Help, please, German Mnetters!

[Nightynight]

dd1 has just started Grundschule yr 4 in Muenchen, speaking scarcely a word of German.

Her homework book contains the following cryptic entries

M: B.S.9u / 2, a, b
HSU: S.7. / 5

HSU is a subject, but what?

I am guessing that M is mathematik, but cant link BS to dd's textbook, which is called Denken und Rechnen.
Can anyone shed any light???

bump

Is there definitely a dot after the B?
Then it could be Buch Seite 9 bottom of page, exercises 2 a and b

HSU probably Heimat- und Sachunterricht

I would agree with that, but do you get homework at weekends? In Berlin the grundschule isn't meant to give homework on fridays!

ooh, thank you! It ought to be Buch Seite, but the exercise doesn't look right.

What is Heimat und Sachunterricht? Leo is silent.
She has also got FÖ and WTG marked on her timetable, without a clue what they mean.

Both my children got homework for the weekend. I am quite pleased actually, as its the only time during the week that I can supervise.

lol hausfrau, I did not think that leo would let me down, but it is not geared to a grundschule sort of vocabulary. I cant be bothered to add the words myself, becuase the only time I ever asked for explanation of a German word, they deleted my question without a word of explanation.

FÖ = extra lessons, probably to help her with improving her German

WTG = arts and crafts

Heimat- und Sachunterricht = lessons about nature and science and the world around us

thank you again, emkana!
I thought I had KU pegged as art

What do WTG and FÖ stand for?

dd is excellent at the heartbreaking sigh, and apologetic explanation that she didnt understand...and not doing her homework.

thank you again, emkana!
I thought I had KU pegged as art

What do WTG and FÖ stand for?

dd is excellent at the heartbreaking sigh, and apologetic explanation that she didnt understand...and not doing her homework.

Foerderunterricht

Werken/Textiles Gestalten

KU could be Kunstunterricht (art) but could also be Kirchlicher Unterricht, which would be religious education

seite

it is all becoming a bit clearer now. dd1 is still all at sea though. Hope this will be worth it when she speaks German.

I'm impressed that she started a German school in year 4 with little German. I put dd in a German kindergarten when she was not quite 2, so her German would be up to scratch for attending a German school 4 years later. To be honest, she is still lagging behind native speakers of German at 5 1/2 and I worry that she will be at a disadvantage in school as a result.

Maybe I drink too much coffee...

SSSandy, I put mine in kindergarten to learn german too because in the house they only hear english but now in school my son is OK , he doesn't talk too much but when he speaks he thinks about what he is going to say and doesn't make mistakes but my daughter is very quiet in school so they put her in DaZ (deutsch als zweitsprache) even though she is on the same level of language knowledge as her brother.
I think it would be great if they had some sort of afternoon club one or two times a week like cub scouts or brownies but in mitte I haven't managed to find a group. Do you go to any afternoon "german" groups?

Is your dd in the DaZ group for the whole school day or just for a lesson or two?

We go to Musikschule on Mondays which is a group of 5 kids all learning basic notation and a simple instrument in German. The teacher is lovely and they're a nice bunch. She loves that. Tuesdays she goes to Kreativer Kindertanz with two German friends from Kindergarten, Wednesdays is Turnen (crap and I'm stopping that in June) and Fridays she goes to choir. That's all in German. Saturdays she has art classes in Russian and Sundays swimming lessons (German).

I am looking at changing swimming to the JFK school club which is in English on Saturday mornings and maybe sending her to Brownies in English once she starts school. That's organised via the JFK friendship association. No idea whether it's good though.

I don't know how many afternoon activities she can realistically cope with once school starts though, I expect we will need to cut down.

I think they have a very good Musikschule in Mitte. Have you considered that? They'll also have a Jugendkunstschule.

I will definately check out the kunstschule as ds wants to go to some art lessons and swimming is twice a week but it is a very small group and finishes at the end of june. Ds wants to go to athletic club but we go home for the whole summer holidays till the last possible day before term starts again! So no point signing them up for any clubs till september.
I think 2 to 3 afternoon activities are enough when they have school, a couple of days they like to just chill out in the garden and relax after school work, we usually get finished with lunch at half past two then homework and extra practise is an average of 4 o clock free - we also go to the library some afternoons, they get german tapes or cds and books for reading practise and they are allowed 1 hour free computer too although we don't always use that.
Would you know of a library with more english books? Have you ever been to the british council library? I can read german books but rather english ! (lazy I know)

Sorry forgot to say, DaZ is on during normal lessons for dd about 3 times a week, so I don't know what she is missing when she leaves. Ds is not in DaZ but his class has it as an extra lesson once a week so longer school.

I used to go to the British Council Library when it was in the Hardenburgstr. near here, but I haven't been to the new one yet. They gave away their novels to the Humboldt University, Anglistik Dept when they moved so I don't know if you'll find much there.

There's the America Gedenkbibliothek in Kreuzberg which I've never been to and I've been told there is the Community Services Association library -CSA. It's American, I've never been there either. I'll get the address for you from a friend of mine. Her ds goes to kindergarten there. It's somewhere in the south of Berlin so not very convenient for you. I'll tell you tomorrow.

You know, I'm thinking I'll have to put together a website on English activities and things in Berlin if I can ever figure out how to do it!

Hope I can post links on here. Found a couple of things for you.

www.berlin-mitte.de/index_2965_de.html

Jugendkunstschule Mitte

Schönwalder Str. 19, 13347 Berlin
Schöningstr. 17, 13349 Berlin
Turmstr. 86, 10559 Berlin

Tel.: 2009 4 4173

Ansprechpartner: Herr Schnebel

Stülerstr. 2, 10787 Berlin (privat)
Tel.: 262 73 20 (privat)
Fax: 262 73 20 (privat)
eMail: [email protected]

Wöchentliche Kurse für Kinder und Jugendliche
von 4 bis 27 Jahren
Malen, Zeichnen, Basteln, Keramik, Holzwerkstatt, Drucktechniken, Fotografie, Buchbinderei, Tiffanytechnik, Metallplastik, Aktzeichnen, Öl- / Acrylfarbenmalerei, Kunstlabor (Mappenvorbereitung für das Kunststudium)

Ferien- und Wochenendkurse, vormittags Schulklassenprojekte

(you only pay for material, there is no fee for the course usually).

www.isff-berlin.de/musikschule/
The choirs are usúally free and you don't need to register, just find out when they take place and go along and try them. I think it's a nice way of practising German. My dd goes to a church choir at a German church. There's a choir I really like the sound of but it's too far for me at the moment - Franzoesische Str and costs about 20 Euros a month. They told me you can try it for a month first:

www.sadako-ensemble.de/index.html

Here are a couple of English language activities I found when I was hunting about on the internet, but I haven't tried any of them out yet:
www.jfkfriendshipcenter.org/5.php?lang=de
www.english-football-club.com/
www.bbpc.de/index.html

\link{http://www.storytime-books.com\English children's bookshop and café in Berlin}

There's also St. George's second hand books (with quite a nice children's selection) in Wörther Strasse (Prenzlauer Berg).