German1-081 days v14

E a r l y S t a r t G e r m a n Pa c k 1

8.Die Tage Days of the week Learning the days of the week enables pupils to talk about the pattern of their weekly routine - in term-time and in the school holidays - and the days on which things happen.

When pupils are communicating with German speakers - or visiting Germany - it will often be useful to be able to understand or read the days of the week, e.g. to identify when shops are open or closed, bus and train timetables, TV listings in magazines.

You can compare how the days are named in different languages.

NOTE: Some of the language used in the school sequences is intended for "gisting".

Pupils will be able to follow the gist of what happens without understanding every word.

and asks them to sit down: “Setzt euch bitte”.

We see what they do in the mid-morning break.

NEW WORDS AND PHRASES

Montag - Monday Dienstag - Tuesday Mittwoch - Wednesday Donnerstag - Thursday Freitag - Friday Samstag - Saturday Sonntag - Sunday was ist heute? *

From film 8 - Monday in class.

In Friday's art lesson, Frau Harling moves around the room praising the children's work: “Wunderbar!” (Wonderful); “Gut, das macht ihr prima!”

(Good, you're doing that really well); “Das ist besser. Noch ein bißchen dunkler.”

(That's better. A bit darker...); “Das ist gut.” (That's good).

* or: was ist heute für ein Tag?

what day is it today? heute ist ... today is.... das Wochenende the weekend CD Track 32

DVD / VIDEO: film 8 Rebekka says the days of the week from Monday to Sunday: Montag, Dienstag, Mittwoch, Donnerstag, Freitag, Samstag, Sonntag.

For each day, we then see what these children in Boppard and Koblenz do in term-time.

They go back to school on Monday; it’s gym class on Tuesday, and English on Wednesday.

On Thursday Herr Ottenbreit greets his class,

From film 8 - Friday’s art lesson.

SONG: Was ist heute?

Was ist heute? Heute ist Montag.

Was ist heute? Heute ist Dienstag.

Was ist heute? Heute ist Mittwoch.

Was ist heute? Heute ist Donnerstag.

Was ist heute? Heute ist Freitag.

Samstag und Sonntag ist Wochenende (twice).

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8. Die Tage The music can be found at the end of this chapter.

What day is it today? We hear the question: Was ist heute für ein Tag? We then see more images of the different days of the week in term-time. Each day is identified, “Heute ist...(Montag)” - Today is ... (Monday). At the end of Friday's art lesson, Frau Harling says goodbye, then says: “Bis Montag dann, und schiebt eure Stühle runter!” (Until Monday then, and put your chairs under (the tables).

KEY SOUNDS Listen and enjoy copying these typical sounds:

“ ” as in Mittwoch

and Wochenende [like the Scottish pronunciation of loch] Heard before in: acht

“ ” as in Mittwoch

and Heard before in:

Wochenende wo wohnst du?

“ ” as in heute

[almost like boil in English] Heard before in: neun

(listen to the native speakers - try to copy their typically German sound. )

CD Track 32

Activities From film 8 - Rebekka and Christina at the weekend.

1. Warm up

The weekend: Rebekka and Christina are playing in the garden on the swings.

Rebekka says: “Jetzt ist Wochenende!” (Now it's the weekend!).

We then see more activities taking place on Saturday and Sunday: “Heute ist Samstag.”; “Heute ist Sonntag.”. “Es ist Wochenende.” (It's the weekend).

You could play a mental arithmetic game, e.g.

“3 mal 2 ist...?” as a reminder of “ist”.

2. Watch the video ❑ Watch film 8: “Die Tage”, stopping before the written words are shown.

3. Get used to the sounds M

DVD MARKERS

❑ Echoing: Pupils echo each day of the week as you say it.

1. Montag - Sonntag - introducing each day 2. Song - reinforcing new words 3. Today is ... - further reinforcement 4. Written words

❑ Everyone stands in a circle with you in the centre. Throw a soft ball to different pupils.

Each time you throw the ball, say a day of the week. The pupil echoes the day as s/he throws it back to you.

To begin with, it is best to say the days in order.

This will help establish the pattern and rhythm of the seven day sequence.

Use the skip key on your remote control

Planning your lessons This section gives children eight words to learn, plus two new phrases, so they will need lots of practice.

It is a good opportunity to talk about what we do on different days of the week.

You could also talk with pupils about where you might see ‘Monday’ or another day written in your own language.

❑ Play “listen to the sounds” again You call out the days of the week, and other words; children make agreed gestures when they hear a “key sound” (see Chapter 1.2).

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E a r l y S t a r t G e r m a n Pa c k 1 out loud. Then turn over one of the flashcards.

Pupils say the days again, including the one that is hidden.

Gradually increase the number of blank cards until there are no visible prompts left.

4. Respond with understanding ❑ Each day, you ask pupils to say what day of the week it is with “Was ist heute?”, or say: “Heute ist...?” with a rising intonation.

Wait for pupils to reply. ❑ Do a “Mexican wave” to practise the days of the week. Pupils form a circle with their chairs.

Beginning with “Montag”, each pupil says the next day one after another in rapid succession.

As they speak, they stand up and promptly sit down again as soon as they have said the day.

If the children normally sit in groups, the “wave” can take place round each of the class tables. See which table reaches “Sonntag” first.

❑ Flashcards - word recognition Make enough enlarged copies of the cut-out days on the activity sheet so that each pupil has one card representing a day of the week.

You say each day of the week in sequence to the whole class. When you say “Montag”, for example, pupils with cards representing “Montag” hold them up for everyone to see.

As pupils gain confidence, speed it up - and try saying the days out of sequence.

Watch the film again ❑ Watch film 8: “Die Tage” again if you have not just done so. Play the final part if you are going to introduce the written word.

❑ Play “swap days” Pupils arrange their chairs in a circle. Give everyone a card representing a day of the week, making sure that there are several children holding each day.

5. Introduce the written word Watching the video, some children may notice that, as in English, the days of the week start with a capital letter.

They include some good examples of ‘key sounds’, so it is worth paying some attention to making connections between the written words and pronunciation. ❑ Flashcards - reading out loud in order Make a set of large flashcards for the days of the week using enlargements of the activity sheet, (or use the OHP).

When you call out “Heute ist Dienstag” for example, the pupils with cards representing “Dienstag” swap places. As they do so, you run for an empty chair. The pupil left without a chair becomes the caller. ❑ Activity sheet: sequencing Give each pupil a copy of the activity sheet.

Ask them to cut out the 7 cards quickly. They shuffle them and place them face down. You say, for example, “Heute ist Mittwoch.”. The children turn over the cards and put them into sequence beginning with “Mittwoch”.

Attach the cards in sequence to the board in front of the class. Ask the class to read the days

AUDIO CD for teachers This presents the pronunciation of all the new words and phrases introduced in the video with pauses for repetition. It also includes the extra words and phrases included in the storytelling activity and the music for the “days of the week” song.

CD Track 32

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8. Die Tage ❑ In pairs or groups: play “snap” Pupils can use the days of the week activity sheet to make “snap” cards. If you plan to play this regularly, it is worth using fairly thick card as a backing.

CROSS CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES ❑ Classroom routine: Ask pupils “Was ist heute?” every day, so they say what day of the week it is on a regular basis.

It is also a good idea to have several sets of cards so that the game does not finish too quickly.

❑ Art and design: Pupils can design a frieze as a group, or make individual picture “diaries” showing aspects of their daily routines.

They can also include pictures showing what they like to do at weekends. These can be labelled in German with each day of the week.

If you are linked with a school in Germany, these could be exchanged for pictures from their German counterparts. Pupils can then compare the similarities and the differences.

❑ In pairs: play “remember the day” Pupils work in pairs with two sets of shuffled cards. They set out all the cards on the table, face down.

Each player in turn picks two cards to turn over and says the day on each card. If the days are the same, s/he keeps the cards - otherwise they are turned over again and left in place.

The game continues until all the cards have been picked up. The winner is the one with most cards.

❑ ICT: Pupils can word-process labels for their pictures. If you have access to a modem and scanner, they could send them via e-mail to their exchange school.

Watch the film again ❑ Show film section 8: “Was ist heute?” one more time for reinforcement.

Encourage pupils to echo the days.

Inter-cultural understanding ❑ When pupils have had the opportunity to practise some of the new language, you can talk with them about what they can see the German children doing on different days of the week. See this chapter's “talking point”.

You may find it useful to replay the film at this point.

❑ Music: Pupils can sing the days of the week song from the film to music on the audio CD. ❑ Music: Pupils can compose their own tunes or chants for singing the days of the week.

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E a r l y S t a r t G e r m a n Pa c k 1 If they prefer to listen for the first time, they will probably want to join in next time.

For simplicity, teachers generally use the present tense to tell a story.

Before telling the story, you could introduce the three words for the life cycle of the caterpillar, perhaps using pictures.

See if children can work out the meanings of other words from the context and the pictures.

STORY TELLING: “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”

by Eric Carle (1) This optional activity adds variety, and extends pupils’ experience of actively listening to the foreign language, giving further practice with numbers, days of the week and “Wie geht’s?”

It will also help develop children’s “gisting” skills. The storybook pictures and pupils’ familiarity with the classic children’s tale will help them “gist” the meaning of the few new words they have not yet encountered.

Telling the story for the first time Try telling the story in two voices: your normal voice, as story-teller; another for the caterpillar.

Point to the pictures: Caterpillar: “Ich bin ein Ei, ich bin klein.”

Then: “Ich bin eine Raupe, ich bin klein.”

Then we look at a week in the life of a caterpillar: Story-teller: “Heute ist Sonntag. Wie geht’s, kleine Raupe?”

Caterpillar: “Nicht so gut, ich habe Hunger.” (mime“hungry”) Then...

Story-teller: “Heute ist Montag. Wie geht’s, kleine Raupe?”

Caterpillar: “Nicht so gut, ich habe Hunger.

Ich esse...”

EXTRA WORDS AND PHRASES: You could introduce these before:

ein Ei - an egg eine Raupe - a caterpillar ein Schmetterling - a butterfly ...talk about the German title: die Raupe Nimmer-satt - the caterpillar never-full ...and use these in telling the story:

ich habe Hunger - I’m hungry ich esse - I eat ich bin klein - I am little / small ich bin groß - I am big

NOTE: children do not yet know the words for foods, but they can happily count up how many things the caterpillar has eaten.

CD Track 32

Many teachers have already used this activity; their experience is that older children are happy to join in a “baby-ish” story because of the challenge and satisfaction of showing they can follow it in a foreign language.

Then count the number of foods the caterpillar eats, as you put fingers in the holes: “...eins, zwei, drei,... etc.”

This is repeated until Saturday, when ten things are eaten, and the caterpillar’s reply is: “Nicht so gut. Ich habe Hunger. Ich esse eins, zwei, drei ... zehn!” (mime stomach ache!)

Storyteller: “Heute ist Sonntag. Wie geht's kleine Raupe?”

Caterpillar: “Sehr gut! Ich esse... das!” (mime “happy”, gesture to the big leaf) “Ich bin groß!” (gesture “B - I - G!”) Then caterpillar says: “Ich bin ein Schmetterling!”.

Preparation Storytelling is a good group activity, so seat the children around you. They need to see the illustrations, so use a “big book” or prepare your own OHP transparencies, or flashcards.

Be ready to use lots of mime, gestures and pointing to the illustrations to aid the children’s understanding.

We suggest aiming at a simple paraphrase of the main direction of the plot, using little more than the core vocabulary that children already know.

This is a nicely repetitive story, and you will probably find that children want to join in as the story progresses - especially in counting and days of the week.

Note (1): “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle, published Puffin Books © Eric Carle 1970, is widely available from book sellers and schoolbook suppliers probably already in your school library.

The German title is “Die kleine Raupe Nimmersatt” - see web site for how to obtain the German book.

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8. Die Tage Follow-up games

Talking point 1

❑ Whole class activity: Hold up a page from the big book for one of the days of the week.

Cover up the day, so the class has to guess what day it is from how much the caterpillar has eaten: “Was ist heute?”.

Then switch to calling out days of the week at random, ask children to say how much the caterpillar ate that day, e.g. “Heute ist Freitag.

