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Learn to Speak German: "How much?" & Numbers

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or the English version is on Genki English vol. 1

Lesson Plan for German Teachers...

This is a great way to learn some shopping German. It's a little tougher than the other Genki German songs, so I'd recommend doing this after the other ones.

1. Split the kids into two groups, the "shoppers" and "shopkeepers"

2. The shoppers all sing "Wieviel, wieviel, wieviel kostet das?"

3. The shopkeepers reply "Es kostet 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1," ( make sure you review the numbers in a previous lesson)

4. The shoppers then say "Toll, ich nehme es!"

5. Then they swap roles! The shopkeepers become shoppers and sing the next "Wieviel, wieviel, wieviel kostet das?".

6. Etc. etc.

The key is to pracise the song a few times a capella without any music. This lets the kids practise and get used to the song but if you use the music from the beginning, it will quickly get very boring! Keeping the mp3 till later brings the class back to life and brings out all the smiley faces! As with the other Genki German songs, the idea is that the kids will go home singing the song and hence remember it for next time. If you can play it on the school sound system everyday it almost guarantees they'll remember the German!

It usually takes one hour to do this song. For older kids, in the next lesson, review the song once to refresh the language, then you can play the "bargaining game" ( It's a bit of a tough game, so I'd say grade 4 and above is best).



Bargaining Game

Preparation

1. Introduce bargaining and where you use it (we don't want them arguing in German supermarkets or anything!)

2. Review the language in the song.

3. Practice bargaining with the kids. If you are really persistent they'll love it!

4. Make sure they understand that "buyers" want a low price and "sellers" want a high price.


The Game

1. Split the class into two halves (left and right side of the class is usually good)

2. One side is then the selling side and one is the buying side.

3. The sellers (individually) have to go and find a "buyer" and sell them something (pens, books etc are usually good, let the kids choose!)

4. The usual conversation is something like
Seller: "Hallo."
Buyer: "Wieviel kostet das?"
Seller:"Es kostet 10"
Buyer :"2"
Seller "9"
etc. etc.


5. Give them a time limit of about 3/4 minutes (I usually count down the last ten seconds to add to the tension)

6. Afterwards sit them down and find out who did the best, and who did the worst!

7. Redo the game this time with the kids changing roles, i.e. the buyers become sellers and vice versa.



The price range should be fixed in a range from around 1 to 10. This makes sure they all know the numbers in German, and makes comparing who got the best price a lot easier.
Make sure there are equal numbers of kids on each side - if you have an odd number then involve the teacher.
The time limit is important, without it there is no tension!
Tell them to be pushy, but watch they don't start hitting each other!!


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