From The German Classroom Term 4 2020
“Willkommen zurück!=Welcome back!”
These were the first words the students heard me say in the German classroom in Term 4 to welcome them all back to school, online (live streamed) and in the classroom.“Be cool-gnome matter what!”
These are the words from the very cool looking garden gnome from Germany. The ‘Gartenzwerg’, in German is a very popular figure in gardens all over Germany, this all the students discovered in Term 2 in the ‘Das ist Deutsch!= That is German!’ online videos. The ceramic version of the garden gnomes are believed to have originated in Germany and are very much part of the German culture.
In each class one student was chosen to say the “be cool” and the rest of the class answered with “gnome matter what!”, this was a reminder for all of us to stay and keep cool, no matter what happened in this Term 4.
We then discussed the exclamation word ‘Aha!’ and what it could mean when we say ‘aha’. What does it mean in English according to the Cambridge dictionary? ‘Aha’ is “used when you suddenly understand or find something, or learning the truth about something”. For example: “Aha, now I see what you mean!”.
When the students understood that there was a play on the words in the garden gnome’s message, that ‘gnome’ matter what sounds like ‘no’ matter what, then we had a few ‘aha’ moments.
Aha, now I understand!
In German and many other languages ‘Aha’ is used to express the same thing.
But, what else could it mean? If you Google ‘Aha’ then a few meanings pop up, ‘aha’ is short for Alpha Hydroxy Acid and the abbreviations for the American Heart Association and African Hotel Adventures. The famous Norwegian synth-pop band A-ha or a-ha also comes to mind especially since the single: “Take On Me” from the 1980’s is now still playing on the radio after A-ha celebrated its 30th anniversary of the popular song.
The German Federal Ministry of Health took the AHA concept and made it into the acronym for the Corona AHA-Formel campaign this year. This concept was placed in the media and on billboards all over Germany to remind people of the requirements for protecting oneself and others in this pandemic.
A for Abstand = distance/distancing
H for Hygiene = hygiene & hand washing
A for Alltagsmaske = all day/everyday maskEvery class from Year 1 to Year 6 has an AHA ambassador, who is allowed to kindly remind the other students about the AHA rules in the German lesson.
This AHA message was a simple reminder and proved to be very effective in a fun way.
I am very proud of all the students for taking on this task of keeping ‘AHA’ and ‘cool’ in this term at school.
Remember BIS “Be cool-gnome matter what!”
Auf Wiedersehen, bis bald!
Frau Kerstin Pani
German Teacher Primary Schoolhttps://ilikegermany.com/culture/gartenzwerg/
https://www.zusammengegencorona.de/aha/
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/aha
