Rang Mháire (Mary's Class)

Last Time (May 5)(back to top)

Announcements

No class May 26th
Winona July 11-13

Warmup:

I gave a list of household words to be put into plural form.

bosca, cupán, doras, fuinneog, lampa, leaba, scáthán, teileafón, vardrús, vása

We did some sentence modeling to practice the present progressive, past, and future of glan.

Cén Scéal:

Everyone said something! Maith sibh! And we even had a little discussion about the Irish movie Kings.

Substance (?):

I gave a quick rundown on Imbolc and Bealtaine, and handed out a crossword puzzle. But the holiday to talk about tonight was... An Cuigiú Lá Mí na Bealtaine! (Cinco de Mayo for you folks who don't know your months yet.) We talked a little bit about this regional holiday (yes, as Gaeilge), and about Mexico, and about famous people from Mexico. I gave you an assignment to put together 3-5 sentences about a famous person from Mexico, chosen from a packet of informational printouts. It wasn't meant to be homework, but yet again we were running short on time, so we'll share the results with classmates at the next class.

Previous Week (April 21)(back to top)

Note from April 28

Mary's class worked with Nick's class that week.

Cén scéal?

A lot of you offered a sentence or two telling us what you've been doing since the last time we convened -- maith sibh!

Warmup

Well, okay, the class actually ended up kind of being all warmup...

First we practiced some of our old favorite all-about-us statements, first with celebrity photos and then with a couple of my toys, ex:

Cé hé seo? Cé hí seo? Seo é _____/ Seo í ________.
Cá rugadh é/í? Rugadh é/í i __________.
Cá bhfuil sé ina chónaí?/Cá bhfuil sí ina cónaí? Tá sé/sí ina c(h)ónaí i __.
Is maith leis _____ / Is maith léi _____.

So let's say Ruairí the Toy Boy (no, really, he's a toy) were to say:

"Rugadh mé i gCeanada ach tá mé i mo chónaí i Minnesota anois. Is maith liom breathnú ar an teilifís."

With those facts in hand, you would introduce him by saying:

"Rugadh é i gCeanada. Tá sé ina chónaí i Minnesota. Is maith leis breathnú ar an teilifís."

Having had some practice, we played a get-to-know-you-game. It was one of those name chains we all know and love, except with the twist that the "regulars" had to say something about themselves in addition to giving their name, and likewise had to repeat what others said about themselves. New folk had an exemption on the new wrinkle. We went around twice so that everyone had a chance to mangle their brains on everyone's information.

Then we reviewed the forms of bí in the present, past and future tenses:

Tá sé sásta.
Níl sé sásta.
An bhfuil sé sásta?
Nach bhfuil sé sásta?
Deir sé go bhfuil sé sásta.
Deir sé nach bhfuil sé sásta.

Bhí sé sásta
Ní raibh sé sásta.
An raibh sé sásta?
Nach raibh sé sásta?
Deir sé go raibh sé sásta.
Deir sé nach raibh sé sásta.

Beidh sé sásta.
Ní bheidh sé sásta.
An mbeidh sé sásta?
Nach mbeidh sé sásta?
Deir sé go mbeidh sé sásta.
Deir sé nach mbeidh sé sásta.

After reviewing each tense, we used the Cards of Doom to practice the forms. Once we'd practiced all the forms, I pulled out...the Cards of Doomier Doom! This set has adverbs of time on them, and we used the ones that say "anois," "inné" and "amárach." I kept flipping through the forms cards, and now and again Áine would switch our tense.

Practice at home! Make up sets of cards o' doom and tense cards, shuffle them (not together) and flip through them, giving the forms specified by the combinations. (Make two sets of each and let the fun last longer between restackings.)

I'd intended to leave some time at the end so that the regulars could knock one or two items off the homework list, but we were apparently having too much fun and time ran out! We'll try again next time.

Homework: Nothing new, just that same ol' list that's been haunting us. Do e-mail me if you have a question about some item amongst the lot.

Comments and questions are welcome via e-mail

(our e-mail address, broken down to reduce spam from 'spambots', is info at gaelminn dot org)