Waldsee Virtual Village Week 1 - Geschafft!
Published: July 18, 2020
This week marked the start of our very first summer of Virtual Waldsee, and all in all, it was a resounding success! While there were a few tech hiccups along the way, we had SO much fun getting to know all of our virtual villagers and learning tons of German with them!
On the first day of the program (Monday), villagers logged on for a big Zoom party with the whole village! Getting to see everyone's face for the first time was so exciting! Then, we broke up into our Familien (small language learning groups) to play games and learn about our theme of the day: "Wie heißt du?" (What's your name?). They also got to spend time chatting with a guest from Germany! At the end of the day, we all came back together again for Gesang (singing time) to learn two of our favorite Waldseelieder (Waldsee songs): Zuerst Nach Vorne (First Go Forward) and Freunde (Friends).
On Tuesday, we started off with Gesang, where we learned another song: Lieblingslied (Favorite Song) with the whole group. Then, it was into our Familien once more for games and learning surrounding our them of the day: "Was machst du?" (What are you doing?). One super popular game among villagers was Paul Sagt (Simon Says). Villagers also learned about going to the Bäckerei (bakery) with a guest from Germany! At the end of the day, each Familie met 3 different Märchenfiguren (fairy tale characters) and had time to write a mash-up story that included them. Some of the stories got pretty silly!
Our theme for Wednesday was "Was ist das?" (What is that?) and we fittingly learned the song "Eine Muh, Eine Kuh" (A Moo, A Cow) during Gesang, which starts off:
"Was ist das es steht auf der Wiese?" (What is that that stands on the field?)
During Familie, many villagers played the game Finde Was (find something), which had them running around the house trying to find different objects like Teller (plates), Blätter (leaves), and Papier (paper). At the end of the day, we came back together with the whole group to watch recordings of the Betreuer (counselors) acting out the stories that each Familie had wrote the day before. Laughs were had all around!
Thursday was another day of fun and learning with the theme "Wohin gehst du?" (Where are you going?). We learned the Waldseelied (Waldsee song) in Gesang, and went with Lilly to the Bahnhof (train station) in Germany to learn about how to get a ticket and take a train. In Familie, many of our villagers went on tours of Waldsee or even of the world through Google Earth, which was so much fun!
Finally, on Friday, we came together to recap everything we had learned over the week, playing some of our favorite games and singing our favorite songs together. At the end of the day, we had a very special Programm which saw our villagers visiting 3 different German-speaking cities (Berlin, Zürich, and Vienna) and touring around them virtually. They also had to perform a task at each city (e.g. singing opera in Vienna) in order to earn a ticket to our Abschiedsparty (goodbye party). Once there, we all danced a few Waldseetänze (Waldsee dances) together before waving goodbye.
Here's what one of our Waldseemenschen (Waldsee people) had to say about the experience:
Hallo! Ich heiße Moritz. Ich war diese Woche in die Waldsee Virtual Village Lagerprogramm. Es war eine tolle Erfahrung, und ich bin sehr glücklich dass ich die Gelegenheit hatte, in dieses Programm teilzunehmen! Jeden Tag haben wir viel über Deutsche Kultur und Sprache gelernt, sowie die Umwelt, verschiedene Essen, und mehr! Auch kennen lernen wir ein paar Gästen von Deutschland, und wir haben ein Interview with ihnen gemacht. Zum Beispiel, Gast Lilly, eine Lehrerin für Englisch und Erdkunde, erzählt uns wie man in Deutschland eine Fahrkarte für den Zug kaufen kann. Auch war Gast Gerhard, ein Redenschreiber für die Bundesumweltministerium. Er erzählt uns über die verschiedene Mülleimer in Deutschland, und wie man die Umwelt mit eine einzelne Einkaufstasche helfen kann.
Meine Lieblingssache über diese Woche war die Gesang, worin wir jeden Morgen eine neue Leid haben gelernt und gesungen. Es war wirklich eine schöne Woche, und ich hoffe dass ich nächstes Jahr zurückkommen kann!
Hello! My name is Moritz. I was in the Waldsee Virtual Village program this week. It was a great experience and I am very happy that I had the opportunity to participate in this program! Every day we learned a lot about German culture and language, as well as the environment, different food, and more! We also get to know a few guests from Germany and we got to interview them. For example, guest Lilly, a teacher of English and geography, told us how to buy a train ticket in Germany. Another guest was Gerhard, a speechwriter for the Federal Ministry for the Environment. He told us about the different trash cans in Germany and how you can help the environment with a single shopping bag.
My favorite thing about this week was Gesang (singing time), in which we learned and sang a new song every morning. It was really a nice week and I hope I can come back next year!
We hope to see all of our virtual villagers in Waldsee again next year!
