Advent - 2 Activities for December by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Advent 2018 Family Activities: Dec. 2 – 24 by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The following activities are a continuation of the 7 that I listed in a prior blog on Advent:

8-Read Rumplestiltskin Picture Book for Story Time

This fairy tale was collected by the German linguist brothers Grimm in the 19^th century.

9-Read Rapunzel Picture Book for Story Time

This fairy tale was collected by the German linguist brothers Grimm in the 19^th centry.

10-Make Paper Bag Puppets to Teach Etiquette

Glue faces of famous German speakers on small paper lunch bags.

Give 5 biographical facts about each German figure.

Use puppets to:

11-Teach children how to do introductions in German for Austria, Germany, and German-speaking Switzerland (They are all a little different)

Show how to do the introduction first in English and then in German.

Practice the German introductions.

12-Teach Children How to Ask Questions based on the biographical data that matches the puppet faces:

Show how to do the questions and answers first in English and then in German.

Suggested questions from biographical data follow:

Where are you from?

What is your alma mater?

What subjects were your favorites in school?

What places have lived in?

What places did you like the best and why?

What foods do you like best?

13-Do a Chocolate Fondue Party

Dip tangerine sections, banana slices, strawberries, apple slices or marshmallows in fondue made with Hershey semisweet tablets and heavy cream.  Serve cider as a beverage.

14-Play Twister in German to learn colors and learn to move around in a limited space

15-Play Operation Game in German to learn the names of body parts well

16-Play Bingo game in German to learn numbers in a fun way

17-Play Euchre (Napoleon) card game in German.  The object is to avoid being Napoleon at Waterloo.

18-Play Old Maid card game in German

19-Play the Rummy card game in German

20-Play Calendar Game Showing different famous sites in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

Famous buildings, famous natural sites, famous natural dishes to eat, and famous people are what you should show.

21- Listen to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at the Exhibition.

This symphony is a musical response to Mussorgsky’s walk to and through an art exhibit.

I am pretty sure Germans like this symphony, because their winters are similar – very schlecht – rotten. They do many of the same activities.  They go to art exhibits, the symphony, films, and clubs for dancing.  They also read and write a lot in winter.

The following art activities could be done to do something similar to Pictures at the Exhibition.

Write poems or music in response to a painting or photo that a child or teen selects.

22-Watch the Fantasia video.

This video is supposed to be an example of art, music, and informed dialog working together. 

I think it is great for children of all ages.

23-Read the Gingerbread Man Picture book to children and make gingerbread cookies from scratch

Happy Holidays!!!!

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

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Advent - 1 Activities for December -Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Suggested Activities for Austrian Advent (2018) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The following 23 activities for children, teens, and parents promote knowledge of the German – speaking world using the German and English languages to learn about Austria, Catholic Germany (Bavaria and Baden-Wurtëmberg), and German – speaking Switzerland. 

Advent 2018:  December 2 – December 24.

The activities below can be used one per day in addition to Advent Bible readings for adults and Christmas picture book readings for children and teens as fun activities after doing those two activites:

1-Watch the film The Wizard of Oz by Frank O. Baum

2-Sing Christmas carols in German and English

3-Learn to waltz to the music of Austrian composer Johann Strauss such as the Blue Danube

4-Do a “show-and-tell” map and globe activity with large photos showing geographic features and famous architecture of the German-speaking world such as:

-Countries

-mountains

-rivers

-lakes

-capitals and other famous cities

-agricultural areas

-famous festivals

-famous foods

5-Show tourism documentaries from the consulates of the German-speaking countries in English

6-Listen to a Peter and the Wolf audio

This Russian symphony for children was written in the 19^th century.  Young children listen to it to learn about different instruments.

German women were nannies employed by the Russian nobility while the French were tutors and cooks for the nobility.  Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace reflects part of this situation.  (War and Peace was also the first bilingual novel written in Russian and French.)

The above information can be given as an introduction to the activity that runs as follows:

A music teacher will say the name of an instrument, show how it is played, play the instrument, and say which animal in Peter and the Wolf is represented by the instrument as the teacher holds up a picture of a fox, for example, along with its spelling.  The teacher, then, plays the instrument.

As children and teens listen to the Peter and the Wolf audio, the music teacher holds up the instrument that each animal represents along with a picture of the animal and the spelling of the animal’s name.

I learned this Peter and the Wolf activity from my 4^th-grade music teacher in Royal Oak, Michigan.

7-Wilhelm Tell Picture Book Storytelling

Wilhelm Tell was a famous archer in the Swiss Middle Ages, who had to shoot an apple in half off the top of his son’s head to save his son.  Spoiler alert – Wilhelm Tell was a very good archer.

Read story and ask questions about favorite images and why children liked them afterwards.

Have children draw and color the scene they liked the most in the book.

Play darts with a target board

Show how to do archery and shoot arrows at a bullseye board

Write a small play based on the picture book

Perform the play written as a group for fun

Part 1 – To be continued up to Activity 23 on my next blog.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

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