Themen

1–3 Teacher Notes Erster Teil

Thema 2 Mein Zuhause

There are four spreads in Thema 2, which focuses on the topic of house and home. Students learn how to talk
about where they live and the type of dwelling they live in. They then move onto the home, learning to describe
rooms and where things are situated. Daily routine is covered next, followed by helping at home. The grammar of
the unit covers adjectives, the use of prepositions with the dative, reflexive verbs and separable verbs.

1 …ist das dein Traumhaus?

 Say where you live
 Say what type of house you have
 Learn how to use adjectives in different ways

Resources
 Student Book, pages 10–11
 Audio-CD 1, track 6

In this spread students learn to talk about the area they live in, what type of house they have and how it is
equipped. A variety of adjectives is introduced to enable students to give more detail. The grammar section of this
unit covers how adjectives differ according to whether they are placed before or after the noun.
To get students into the topic of house descriptions, the first image of a dream house could be a starter activity,
with students describing what they see and then reading the text.

1 Reading and speaking

In part a various homes in different locations are introduced by images connected to the text in speech bubbles.
The aim of the exercise is for students to familiarise themselves with the various types of housing. The images of
the homes and locations are used in the next exercise, so it would be useful for students to be familiar with them.
In a pair-work exercise they could test each other by pointing at items in the images and working out the answer
(e.g. ein Doppelhaus, in den Bergen). Students should be encouraged to deduce for themselves the meaning of the
words for different sorts of housing that you might want to present to them first (Einfamilienhaus, Doppelhaus,
Reihenhaus, Bauernhaus, Wohnung, Wohnblock, Bungalow, Hochhaus).

Solution
1 d 2 e 3 g 4 a 5 c 6 f 7 b

In part b students are asked to say one sentence describing their own home.

2 Speaking
This speaking exercise builds on the information presented in exercise 1. Students take turns in making up
different combinations of places to live using the images and speech bubbles from exercise 1 as cues.

Grammatik: Verschiedene Stellungen des Adjektivs im Satz

(different ways to place adjectives)
This section contains a grammar explanation of why adjectives sometimes have endings and at other times do not.
Adjective endings are given when used following the nominative definite article, the accusative indefinite article
and where there is no article in the plural. This is a brief introduction to adjective endings and more information
can be found in grammar sections B1–B3 in the Student Book.
 Interactive grammar quiz 2/1 (Adjective agreement): students read sentences with an adjective missing. They
select from a dropdown menu to demonstrate their understanding of nominative and accusative and the case
endings needed.

3 Reading
Before students embark on speaking exercise 4, this vocabulary exercise can be done to revise some useful words.
Students combine the German with the appropriate English word.

Hodder Education 2015

®
Cambridge IGCSE and International Certificate German
10
 Themen

Teacher Notes Erster Teil 1–3

Solution
1 j 3 l 5 b 7 f 9 a 11 e
2 k 4 i 6 h 8 d 10 c 12 g

4 Speaking
Students are asked to imagine their dream house. The model dialogue gives an example of a possible dream house.
In a pair-work activity, students take turns in asking the questions and making up a description of their dream
house, using all the vocabulary learned so far and including some adjectives from the box in the exercise.

5 Listening
Students listen to the conversation of four young people (Florian, Sergej, Elke and Marius) and take notes about
the facts mentioned, as indicated in the answer grid.

Solution
Name Haus?/Wohnung? Wo? Wie viele Zimmer? Andere
Informationen?

Florian ein großes auf dem Land, im 6 Schlafzimmer, Es gibt einen

Bauernhaus Schwarzwald 1 Wohnzimmer, 3 Badezimmer Tennisplatz

Elke Doppelhaus am Stadtrand von 3 Schlafzimmer, Wohnzimmer, Keller mit Sauna

Essen Küche
Sergej Wohnung in einem Hochhaus 3 Zimmer, Küche, Bad Balkon und Blick auf
in Frankfurt Frankfurt
Marius Wohnung im Stadtzentrum von 3 Schlafzimmer, Wohnzimmer, Es gibt eine
München Büro, Küche, Bad, Gästetoilette Tiefgarage

Additional writing task

Students are now ready to write a description of a house. Suggest to them that they could describe their own home
or an imaginary dream house. Length and detail of the description will vary according to the ability of the
students.

