family news, edition 2

Creating Community through books & pretzels

On Saturday, 13th June, a lovely sunny winter’s day, the German Saturday School held the first ever book market on the grounds at Clifton Hill Primary School.

The event offered parents and partners of the school the opportunity to donate all their unused German books, toys and games. All proceeds from the morning went to the German Saturday School.

The German Saturday School is a not-for-profit organisation run by professional teaching staff and dedicated volunteers. Raising funds is essential for the GSS to keep running and offering the facilities it does.

The committee and involved parents, including the book market instigator Tamsen Osbourne, dedicated their time to making it a great morning. The best sellers were the kids’ books, the modern adult books and the pretzels!

The book market was also a fantastic way to build our German Community. Our committee members and helpers spoke to people on the day from as far as Werribee and Bayswater.

All books that weren’t sold will be stored until our next GSS Book Market which is scheduled for later this year.

If you have a good idea for the GSS to raise funds, please contact us, we’d love to hear from you! http://www.germansaturdayschool.org.au/contact-us/

The German poetry competiton is an annual event which is instigated by the Association of German Teachers of Victoria.

This year’s competition was embraced by our years four to nine , and all students did fantastic readings in front of the judges.

In total, fifty five students participated in the event: they selected a poem appropriate for their age and prepared for the official recital on Saturday, 20th June.

Two panels, comprising of 3 judges each, heard the recitals from the native speakers and from those children who spoke German as a second language . Our judges were highly impressed with the quality of work and dedication from all entrants.

The winning children of our older year levels go on to the the regional finals at the Bundoora Secondary College on 22nd July, 2015. Winners of the regional finals will go on to compete in the State Final.

Important Dates: Term 3:

German Saturday School Gold Street / Clifton Hill Primary www.germansaturdayschool.org.au

German Saturday School

– Family News –

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Term 3 13th July – 19th SeptemberOpen Day 12th September

NEWS

Edition 2 –

2015

Bringing German language and culture to your children

–SchoolOpen DaySaturday, 12thSeptember.

–

Congratulations to this year’s winners:

–DaF sectionYear 41. Eve Q2. Heidi McC3. Zoe L

Year 51. Emma F & Piotr P2. Jessica C & Cameron G3. Mikail G

Year 61. Sophia K2. Jaden S3. Pietro ZF4. Amy S

Year 71. Rachel C2. Anastasia K

–Open sectionYear 41. Sophie Kehle2. Oskar vW3. Indigo J

Year 5/61. Arthur B2. Saskia H3. Beatriz C4. Emilie R5. Kaspar M

Year 7/81. Hannah B2. Anton Z3. Jacob O

Year 91. Tatjana S 2. Emily R 3. Angourie R4. Niniveh M5. Kate S

German Poetry Competition allows students to shine

DSD ExamsAug 1 – DSD mock oral examAug 12 – Oral ExamAug 29 – Written Exam

We are expanding our knowledge and awareness of the German language. At this stage the focus is on developing some oral and listening skills in a safe and playful environment. Learning German in our classroom is fun! We get to enjoy circle-time, singing, story-time, drawing and crafting.

While our favourite way to learn new words is through interactive play, we enjoy our individual projects as well – whether it is creating our funny animal books or making life-size drawings of ourselves that help us learn the different body parts. Our favourite games include ‘Simon Sagt’ (Simon says) and ‘Stille Post’ – where we quietly pass on a German word in the hope that the word doesn’t get distorted by the end. These games definitely challenge our listening skills!

We are continually learning new songs with our latest addition being ‘Kopf, Schulter, Knie und Fuß’ (heads, shoulders, knees and toes) which can now be sung together without prompting.

In the Kindergarten class we hope to instill a love of language-learning in every child which will last throughout their time at the German School and beyond.

Typical DayThe children are now well and truly settled into the German Saturday School routine which includes reading a story and then introducing the new topic for the day. So far this term we have been learning about animals, the body, clothes, seasons and the weather.

The children are now able to follow instruction in German and are beginning to intuitively close comprehension gaps when not every word is understood. Their confidence has grown as they have made friends in the classroom who share the German learning journey with them.

Homework/Preparation The children are encouraged to help their peers, share stories or bring in items that are important to them in order for them to feel included in the classroom.

Teachers: Teacher: Louisa Assistant: Saskia

Kindergarten

German Saturday School – Family News – Edition 2, 2015

www.germansaturdayschool.org.au

Louisa

This term the preps are learning about the seasons through touch and feel of the different elements such as heat and cold. Again, the main teaching method for this term is through emphasising language and constant repetition. The Preps complete “show and tell” each week and do numerous workbook activities through colouring and creative art. Singing is an important part of our teaching and the children learn different songs and games throughout the terms. The aim is for the children to become familiar with German by listening and reciprocating through songs and games.

