Introducing German
Lesson 2
CONTENT:
 greetings
 introductions
 family
 farewells
OBJECTIVE:
 students will be able to introduce themselves
 students will be able to gather information about other students and their families
MATERIALS:
 nametags
 frog family [overhead]
 Das Deutschbuch: pp. 1-5
PROCEDURE:
A. Greetings (approx. 5 min)
Draw a rising sun, a noon sun, a setting sun, and a moon on the board. Write the four greetings:
Guten Morgen
Guten Tag
Guten Abend
Gute Nacht
Briefly act out the different times of the day & greet the class - e.g. pretend you just got out of
bed and say: Guten Morgen. Students repeat the greetings.
B. Names (approx. 10 min)
Write
Ich bin ___________
on the board. Then introduce yourself by saying: Guten Tag! Ich bin __________ (your name).
Write
Wer bist du?
on the board. Then ask a student: Wer bist du? [You might want to repeat Ich bin ... (pointing at
yourself) and then Wer bist du? (pointing at the student). Model the response a couple of times.]
After the student responds, you should always follow up with something like Gut, und ich bin ...
Make sure you also model shaking hands as you greet the students.
At this point, students greet other students around them. While they are engaged in this activity,
write on the board:
amerikanische Namen / deutsche Namen
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Introducing German
Then ask a couple of students Wer bist du? and write their names on the board under the right
heading.
Say: Das sind deutsche Namen. Tell students to open Das Deutschbuch on page 1, read some of
them and have students repeat after you. Have students choose a name they will use for the rest
of the unit, hand them a nametag and ask them to write the name on it.
C. Introductions (approx. 5 min)
Introduce yourself again, asking various students: Guten Tag! Ich bin __________ (your name).
Wer bist du? After the students respond, ask them Bist du ____? [Note that students can respond
either affirmatively or negatively. Some of them will need help/ encouragement coming up with
ja & nein.] Repeat after the student: Er / Sie ist __________ (student's name). Here you start to
introduce the personal pronouns ich (I), du (you), er (he), and sie (she).
After asking several students, address the whole class saying: Wer ist __________ (student's
name). If students just point without saying anything, you will have to model the answer for
them: Ah, er/ sie ist __________ (student's name).
D. Families (approx. 10 min)
Display the picture of the frog family on the overhead. Explain: Dieser Frosch (hier unten) bin
ich. Das ist mein Vater. Das ist meine Mutter. Das ist meine Schwester. Das ist mein Bruder.
Write
mein Vater
mein Bruder
meine Mutter
meine Schwester
on the board.
Tell students to open Das Deutschbuch on page 2 [overhead: frog family]. Tell them that they
are the big frog at the bottom of the page and ask them to name their family members by using
names from the German name list. Then point at the father on the overhead and say: Das ist
mein Vater. Mein Vater heißt ______. Ask students: Wie heißt dein Vater? Write these
sentences on the board:
Wer ist dein Vater? / Wer ist das?
Ask several students. Then continue with Mutter/ Bruder/ Schwester. [Note: Emphasize the
correct endings of the personal pronouns, but do not correct the students too much when they
make mistakes.] Respond saying something like: Oh, guten Tag, (name)! ·
Ask students to introduce their (fictional) spider families to each other.
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Introducing German
E. Numbers (approx. 10 min)
Introduce the numbers 1-10: eins, zwei - Polizei / drei, vier - kaltes Bier / fünf, sechs - alte Hex' /
sieben, acht - gute Nacht / neun zehn - auf Wiedersehn. Continue practicing by counting nonstop from 1-10 and then backwards.
Introduce the numbers 11-20 in a similar fashion. You can also practice counting by twos and
threes or by counting only odd numbers.
Introduce the number 10 / 20 / ... / 100 and practice them.
Have students connect the dots on page 5 of Das Deutschbuch. Tell them to connect the dots in
the order pointed out at the top of the page.
F. Farewells (approx. 5 min)
Review the greetings from earlier. Write various ways to say good-bye on the board:
Auf Wiedersehen, Tschüss, Servus, Ade, Tschau.
Make sure you model shaking hands as you address individual students. Have the students say
good-bye to each other.
Sing the Auf Wiederseh'n song on page 1 of Das Deutschbuch.
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