2 Wo ist…meine Lampe?
 Describe the rooms in your house
 Describe where things are
 Use prepositions with the dative case

Resources
 Student Book, pages 12–13
 Audio-CD 1, track 7

This spread continues the theme of the house and is mainly concerned with teaching students how to talk about the
location of items around the home. It is essential to introduce the prepositions and the changes to the article early
on in the course. A detailed explanation is provided in theGrammatik section. Prepositions using the dative case
when they express position are practised extensively, purely grammatically at first, followed by exercises in
reading, listening, speaking and writing.
The spread starts with three images using nouns representing the three different genders d( er Tisch, die Wand, das
Bett), to indicate the changes to the articles in the dative case.

1 Writing
The first exercise contains six images of items around the house in different positions. In a box are the
prepositions needed in the sentences that students are asked to compose, next to the nouns to be used with the
respective articles. Icons are given to help with the comprehension of more common items of furniture.
The grammar in the Grammatik box must be studied at this stage. Students then complete the writing task.

Hodder Education 2015

®
Cambridge IGCSE and International Certificate German
11
Themen

1–3 Teacher Notes Erster Teil

Suggested solution
1 Der Hund ist (sitzt) unter dem Tisch.
2 Der Stuhl ist (steht) neben dem Tisch.
3 Der Kleiderschrank ist hinter dem Sessel.
4 Das Sofa ist vor dem Fernseher.
5 Die Kommode ist zwischen dem Regal und dem Klavier.
6 Der Schreibtisch ist gegenüber dem Papierkorb.

Grammatik: Präpositionen mit dem Dativ(prepositions with the dative case)

This box covers prepositions used with the dative case to express position. Students are given this information
before they embark on exercise 1. Further guidance can be found in grammar section E2 in the Student Book.
 Interactive grammar quiz 2/2 (Cases: definite article (nominative, accusative, dative)): students read
sentences with the form of ‘the’ (definite article) missing. In each case they select the correct form to show their
understanding of how ‘the’ is formed in the nominative, accusative and dative cases.
 Interactive grammar quiz 2/3 (Cases: indefinite article (nominative, accusative, dative)): students read
sentences with the form of ‘a’ or ‘an’ (indefinite article) missing and select from the pool below. In each case
they select the form to show their understanding of how ‘a’ or ‘an’ is formed in the nominative, accusative and
dative cases.
 Interactive grammar quiz 2/4 (Prepositions with dative): students look at the picture of the bedroom and read
the sentences relating to it. They select ‘true’ or ‘false’ to show their understanding of the sentence.

2 Reading and writing

This exercise provides a context for and consolidates the use of prepositions using the dative case. Students read a
text about Timo’s room and choose the appropriate article to complete it. Nouns and their definite articles are
given in a box to ensure that students know the correct gender of each noun. Students should also be encouraged
to use their dictionaries to understand the text fully.

Solution
Das ist Timos Zimmer. Sein Schreibtisch steht vordem Fenster. An dem Schreibtisch ist der Stuhl und auf dem
Schreibtisch ist eine rote Lampe. Der Computer steht nebendem Regal. Vor dem Fenster hängen die Vorhänge.
Die Maus ist natürlich neben dem Computer. Timo hat auch einen Fernseher nebendem Bett. Er sieht abends
gern fern. Seine Bücher stehen in dem Regal, auf dem Kleiderschrank und neben dem CD-Spieler. Vor den
Büchern liegen viele CDs. Timo liest nicht so gern. CDs sind auch unterdem Bett und hinter der Lampe. Timo ist
nicht sehr ordentlich. An der Wand hängt ein Poster von Australien. Timo möchte unheimlich gern mal Australien
besuchen.

