Year 6 Books for Reception Students

In Week 6 of this term our Year 7 students were on a very exciting (and very cold!) school camp to Canberra.

During this week, the Year 6 students spent time designing and creating German language books for our Reception students.

Our Reception students are actively involved in book making themselves so we decided that they would enjoy being gifted with books made by older students.

The Year 6 students chose their working groups, negotiated a topic and then split the task up so that each student had an equal share of creating to do.

Well done, Year 6 students! I’m sure the Reception children will enjoy learning with the language books you have made.

Lindau Exchange Visit

On Wednesday of Week 10 Craigburn Primary School welcomed 11 students from the Valentin-Heider Gymnasium in Germany. The visiting secondary students are part of a long-running exchange program exisiting between Reynella East College and VHG, located on Lake Constance in Bavaria, Germany. Every two years the German students travel to Adelaide in March and the Australian students back over to Germany in December. Over their four week exchange they live with an Australian host family, experience life in an Australian school and participate in a wide range of excursions highlighting our city and country.

The exchange students were welcomed to Craigburn Primary in an assembly run by SLEG members, Holly, Sriya and Jess. As part of the assembly the German students gave a presentation to introduce themselves. They showed us where they are from, talked about the differences in school (they don’t have to wear a uniform in Germany!) and talked about their favourite German foods. They also shared their opinions with us on Australian food and Tim Tams were a favourite!

Our Junior Primary students then shared two German songs before the exchange students were presented with Craigburn mugs as a way of saying ‘thank you’ for visiting our school.

During the afternoon on Wednesday and then again on Monday of Week 11, the German visitors worked with our students and Frau Smith in the German room. They enjoyed reading to the Junior Primary students in German and chatting with our older students about life in Germany. During break times, our students took the German students into the yard and gave them a tour of our school.

These visits have been a fantastic opportunity for our students to communicate with German speakers and to see the potential in learning languages and travelling. Many have since spoken of the idea of exchange programs in high school and shared other experiences with different languages.

We wish the Lindau students a safe journey home and I would like to thank the Craigburn community for welcoming these students into our school so warmly!

Frau Smith

German Exchange Student Visits

 

On Wednesday Week 10 (4th April) and Monday Week 11 (9th April) Craigburn Primary will be welcoming eleven German exchange students to our school. This will be an invaluable opportunity for our students to meet and socialise with German students and allow both the Australian students and the German students to practice second language skills in an authentic way. 
The visiting secondary students are part of an long-running exchange program exisiting between Reynella East College and Valentin-Heider Gymnasium, located on Lake Constance in Bavaria, Germany. Every two years the German students travel to Adelaide, Australia in March. Over their four week exchange they live with an Australian host family, experience life in an Australian school and participate in a wide range of excursions highlighting our city and country. Just a couple of weeks ago they visited and explored the beauty of Kangaroo Island!
In December a group of Australian students will be returning to Lindau, Germany, to participate in the second leg of the exchange program. Frau Smith and her family participated in the last exchange to Lindau in 2016 and will again later this year.
We warmly welcome the students from Valentin-Heider Gymnasium to Craigburn Primary and look forward to sharing some fantastic learning together!

Why Learn a Language?

I find it very important to start each year brainstorming with students about why it is important to learn another language.

This gives the students the chance to reflect on why they think it is important, to share ideas with others and to develop an understanding on just how many ways second language learning benefits them.

Here is some more information about language learning at Craigburn Primary:

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” – Nelson Mandela

Why Learn a Language?

Learning a second language has intrinsic benefits such as developing cultural awareness and empathy and promoting self-reflection within the learner. Academically, second language learning improves first language ability, improves memory and heightens cross-curricular skills.

Languages and the Australian Curriculum:

The German language and culture taught at Craigburn Primary correlates with the three main aims of the Australian Curriculum, enabling students to develop their knowledge, understanding and skills to:

• communicate in German

• learn about cultures from around the world

• understand themselves as communicators

This gives your child the opportunity to express themselves in another language, empathise with other cultures and gain skills to be successful in all areas of their studies.

German at Craigburn:

In 2018 every class at Craigburn Primary will attend one German lesson 50 or 70 minutes in length. The program is delivered in an engaging manner which encourages students to develop their cultural awareness and language skills while working towards reaching their relevant Achievement Standards. Learning occurs in many different forms in the German classroom, from songs, stories and games to using a range of devices to demonstrate understandings. Above all, the program aims to immerse students in German language and culture in a safe, enjoyable and constructive environment. The German program is taught by Carly Smith on Monday – Thursday in A7.

Sharing Our Learning:

The Craigburn German blog is an effective platform to share our learning with not only the school and wider community but also on a global level. The blog showcases the current learning in our German classroom through written accounts, photos and videos. The blog can be found at: http:// blogs.craigburn.sa.edu.au/german/. Learning is also shared with families via the Seesaw app, if used by the classroom teacher. This gives timely updates about what is happening in our classroom and allows families to share learning together.

If you have any questions or queries concerning the German program at Craigburn Primary, please feel most welcome to come and discuss with Frau Smith.

Willkommen to 2018!

Willkommen to all Craigburn families! German at Craigburn this year will be full of new, exciting learning and will give all students the opportunity to further their language skills.

This year the German room has moved (back) to room A7. I will be working Monday-Thursday over 2018 so please drop in if you’d like a chat about the program!

Each class will have one lesson per week (either 50 or 70 minutes long) over the whole year.

I’m looking forward to hearing about your holiday stories!

Deutschland in Europa

This week the Year 4/5 students have been looking at Germany’s place in Europe and the 9 countries which border it. They completed a Europe puzzle and then used devices to work out the country names in German. Finally, the students participated in a game of Kahoot! which tested their knowledge of those German country names. It was an interesting lesson full of new learning!

We also discussed the size of Europe compared to Australia and found this image to be very interesting!

Kahoot!

Today in German the Year 1 and 2 students trialled a new online quiz program called, ‘Kahoot!’ Students see quiz questions appear on the main screen and then record their answers using an iPad. The questions are multiple choice and a real-time leaderboard is kept as the game progresses. It was a very fun and exciting way to practice our German language skills!

Here is a short video explaining Kahoot!:

Here are some of our fantastic Junior Primary students putting Kahoot! to the test!

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Felix and Franzi

This term the junior primary students have been engaging with an online resource named ‘German with Felix and Franzi.’

This resource is created specifically for primary school German teachers by the Goethe-Institut. It follows the story of two animals, Felix the frog (Frosch) and Franzi the duck (Ente). Felix and Franzi have moved from the Berlin Zoo to England and live in an old German letterbox they found in an antique shop.

The program comes with hand puppets and lots of fun and engaging videos and songs.

We have LOVED getting to know Felix and Franzi this term!

Here is a Year 2 class singing the ‘Hallo’ song all junior primary students sing when we start our lesson:

Here is a Year 2 class singing one of the counting songs from Felix and Franzi: