German: Einladungen Activity

Chris here again. Today I would like to share a fun activity with fellow German teachers which will get the whole class up out of the chairs and talking!

This activity is about accepting or declining invitations to go do various things. The activity could be done as a partner activity but I feel that it is more effective as a class activity with everyone having an opportunity for multiple interactions with their fellow classmates.

The activity features intensive practice with the following grammatical areas:

• möchten
• Asking questions (word order)
• politely accepting/declining offers

There are two groups of answers students will use. I put these in a table and then tell students to choose four of each and write each answer on a separate note card. Alternately you could prepare multiple copies of these ahead of time. Students will have eight different cards with which to do answer invitations during the activity.

So kann man sich entschuldigen:

Ich habe leider keine Zeit
Ich muss noch viel lernen.
Ich bin leider Krank.
Ich muss mir die Haare waschen.
Ich muss noch arbeiten.
Ich habe leider schon andere Pläne.

So kann man eine Einladung annehmen:

Das ist eine tolle Idee!
Das  klingt gut!
Das klingt romantisch!
Das hat mich schon immer interessiert.
Das  mach sicher Spaß!
Das möchte ich unbedingt machen.

Below is a list of suggested activities to use as invitations. Feel free to add your own or have your students come up with their own!

Möchtest du....

zusammen Deutsch lenen?
einen Spaziergang machen?
ins Theater gehen?
ins Kino gehen?
tanzen gehen?

eine Studentenkneipe besuchen?
zum Markt gehen?
zusammen einen Kaffee trinken?
etwas Zeit zusammen verbringen?
einkaufen gehen?
in die Disko gehen?

To begin the activity, I have all the students stand up and then begin to ask invite each other. If a student answers affirmatively they will give the card with their answer to the student who asked. Students then switch roles and repeat the above step. After both students have had a chance to ask, they will then find new partners and continuing circulating like this until they have either spoken with everyone in class or the time limit has been reached. It is highly recommended that you also participate in the activity and this will also help you to do any spot-corrections and ensure that students remain on task.

Comments and suggestions welcome!


Let us know what you think! Connect with us @C_LaCross #teachger #learnger