3 Listening
Students look at an image of a messy room and then listen to Annika discussing the scenario with Marius. Some
of her comments are not correct and do not coincide with the image of the room shown. Students take notes while
listening and checking the image. Their findings can be discussed in class afterwards.

Solution
Lena sitzt im Sessel, nicht auf dem Sofa.
Die Katze liegt unter dem Tisch, nicht auf dem Klavier.
Auf der Kommode sind keine alten Blumen.
Der kaputte Stuhl ist nicht vor der Kommode, sondern auf der Kommode.
Die Zeitschriften sind auf dem Tisch, nicht unter dem Tisch.
Es gibt keinen Stuhl mit Lisas Brille.
Der braune Apfel ist neben der Lampe auf dem Klavier, nicht auf dem Sofa.
As an extension task, give students some of the correct answers in written form and ask them to adjust the
sentences to include sondern, which they have already learned. For example:
Die Katze liegt nicht auf dem Klavier, sondern unter dem Tisch.

Hodder Education 2015

®
Cambridge IGCSE and International Certificate German
12
 Themen

Teacher Notes Erster Teil 1–3

4 Speaking and writing

In task 4a students look at pictures of three different rooms. They take turns in describing a room to their partner,
who then guesses which picture has been chosen.
Task 4b consolidates this exercise. Students write one of the descriptions in their exercise book. This could be the
room that they chose or the one that was described to them, or a description of the third picture, which has not
been used.

5 Speaking
Students are now suitably prepared to describe their own rooms and the positions in which their belongings can be
found. A model dialogue helps students to get started. This exercise ties up various concepts learned in previous
spreads: accusative case, adjective endings and possessive adjectives.

6a Reading and writing

Students read Annika’s e-mail describing her new house to Sophie. They are asked to pay particular attention to
phrases using prepositions with the dative case. Students should make sure that they fully understand the text and
should be encouraged to use their dictionaries. They then complete exercise 6a and write down all phrases using
prepositions with the dative case.

Solution
Hallo Sophie,
Wir haben ein neues Haus!
Jetzt wohnen wir in Wiesbaden in einem Einfamilienhaus. Das Wohnzimmer ist groß.
Im Wohnzimmer sind zwei Sofas und drei Sessel, ein Tisch istzwischen den Sofas. Der Fernseher ist in dem
modernen Regal und viele Bilder sind an der Wand. Mein Zimmer ist auch schön. Mein Kleiderschrank ist
hinter der Tür und mein Bett neben dem Fenster. Vor dem Schreibtisch steht ein roter Stuhl. An der Tür habe
ich ein Poster von Afrika. Nächstes Jahr gehen wir auf Safari, super, nicht?
Das Gästezimmer ist zwischen dem Elternschlafzimmer und meinem Zimmer. Da kannst du dann schlafen,
wenn du im Oktober kommst. Dein Bett istgegenüber der Tür und du hast eine Kommode neben dem Bett.
In der Küche haben wir einen neuen amerikanischen Kühlschrank mit viel Cola, ich weiß, das ist nicht gesund!
Im Keller haben wir eine Tischtennisplatte.
Spielst du auch gern Tischtennis? Ich hoffe ja?
Tschüs
Annika

6b Writing
The second part is a comprehension exercise. Students correct Sophie’s statements according to the information
given in the e-mail.

Solution
1 Der Fernseher ist im Regal.
2 Annika hat ein Poster von Afrika an der Tür.
3 Das Gästezimmer ist zwischen dem Elternschlafzimmer und Annikas Zimmer.
4 Im Gästezimmer ist die Kommode neben dem Bett.
5 Annika fliegt nächstes Jahr nach Afrika.
6 Sie haben einen neuen Kühlschrank.
7 Annika hat eine Tischtennisplatte.

