly and I also have a nose. I have left and right a leg and a heart that's not of stone and now I'll wave to you, hello you . . . If I can get my mp3 to cooperate, we'll play this song in class, too. 

Here are two quick online activities to practice describing hair and eyes. Remember to click "start" or you will just stare at a blank page!

In this one, you add hair styles to the picture and the program describes the hair to you: What does your hair look like
This one is a little more difficult. Read the decription and choose the correct person. Drag them over to the gray dot or it will count it as a wrong answer and the balloon pops. Concentrate on the hair color and eye color and you should be able to figure it out. Who is that?

And we're almost all the way through Silent Night! Did you know that it is considered an intangible cultural treasure by UNESCO in Austria? We have almost gone through the entire song and have only the last two lines (which are really the same line twice). The children are doing well tackling those hard words so I'm hoping they'll be ready by talent night!

And in this week' Tro Tro, he is looking for Teddy.

German conjugation and body parts

The semester is half way through and the children have learned a lot! They're working on counting to twenty, know basic introductions and can talk about their name and where they're from. They've learned their colors and were able to understand a simple story about what happened to a bear who wandered across the border from Austria. They understand simple commands and we are continuing to work on speaking more and building on their very basic vocabulary.

This week, we took a close look at the English verb 'to come' and the German verb 'kommen.' Students looked closely at the conjugation of the German and were able to see the pattern for conjugating regular verbs in German. We filled them out in their charts. Just as a reminder, the blank charts in their notebooks are NOT homework. We will fill them out together in class. I looked for some videos on verb conjugation for a little review, but all of them are geared toward much older students and a lot of them are rather dry at that. In this episode of German in Three Minutes, Laura shares and important phrase (how to ask if someone speaks English) and she talks about the conjugation of the verb sprechen in the three forms it is used in the video.



Then we practiced words for body parts with a litte Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (Foot, in German) and a game of Simon says. They colored their monsters according to the directions I gave them in German and did quite well! Here's Kermit der Frosch and Professor Hastig introducing the main body parts:


And Herr Antrim teaching body parts with his Mr. Potato Head doll. Listen carefully, he also introduces a few verbs associated with the parts (ears hear, eyes see, etc.)


And some activities to practice:

Body part tic tac toe.
Fire at the robot's body parts as they are called out.
This one is a little harder. It requires reading, which we have only practiced a little. If your child is ready for a challenge or you can read a litte German, have fun putting together different robots.

And finally, this week's Tro Tro. This week, Tro Tro washes up for breakfast. Listen as he mentions some of the body parts we learned in class!


Next week, we're going to take all we've learned so far this semester to write a small book about ourselves.

Bis dann!

Review, Counting to 100 and Silent Night

My students this year are doing an amazing job learning to count! Almost everyone has learned to count to ten so I briefly went over the numbers to twenty. We will keep praticing in class, but if your child is ready to move on, German in Three Minutes has a nice overview of counting to 100. It's a little tricky at first, but once you get used to the numbers being "turned around" and saying one-and-twenty instead of twenty-one, it is pretty easy.


And we won't get to this year, but once you get past the millions, I think German is much easier than English. At least I can count much higher (well, if it were actually possible to count that high!) Where English goes million, billion, trilion, German goes Million, Milliard, Billion, Billiard . . . So one trillion is also a much larger number in German!

In class, we mostly did a little review. We reviewed numbers, commands and the nouns we've learned. We practiced the next line of Silent Night which they are getting pretty well, though they're reluctant to sing. Next week's line is the most difficult in the song, so we may work on it for two weeks. This is the song all together just so they can listen and get used to the sounds and practice what we've learned so far.


We also made a Bingo board and reviewd vocabulary with a few rounds of vocabulary Bingo. Next week, we're going to start looking at German verbs a little more as well as starting to learn parts of the body. That's why we finished off with a little Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (Foot, in German). Watch Herr Antrim play until he falls over!



And since we've talked quite a bit about animals, a nice song about how God created them all.



And because it seems like it just won't stop raining, this week's Tro Tro is about the little donkey splashing in puddles.



Auf Wiedersehen!