Typical DayA typical day for us begins by the children choosing their seat and then joining the class on the mat for circle time’ including singing “Guten Morgen”, the good morning song. Each week a new theme is introduced for the day. Then the children take their places at the tables and either proceed with a colouring exercise or a craft activity. The children have two breaks each Saturday to assist with concentration in the class.

Then at the end of the day we go back to circle time and discuss “what did we learn today” and play a closing off game and read a story.

Homework Children are to bring one German book each week with them to class to share and show and tell.

Teacher: Stephanie Iwanowicz (Bed.1994, Melb Uni)

Stephanie is also involved with the Holiday and Sunday School programmes at the Deutsche Lutherische Dreifaltigkeits-Kirche in East Melbourne.

Assistant: Karina – a fluent German Speaker

Prep Klasse



Stephanie Iwanowicz

heißkaltFrühling

Sommer

Our class has 12 children and most of them understand and speak a high level of German.

We started our year with some basic skills such as “ich heisse, ich bin... Jahre alt, ich wohne”.

We have all learnt the alphabet in German as well as “die Wochentage, Monate und die vier Jahreszeiten.”

The themes of this term were autumn and family.

Basic grammar is a big challenge for us on a daily basis. It is extremely difficult to find out if the word starts with a capital letter or not. Also “der, die das” is really not easy.

The last half hour of our day is spent together with Bri-gitte’s class. We have “show and tell”, “story time”, sing songs or we play the very popular “Hatschi Patschi” or German Whisperer”. This extends our learning and helps us to make new friends at the German Saturday School.

Homework Yes, we have homework every week. We have started to write small sentences (with the help of mum or dad). The children have to read these sentences out in class, which is sometimes quite challenging.

Teacher Annelie Keckeisen

Years 1 & 2



Annelie Keckeisen

Years 1 & 2



Brigitte Lamont

We have 18 young learners in our class all with different levels of German. This is challenging and fun, we tackle our class by creating a community where we all help each other with various tasks.

We started the year learning the alphabet and we are continuing this in second term. Each week we introduce a new letter and have a theme according to letter of the day. Along with vocabulary, we also learn basic grammar.

We started term 2 with the letter “F” and talked about “Farben” (colours). Felix and Franzi, two characters created by the Goethe Institute London helped us to learn the colours and we had fun singing the “Farben” song. We also learned the words for all the family members (Familie).

Other themes of this term were “Geburtstag” (birthday), “Herbst” (autumn) and when we got to letter “I” we had a closer look at “Igel” (hedgehog) and “Eichhörnchen” (squirrel).

I encourage the children to speak as much German as possible and try to keep my students interested with songs and short YouTube clips in accordance to the topic.

Typical DayA typical lesson starts with checking the homework, we move on to the letter of the day, which is introduced through a short video clip. The students are encouraged to find words according to that letter.

We spend the last half hour together with our parallel class. The students have the opportunity to “show and tell”, we have story time or play games like “Hatschi, Patschi” or “German whisper”.

Homework A typical homework task is to find 5 more words starting with the letter assigned for that week.

Teacher Brigitte Lamont

This term the class has been working tirelessly on grammar! We have practiced adjectives with their tricky endings, conjugating verbs correctly, asking questions and answering, using whole sentences (not just yes or no!). We have also learned about telling the time in German, using lots of exercise sheets and drawing clocks, then labelling them.

We also practice creative skills in class, such as drawing pictures and then explaining the story behind the picture to the rest of the class – always in German. We have a lot of fun conversations where we discuss a new topic together, then put it into practice by writing about it or doing exercises. The kids are also learning to correct each other’s work and thereby talking to their neighbour in German, really making each child think about the spelling and grammar involved in the task.

Our favourite game this term has been “hangman”, as all the kids adore spelling games and participating in solving the “riddle” of how to spell those strange German sounds, like “ch” and “ei”.

Teacher: Anna Thelen

Years 2, 3, 4 - native



Anna Thelen

“Wie spät ist es?” oder

“Wieviel Uhr haben wir?”

“S”!“E”!

Our second terms topics: Daher komme ich – Da wohne ich – Mein Jahr

We had a very good term, we know each other better and the students vastly improved their independent work and learnt to conduct this at their own pace.

Typical Day We start with a “Morgenkreis“ which means, that we all sit in a circle on the floor and start either with a game or telling each other from our experiences during the week, e.g. after Mothers Day we talked about how the mums reacted when they received the crafted present and vouchers and what we can do for her during the week (cleaning up, going shopping, giving a massage...). The children came up with great ideas about how they can make their mother happy and they passionately drew, crafted and wrote nice things in German for their mum. They also learned a German Mother’s day poem by heart and surprised their mum on her special day.

After our “Morgenkreis“ I explain the topic for the day and what we are going to work on.