Hodder Education 2015

®
Cambridge IGCSE and International Certificate German
13
Themen

1–3 Teacher Notes Erster Teil

3 Was an meinem Tag so läuft

 Talk about your daily routine
 Use reflexive verbs

Resources
 Student Book, pages 14–15
 Audio-CD 1, tracks 8, 9
 Cultural PowerPoint 1 (Das Alltagsleben in Namibia)

Students revise words and phrases needed to describe a typical daily routine. There are opportunities for them to
refine their listening and reading skills, as well as develop their active speaking and writing skills. By the end of
the spread they should be confident about using reflexive verbs in the context of daily routine and beyond.

1 Listening and reading

Students listen to short, discrete sentences on aspects of daily routine. The sentences that they hear match the
sequence of pictures (a–k) and the task is to find the correct sentence from the jumbled list. This task develops the
skill of listening as well as revising the key vocabulary for describing daily routine. This exercise could be further
exploited for speaking practice either teacher-led or in pairs. For example:
A Was machst du im Bild j?
B Ich gehe (um 10.30) ins Bett.
or
A Du gehst ins Bett.
B Das ist Bild j.

Solution
a 10 d 6 g 4 j 3
b 7 e 1 h 8 k 9
c 2 f 5 i 11

2 Listening
Students listen to five young people describing aspects of their daily routine. They have to match each speaker
with a picture sequence. There are six sequences, so one is a distractor.

Solution
1 Christoph 3 Lukas 5 Jens
2 Helga 4 Lara

Grammatik: Reflexivverben (reflexive verbs)

The grammar focus of this spread is reflexive verbs in the present tense. All persons are presented here. You can
deal with this grammar topic at any relevant point in the spread. Further guidance can be found in grammar
section D3 in the Student Book. A practice exercise follows the grammar explanation.

Solution
1 Interessierst du dich für Musik?
2 Jeden Morgen rasiert sich mein Vater
3 Meine Eltern interessieren sich für alte Bücher.
4 Meine Schwester amüsiert sich gut beim Einkaufen.
5 Ich frage mich, wo mein Freund ist.
6 Amüsiert ihr euch auf der Party?
7 Wo treffen wir uns heute Abend?
8 Setzen Sie sich hier bitte.

Hodder Education 2015

®
Cambridge IGCSE and International Certificate German
14
 Themen

Teacher Notes Erster Teil 1–3

3 Writing
Students write a short description of Angelika’s daily routine based on her pictorial sequence (the distractor) in
exercise 2. More able students can add details that are not depicted to give a fuller account of her daily routine.
Students can write in the first person singular or, if reflexive verbs have already been introduced, more able
students could use the third person singular.

4 Reading
Students read an e-mail from Angelika to her friend Maggi in which she details a typical routine. The e-mail is
followed by two tasks: (a) a true or false exercise and (b) one in which students have to correct the false
statements. Wherever possible, students should write the correct answer in German.

Solution
1 F (Sie wacht um Viertel vor sieben auf)
2 R
3 F (Sie wäscht sich am Morgen or Sie duscht sich am Abend/gegen 10 Uhr abends)
4 F (Sie frühstückt ganz schnell)
5 F (Sie isst in der Schule)
6 R
7 R
8 R

5 Speaking
Students work in pairs or in a group. This could also be done as a whole-class activity. One student describes one
of the five routines depicted and another student must guess which person’s routine is being described. For further
practice, students could make up their own similar routines. In this way, the speaking exercise also serves as
listening practice. In both this and the next writing exercise students should be encouraged to include as many
adjectives as possible.

6 Writing
Students should now be ready to write a more detailed depiction of a daily routine. They could base it on one of
the mini-routines from speaking exercise 5, but equally they could describe their own personal routine. It could be
written in the first person singular, which would be most useful, although they could practise the third person
singular if necessary.
 Cultural PowerPoint 1 (Das Alltagsleben in Namibia) introduces students to daily life in Namibia, an African
country with a German-speaking population.

