Advent Calendars for German Teachers

There are quite a few online Advent calendars each year for German teachers and their students.  

Some years I'm better at keeping up with them than others!  It's always tricky since we have semester exams before winter break, and there's not always a lot of time to celebrate German Christmas traditions amid the review and end of semester craziness.

But here are links to some of the calendars I'm enjoying this year:

• AATG Advent Calendar: https://www.aatg.org/page/AdventKalender 

• Klett - USA Adventskalendar: https://www.klett-usa.com/adventskalender/c-3101

• Die Sendung mit der Maus Adventskalendar: https://www.wdrmaus.de/extras/mausthemen/adventskalender/2019/index.php5 

• Erster Österreichischer Dachverband Legasthenie:  https://legasthenie.at/Weihnachten2019/

Viel Spaß und schöne Adventstage!

Weltschul Maus - Kleidung enrichment for Deutsch 2... and a request

https://www.wdrmaus.de/filme/sachgeschichten/welt_schul_maus.php5 

As promised last week, here is the Enrichment activity for Deutsch 2 focusing on the topic of clothing in the Sendung mit der Maus Welt-Schul video. 

 https://drive.google.com/open?id=1isWxAL9QVNItM_6OSnU3BLrTGCjLshX6 

This time I focused in more detail on the first 10 minutes.  Students need to write complete sentences describing the different school uniforms worn by the children in different countries.  My students worked on it yesterday, and the level seemed good for them.

This is such a great video!  There are so many things you can pull out of it - clothing, languages, weather, transportation to school - and it's really accessible even at the beginning levels.

And, readers, now a request from you:  Could you please leave a note in the comments about which German textbook you use in your school?  We are entering textbook adoption season and embarking on the eternal quest for the perfect German textbook.  What do you recommend or not recommend?  Danke im Voraus!

Weltschul Maus - Enrichment for Deutsch 1

Die Sendung mit der Maus had a great new episode recently which works perfectly for enrichment for my German 1 Schule unit.  (Have a I mentioned lately how much I love Die Sendung mit der Maus?)

https://www.wdrmaus.de/filme/sachgeschichten/welt_schul_maus.php5

It's a fairly long video  - 23 minutes - for German 1 in the target language at the beginning of the year, but so much of it is understandable from the videos that I feel like they can handle it.  I also have a strong German 1 class this year, and I really want to challenge the students who are doing well.

Ralph visits schools in 10 other countries and spends a day with a student in school in each one.  There are so many great topics you could focus on, but I was mainly trying to get my strong students to try watching a show in the target language and realize how much they are able to understand.  I created a short worksheet to go along with the video, mainly just to hold the students accountable for watching all of it:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MCodj8W_T9bihYg8zJ4VunEr_87_MifZ/view?usp=sharing 

I plan to use this same video as enrichment for German 2 at the end of their Kleidung unit, focusing on the uniforms worn by many of the children.  I'll post it to my blog once I make it!

Eins, Zwei, Drei Tier Video

This weekend I found a great video from Die Sendung mit der Maus to use as enrichment with my German 1 students for this unit:  

https://www.wdrmaus.de/filme/lachgeschichten/eins_zwei_drei_tier.php5 

Students have been working with adjectives and adverbs in opposite pairs as well as Haustiere recently, so it's a great fit.

You can turn on subtitles in German (UT), so students can see what they're hearing.  

I've created a short worksheet to go with it so that students can view the video independently while I am helping students who need reteaching.

 

Here's the file if you'd like to try it with your students: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1JtvQJ6yr-t8oAoAUfgvXmGfeTdvPLqZ8