Usually there are four stations with different exercises (writing, reading, speaking) – on each table there is a different task to fulfill. The students move around from station to station in their own pace. How do they know what to do on each station? There is a sheet of paper with an explanation of what to do and when they are done they can have a look at the answer sheet on the table. This way they learn how to work independently and how to correct their own mistakes if necessary. It also gives them a great sense of accomplishment and confidence. The children enjoy this “station work“ a lot and they are eager to finish every-thing. When they have a question they learned to first ask their neighbour or other students sitting at the table. They experience that others can help them as well (not only the teacher) and that it is also great to help others.

After our work on the different stations we love to play language games so that we can end the day with fun and to consolidate the vocabularies learned.

At the very end of our 3 hour German class we tell each other what we liked best, what we learned and how we can improve – this is a great way to reflect on the morning and on the learning progress each one has made.

We are looking forward to the next term!

Teacher: Tabea Kraska-Eleftheria, M.Ed., ACC Coach ICF

Years 3, 4 & 5



Tabea Kraska-Eleftheria

For Term 2, our classroom has become quite Grimm - literally! We are learning about, researching, and acting out traditional Brothers Grimm fairytales.

We have started researching our focus fairytales, and are learning about the original stories behind our well known movies. The classroom has recently been filled with laughter and animal noises, while we practice our pronunciation through acting and the reciting of lines. Alongside of this, we are using these fairytales for com-prehension activities and as a basis for new vocabulary. This versatile topic also provides a great insight into cultural backgrounds and discussions.

Later in the term we turned our attention to poetry, as well as the German Poetry competition. This will be our second major topic this Term, and will bring further op-portunities for pronunciation practice.

We are having so much fun we can’t believe we’ve made it half way through the year!

Homework We have been using LanguageNut and Langugae Perfect as online tools for vocabulary practice at home; to broaden our vocabulary in an entertaining and versatile way. This has streamlined and simplified their language acquisition and spelling practice.

Teacher: Lisa-Marie Schneehage Bachelor of Early Childhood Education



Lisa-Marie SchneehageYears 4, 5 & 6

Since the beginning of Term 2 we have been working on the topics Freizeit and Schule with the aim of developing all four macro skills: Sprechen, Lesen, Hören and Schreiben.

Students practise spelling and writing emails. The class started applying “peer review” strategies. For example, when practising writing, students are encouraged to review their own writ-ing first and then ask a classmate to proofread the text and try to correct mistakes. The final step is individual correction of a student’s work by the teacher and a student together.

Students are also encouraged to seek answers from their peers as this enhances communicative aspect during class time.

Typical DayIn Term 1 we would start our classes with indi-vidual 15-minute reading sessions. In this term we focus more on getting straight into activities as this turned out to be more energising for students.

We always discuss the homework first. Each Saturday is different in terms of the lesson structure and content: a set of activities is followed by a game which is usually a revision of the content. Lessons consist of explicit teaching, individual, pair and group work.

Years 4, 5 & 6



Magdalena Doslov

Homework There is homework almost every week. It is usually activities relating to grammar, reading comprehension or vocabulary tasks. Students are also encouraged to read aloud at home as often as possible – this enhances their reading strategies, vocabulary awareness and pronunciation.

Teachers Teacher: Magdalena Doslov, BEd/BA, GradDipEd (Sec) (in progress), Cert IV TAE German Saturday School Principal

In this term Joshua, the new language assistant, has joined our school and he’ll be spending much time in our class. Joshua is studying languages at the University of Melbourne and he helps students with reading, dictation and conversation.

We’ve had a very busy first term and by the looks of it are going to be even busier next term!

Apart from getting to know each other, we have learnt about the different cases in German, finding out whether Currywurst is really the Germans’ favourite fast food, learning more about German cases and prepositions (you just can’t know enough about cases!) and talking about the weather in German, among other things.

Now we are learning about transport and travel, school in Germany, how to ask questions and revised the verb conjugation in the present tense. The students also made and wrote (in German!) cards for mother’s day. We aim to practice and improve listening, writing and speaking skills through topics such as hobbies & leisure time, family & home, health & wellbeing and environment. Grammatically, the focus is on syntax, question formation, modal verbs, pronouns and adjectives (ending, degree). This will also help prepare the students for the Fit in Deutsch exam they will be taking later this year, which is an internationally recognised credential to measure the students’ language ability on a scale of levels from A1 for beginners up to C2 for those who have mastered a language (in alignment with the levels described by the Common European Framework of reference for languages (CERF)).

Typical DayBut it is not all just hard work, and when time allows it, we love to play a game. One of the students’ favourite game is an (adapted!) version of Bingo, where instead of matching numbers, students have to match words against pictures on their cards and also write the words they match.

We have also started to use Language Perfect, which is an online website where students can revise, practice and enhance their vocabulary in a playful manner.