4 Im Haushalt helfen
 Talk about helping at home
 Use separable verbs

Resources
 Student Book, pages 16–17
 Audio-CD 1, track 10

In this spread students learn the language necessary to talk about household tasks and how they help at home.
There are opportunities for them to recognise and express points of view and build up banks of adverbial phrases,
specifically time phrases. More able students can begin to form longer and more interesting sentences, a strategy
which is developed in subsequent Themen.
The vocabulary of household chores provides a good base for dealing with separable verbs in the present tense.
This constitutes the grammar concept of the spread.

Hodder Education 2015

®
Cambridge IGCSE and International Certificate German
15
Themen

1–3 Teacher Notes Erster Teil

1 Reading
Students read a letter from Magdalena in which she complains about all the household tasks that she has to do.
Exercise a involves identifying which chores she does and selecting the appropriate icon (a–l).

Solution
j h d b c

Part b involves stating how frequently Magdalena does each chore. Adverbial phrases of time are useful in all skill
areas and students should be encouraged to build up banks and use them at every relevant opportunity.

Solution
j jeden Tag
h am Wochenende
d morgens
b einmal pro Tag
c jede Woche

In exercise c, students are asked to evaluate Magdalena’s opinion of her lot. This is also an important skill that you
should try to develop in your students.

Solution
Sie findet die Situation nicht gut. Sie schreibt: „Ich muss zu viel im Haus helfen“, „Es ist schon sehr unfair“ und
„Ich bin eine Sklavin“.

2 Listening
Students listen to four young people (Angelika, Evangelos, Magdalena und Kevin) talking about what they do to
help at home. They complete a grid by selecting chores from the icons given in exercise 1a forWas?, and then
stating how often and what the speaker thinks of this chore. Students should be encouraged to decide whether this
is positive or negative.

Solution
Was? Wie oft? Meinung?
Angelika a jeden Tag schrecklich 
f dienstags das geht  / ☺
Evangelos h einmal pro Woche in Ordnung  / ☺
c samstags
Magdalena l, e am Wochenende ekelhaft 
d nachmittags langweilig 
Kevin k manchmal prima ☺

Grammatik: Trennbare Verben (separable verbs)

The grammar focus of this spread is separable verbs in the present tense. You may find it more useful to introduce
this concept during reading exercise 1, since many household chores involve separable verbs. In any case, students
are asked to look again at Magdalena’s letter to see how many examples of separable verbs they can find. Next,
they have to form sentences using separable verbs given in the infinitive. This could be challenging and students
may find it more accessible if they work in pairs. You could perhaps specify in which person the sentence should
be written in order to avoid an overuse ofich, although for weaker students this may well be the best option.
Further guidance on this point can be found in grammar section F1 in the Student Book.
 Interactive grammar quiz 2/5 (Separable verbs): students link beginnings and endings of sentences to show
their understanding of separable verbs.

3 Speaking
In 3a, students work in pairs to create dialogues on what they do to help at home, when they do the chores and
what they think about this. A model dialogue is given to help students and there are boxes containing suggestions
for chores (1), time phrases (2) and opinions (3).

Hodder Education 2015

®
Cambridge IGCSE and International Certificate German
16
 Themen

Teacher Notes Erster Teil 1–3

In 3b, students try to put these three pieces of information together to create a much longer sentence. More able
students should always be encouraged to produce longer sentences in both speaking and writing and to use
different tenses, as in the example. They should already know many coordinating conjunctions, e.g.und, aber,
oder.

4 Writing
Students write a letter to Magdalena in which they outline what they have to do to help at home. More able
students could clearly include time phrases and opinions in order to extend their writing.

Hodder Education 2015

®
Cambridge IGCSE and International Certificate German
17