Die kleine Raupe ißt ... ?”

Variations: ❑ Knock-out version: all children start by standing up, holding a set of day cards. They respond by holding up a card, and have to sit down when it is the wrong one.

The winner(s) are those left standing when you want to change the activity.

Everyday life in Germany: What German children do on different days of the week The film shows the pattern of a typical week in term-time for some children in Germany.

As a class, you could swap information with a German class about what different days of the week are like in each community.

It is a good idea to talk with pupils first about what different days of the week are like for them. Not everyone will do the same things, and that is to be expected for the German children too.

Some days will have a fixed pattern: your class might have particular school activities on certain days. But children might have different regular after-school activities, or favourite weekly TV programmes. Some might join in local sports clubs, or visit a leisure centre or cinema at weekends.

Re-tell the story This time, the children will be ready to participate much more. Wait for them to supply the words, especially for the days of the week and counting the holes.

More ideas on story-telling activities The idea for this activity comes from “Young Pathfinder No.5: Are you sitting comfortably? ...telling stories to young language learners”,

by Dan Tierney & Pat Dobson (CILT, 1995).

This has many more ideas on how to develop story-telling activities.

More help and resources for storytelling: www.earlystart.co.uk

Inter-cultural understanding

Family outings at weekends: in Germany, most shops have to close on Sundays, but cafes and icecream stalls can open.

■ Discuss and then make drawings to tell a German class the range of things different children do on different days of the week.

You could take digital photos or video to illustrate what you agree would be typical scenes to show the German class.

Then talk about what you know of the dayto-day lives of German children.

■ What activities do you take part in after school and at weekends?

■ Do you have homework to do?

■ Do most of you support a local team?

Swap information with your German partners.

One clear difference is that German children will not go shopping with their families on Sundays. You can eat out, but by law almost all shops have to close for the day of rest (except in railway stations and airports).

In 2004, German courts refused to let big supermarkets open on Sundays as they do in many other European countries.

■ Do children think Sunday closing is a good idea?

■ Children may like to talk about how they feel on different days: Monday may be “back-to-work”...

Children probably have a very different routine in the holidays than during school term-time.

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E a r l y S t a r t G erman Pack 1 ■ Samstag (Saturday) is the only day named after a Roman god - Saturn, god of harvest.

Pupils could compare the German and English day-names with those in French or Spanish.

Talking point 2 KNOWLEDGE ABOUT LANGUAGE: German names for days

EXTRA WORDS AND PHRASES 2

The Romans followed Egyptian and Hebrew practice in calling the 7 days of the week after the sun, moon and the five planets then known - which they named after Roman gods.

The Anglo-Saxons inherited their calendar from the Romans, but re-named four days after important Norse gods instead: ■ Dienstag (Tuesday) became “Tiu’s-day”, the Norse god of war (the Roman’s was Mars); ■ Mittwoch means “mid-week”; it used to be “Woden’s-day” (like the English Wednesday) until the 10th century, after the chief god and Tiu’s father. The Romans named this day after Mercury, the gods’ messenger; ■ Donnerstag (Thursday) was named after Thor, Norse god of thunder (Jove to the Romans); ■ Freitag (Friday) was Freya- or Frigg’s-day, for the Norse god of love (Venus to the Romans);

morgen - tomorrow übermorgen the day after tomorrow gestern - yesterday morgen ist Dienstag tomorrow is Tuesday übermorgen ist Mittwoch the day after is Wednesday gestern war Sonntag yesterday was Sunday CD Track 32

SONG: Was ist heute für ein Tag?

C

Dm

Was

ist

heu

-

te?

Dm G Heu - te ist

ist

Diens - tag.

Was

C

Mon -

C

D Was

Heu - te

G tag.

Em ist

heu

-

Dm Heu - te ist

heu - te?

G Frei - tag.

Heu - te

ist

heu

F te?

G ist

Was

-

te?

A

Heu - te ist

Mitt - woch.

C ist

Donn-ers-tag.

G

Was

G

Sams - tag und Sonn - tag CD Tracks: 9-song 10-karaoke 84

ist

ist

heu

-

C Woch-en - en

- de!

te?

Ich heiße

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Ich heiße

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