Clothes Pins and Sentence Circles

Here's another activity that I saw through Pinterest.  It's an easy way to practice either grammar or vocab topics, especially if you plan on doing review stations for midterms.

The concept is very straight-forward.  You have a circle divided into different sections.  Each section has a sentence with a word missing, a definition, a picture, synonyms, etc.  There are also clothes pins, each with one of the answers on it (either the missing word, the word being defined, etc.).  Students then work with small groups to try and match the clothes pins with the correct part of the circle.  Once they've found the answer they like, they attach it using the clothes pin.

I actually found that I prefer to use post-its.  They can still attach the sticky end to the correct section, and as a plus you don't need all the clothes pins.  This way you can have several sets for multiple groups instead of just having one per station.

If you'd like to see an example of how I've used this activity, there's one available on Teachers Pay Teachers that goes along with Accusative Prepositions (same activity shown above).

- Frau Leonard

#GermanSelfie Display Case Idea

Every January German Club gets the display case in the media center.  We decorate it with German-related displays.  This year we put up some of the artwork students had made earlier this year, as well as our usual display about Germany and German.

The main feature of our display case this year, however, is a mirror set-up.  Students made cut-outs of traditional German Lederhosen and Dirndl.  They included the clothing, arms and legs, but left off the heads.  We then attached a mirror so that when students go up to the display, they'll see themselves "wearing" the outfits.  We put the hashtag #GermanSelfie on the mirror to encourage students to publish pictures of them in their German get-ups.

I got this idea from somewhere on Pinterest (I believe) or on another blog.  Unfortunately I can't find the source of the original post, but it had the same idea but with traditional clothing form Spanish-speaking countries.  If you know where the original poster came from, please let me know so I can credit them here.

- Frau Leonard