Deutsche Ecke

Spieglein, Spieglein an der Wand…

Mirror, mirror on the wall… such a famous line from Schneewittchen* (Snow White) as we see die böse Königin (the evil Queen) ask her magic mirror who is the most beautiful in all the land. The version of Schneewittchen written by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm has many dark twists and turns, a far cry from the Disney version we all know and love. 

Well, our Torrens classes and F10 had a lot of fun listening to the gruesome detail of this familiar tale retold. They have been learning German through the vocabulary introduced in this Märchen (fairytale), including adjectives like giftig (poisonous), freundlich (friendly), böse (evil) and schön (beautiful), as well as nouns relating to the characters of the story – Schneewittchen (Snow White), die Königin (the Queen), die Hexe (the witch), etc. Our grammar focus has been based on how we turn adjectives into comparatives and superlatives, so we can draw comparisons between characters and people. 

Our Schneewittchen unit culminated in the students reinventing the famous Spieglein, Spieglein scene with their own vocabulary choices and crafting their own mirror. The results were stunning!

Please ask your children to share their German learning with you!

Mirrors will be on display in the library for the next few weeks – be sure to visit and marvel at this wonderful display of learning, and maybe check on your own status as the most beautiful in all the land!! J

Frau Chesterman and Frau Edwards

*"Schneewittchen" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection Grimms' Fairy Tales, numbered as Tale 53.