Review:
At the Zoo
Objective:
to familiarize the students with a typical German weekend activity – a visit to the zoo; to review animals, animal sounds, and adjectives; to introduce plural forms.
Materials:
animals (overhead) / audio tape / Deutschbuch, pages 14-17 (dii-14.pdf, dii-15.pdf, dii-16.pdf, dii-17.pdf)
Procedure:
A. Review (approx. 3 min)
- Review colors and other adjectives.
B. Animal Song (approx. 5 min)
- Play and sing the first stanza of Alle meine Entchen. Teach the song to the students and sing it together with them a couple of times.
C. Preparation to zoo (approx. 10 min)
- Tell the students that they will visit a German zoo today. Explain that German parents like taking out their children to the zoo on weekends. Brainstorming: Welche Tiere gibt es in einem Zoo?
- Write the animals named by the students on the board using plural forms. Explain that there are usually more than just one animal of a kind at a zoo. Add a couple of interesting animals to the list: der Eisbär (-en), das Zebra (-s), das Nashorn (Nashörner), der Elefant (-en).
- Review animal sounds and have students describe the animals (e.g. Wie ist der Tiger?). You will have to help them with this. Always have them repeat correct descriptions as a group. [Remind students to look on page 10 of the Deutschbuch for a list of adjectives.]
- Have students do the exercise on pages 15/16 of the Deutschbuch.
D. Song (approx. 5 min)
- Teach students the Zoo song on page 17 of the Deutschbuch.
E. Creating a zoo (approx. 12 min)
- Explain to class that you will now be creating a zoo and that you need approx. 10-12 students to impersonate animals. Choose 5-6 interesting animals and ask the volunteering students w3hich animal they would like to be: Wer will ein Tiger / ein Bär / ein Krokodil sein? There should always be two students playing the same kind of animal. Once a pair gets appointed and moves up to the board to occupy their allotted spaces, say: Ah, ein Tiger. Das sind zwei Tiger. / Ah, ein Bär. Das sind zwei Bären.
- Tell the rest of the class that this is a game and that those students who participate most will get rewarded by getting to feed the animals.
- Then ask: Wie macht (or: spricht) der Tiger / der Bär? and have the students utter animal sounds. Tell them where their cage is: Hier ist der Tigerkäfig. Encourage the students to act like the animal they are impersonating.
F. Visiting the zoo (approx. 7 min)
- Explain to the class that they will all be visitors (Besucher) to the zoo. Then, while the class remains seated, take a walk among the animals. Ask the class questions, for instance: Wo sind die Kamele? / Was sind das für Tiere? / Sind das Schlangen? / Wie macht der Elefant? You may also ask the students to describe the animals for you, e.g. Der Tiger ist gelb-schwarz. Er ist groß und gefährlich.
G. Feeding the animals (approx. 3 min)
- Tell the students that the main attraction (die Hauptattraktion) of the day is the feeding of the animals. Call the 2-3 students who participated most in the previous game. Hand them the food and have them feed each pair of animals. Encourage the animals to act out devouring the meal: Hier ist Fleisch für die Tiger. / Hier ist Heu für die Kamele. / Hier ist Fisch für die Eisbären. / Hmmm, das ist gut!
- As the students go back to their seats, have a big round of applaus for everyone involved.
H. Song (approx. 2 min)]
- Sing the Auf Wiederseh’n song.