Homework I would like to take this opportunity to emphasise the importance of speaking German outside the Saturday School as much as possible – as practice makes perfect, or so the saying goes.

Teacher Anja Kazmeier BA (Hons) English & Linguistics, Masters in Applied Linguistics, Cambridge Teaching Certificate

Years 6, 7 & 8



Anja Kazmeier

We are busily preparing for Deutsches Sprachdiplom 1 scheduled for mid-August this year. It will be the first time for this exam to take place at the German Saturday School. The students are striving to understand and analyse different types of texts as well as oral recordings from a broad variety of topics, e.g. social relationships, school, travel, environment, leisure etc.

In addition, everybody is going to prepare a presentation about a chosen topic for the oral DSD 1 exam.

Typical DayWe speak only German in class. We practice how to appropriately convey our opinions about current issues and challenges, how to argue with and convince others, how to agree or disagree with others. The students are original and quite independent in their thinking and I am very impressed with their level of engagement. Our students are keen to learn, diligent, delightful and well behaved!

Teacher Angela Thelen

Years 6 - 9



Angela Thelen

This term the senior class is continuing its preparation for the Deutsches Sprachdiplom 1 (DSD1 A2/B1) examinations in August this year. The new textbook has arrived and it provides opportunities to practise the very particular format of the reading, writing, listening and speaking tasks in the DSD1 exam through the topics of Reisen, Wichtige Menschen, Schule, Freizeit, Arbeit und Berufe, Feste und Feiern, Natur und Umwelt, Medien, and Ich.

This term we have been exploring the themes of relationships and role models (Wichtige Menschen), school and leisure activities. Some of the grammatical topics visited (and revisited!) this term have been the cases (nouns and pronouns), conjunctions (coordinating and subordinate), relative pronouns, word order, the imperative, prepositions, modal verbs, adjectival endings, degrees of adjectives (positive, comparative and superlative), and infinitival clauses. The students are preparing their topics for their presentations which constitute Part 2 of the oral exam, and Tamara’s support as our language assistant has again been invaluable, particularly during conversation practice (Part 1 of the oral exam).

A small but enthusiastic group of students and parents enjoyed the German film “About A Girl” and Gummibären during the Audi Festival of German Films 2015, while all students have had the opportunity to participate in the Language Perfect World Championships again this year. Our Year 9s are also preparing to compete in the Open Section of the Association of German Teachers of Victoria German Poetry Competition – wir drücken ihnen die Daumen!

EasterThe new Australian curriculum ranks socio-cultural understanding of German-speaking societies alongside the development of the four mi-croskills of communication – namely, reading, writing, speaking and listening – because language and culture are inextricably linked. The Easter-themed class illustrates this integration – a formal listening comprehension task, a Laufdiktat, (where students have to read a text on the wall, run back to and dictate the text phrase by phrase to their partner who writes it down), a reading comprehension task on German Easter celebrations, drills on the dative case (nouns and pronouns) for indirect objects (for example, “beneficiaries” of chocolate giving!), East-er crafting of paper Schnitteier (with written instructions in German) and Hama-bead Easter eggs to decorate our Osterbaum, waffle-making and a classroom Easter-egg hunt. The activities promoted students’ listening, reading, writing and speaking skills, as well as their under-standing of cultural celebrations (Feste und Feiern), a topic for both the VCE and DSD. The class concluded with a syllable game where long German Easter words were broken down into syllables and spoken in random order by groups of students to be reconstituted into words by a brave volunteer: for example, ka/nin/chen/na/sen/beut/ler for the Easter bilby which, according to the reading text, delivers all the Easter eggs in Australia, an interesting German and environmentally conscious socio-cultural assumption about Australia in itself!

Typical DayBuchstabensalat: EEETRRFOISN * Na? Hat jemand einen Vorschlag?

Admittedly this sort of warm-up activity is a little difficult when out of its chronological context (but this report does touch on our activities during the last lesson of Term 1!). The 15 students of the pre-VCE/DSD1 class, however, decode little language puzzles at 9 o’clock on Saturday mornings to anticipate or revise key vocabulary for the lesson with commendable speed and enthusiasm, and it is also rare that they’re beaten in Galgenmensch! Bookending the three hours of intensive German study with some pedagogically defensible fun makes sense: the class often finishes with a Wortschatzlotto working not just the vocabulary of the day, but also students’ aural comprehension and lexical depth (because the clues for the given words are paraphrased in German so the students can’t just translate from English to German while playing vocab bingo!), as well as their motivation … because little bars of German-speaking Lindt Schokolade do spur on a keen competitive spirit!

Pre-VCE/DSD 1 Class



Jill Reid

Teachers: Teacher: Dr Jill Reid Assistant: Tamara Anders

* Osterferien is the answer to the Buchstabensalat above!

family news, edition 2

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