‘Wer bin ich?’ und ‘Wie immer ich?’

February 16, 2017 by Carly Smith

Many of the classes this week started their lesson with a choice of a game. The first choice is a favourite in the classroom and is the German equivalent of ‘Who am I?’

The second game was a new one! While I was in Germany this past summer I visited the Nuremberg Christmas Markets. They are one of the biggest and most impressive markets in Germany and I was not disappointed!

While there I found some wooden games called, ‘Wie immer ich?’ This game uses a wooden cylinder, a dice and black sticks to practice numbers. The aim of the game is to get rid of all of your sticks first. The students LOVED this new game and it was wonderful to see them enjoying something I brought back from Germany!

Why Learn a Language?

February 12, 2017 by Carly Smith

During the first German lesson of the year the Year 3 – 7 students looked at why language learning was important. Students brainstormed ideas and reasons together before watching a short clip showing UK students talking about why language learning is important to them. Finally, students had the task of using iMovie to produce a short and raw video about why they think language learning is important.

Working within such a short time frame was a challenge! I was very impressed with what the students produced and we enjoyed sharing all the videos together at the end of each lesson.

Here are a selection of videos made by students from Year 3 to Year 7. Enjoy!

Video 1 – Year 7 students

Video 2 – Year 3 students

Video 3 – Year 5 students

Video 4 – Year 3 students

Video 5 – Year 7 students

Video 6 – Year 7 students

Wochen 1 und 2

February 9, 2017 by Carly Smith

What a great start to German at Craigburn in 2017!

During the first week, all classes from Years 3-7 explored the reasons behind why it is important to learn another language. The students first brainstormed and created a mind map in small groups before watching a clip of British students talking about why language learning was important to them. They then had a limited time (no more than half an hour in some cases!) to create a very short and raw iMovie clip talking about why it is important to learn a language. Some examples of these will be posted soon! All students did a great job and we had plenty of interesting discussions around the reasons and benefits of language learning.

The second week of German led us back into the German language, revising skills from last year and building upon this knowledge. The Year 3 students were introduced to the patterns of counting to 100 while the Year 4 and 5 students warmed up with a game of ‘Leute Bingo’ before problem solving and matching German questions and answers. The Year 6/7 students revised some basic skills before translating a piece of German text – fantastic work!

Year 6/7 – Olympic Profiles

August 4, 2016 by Carly Smith

This week the Year 6/7s lesson focussed on strategies needed to translate a text. We did this in 3 steps:

Firstly, students worked with partners/small group to choose a German Olympic profile and search for already known language/keywords. We talked about looking for smaller known words in bigger words, using dates and numbers as clues and making educated guesses. This information was recorded in one colour in their German books.
Next, the students were introduced to using Google Translate to help make meaning of other information. We talked about the importance of not translating whole sentences and just translating at the word level. We looked at examples of why we don’t translate at the sentence level! This new information was recorded in their books in a second colour.
Lastly, the students were given an English translation of the text. We found it interesting how translations don’t work on a word-by-word basis and that some things are translated differently in English. Last facts were recorded in a 3rd colour in their books.

The end result was a page of colour-coded facts. It showed, at a glance, the prior knowledge the students had, the knowledge they gained using a device and finally the knowledge gained by using a translated piece.

All students were very engaged with the task and worked through these strategies well.

Year 6/7s “Tuning In” lesson

July 28, 2016 by Carly Smith

After a term break from learning German the Year 6/7s had a lesson focussed on “tuning back” into their language learning. They participated in a few activities. They were:

Leute Bingo: students had to walk around the room asking questions to find out information from their classmates. Every question started with ‘Hast du…?’ (do you have …?) and was finished with phrases like ‘blaue Augen’ or ‘braunes Haar.’ If a student replied with ‘Ja’ their name went into a box. If they replied with ‘nein’ nothing was recorded. The aim of the game was to fill as many bingo boxes as possible! This was a great game to break the ice and start speaking in German again.

Card Matching: in pairs/small groups students had to match German questions with answers. This was revision from term 1. With that information, they then constructed a short interview and then presented to another group. Again, a great way to get the students reading and speaking quickly in German.

Reflection: Students lastly completed a reflection where they used traffic light colours of grun, orange und rot to gauge how they were feeling about the task. It was a quick and effective way for students to see where their language learning was at and to show me how their learning is progressing.

Every class approached this lesson with enthusiasm and I was very impressed with how much language they had retained from Term 1!

Deutsche Reise

March 29, 2016 by Carly Smith

Over the past few weeks the Year 6/7 students have been learning vocabulary related to train travel in Germany, watched videos showing how Deutsche Bahn (DB) works in Germany and are now planning a trip around Germany in small groups. Once the route has been determined students will use the Deutsche Bahn website to ‘book’ tickets between locations.

To organise this final task students are first making notes on A3 planning sheets before using iPads to research locations. It’s great to see the creativity coming from this task!

Herr Spurr’s Klasse

March 3, 2016 by Carly Smith

So far this term our Year 6/7 students have been participating in activities that has equipped them with the skills needed to produce a German podcast.

They have:

conducted an interview to find out information about a classmate
matched questions in German with appropriate answers
used these Q/As, as well as prior knowledge, to write a script with a classmate
used an iPad to record their script

During this unit students have developed skills in listening for keywords in speech, reading German sentences and finding written keywords, challenged themselves by creating a script that came across as flowing rather than static sounding and worked very hard on perfecting pronunciation.

Here are the podcasts produced by Herr Spurr’s Year 6/7 class:

Herr Lemmey’s Klasse

March 3, 2016 by Carly Smith

So far this term our Year 6/7 students have been participating in activities that has equipped them with the skills needed to produce a German podcast.

They have:

conducted an interview to find out information about a classmate
matched questions in German with appropriate answers
used these Q/As, as well as prior knowledge, to write a script with a classmate
used an iPad to record their script

Here are the podcasts produced by Herr Lemmey’s Year 6/7 class:

Frau Grant’s Klasse

March 3, 2016 by Carly Smith

So far this term our Year 6/7 students have been participating in activities that has equipped them with the skills needed to produce a German podcast.

They have:

conducted an interview to find out information about a classmate
matched questions in German with appropriate answers
used these Q/As, as well as prior knowledge, to write a script with a classmate
used an iPad to record their script

Here are the podcasts produced by Frau Grant’s Year 6/7 class:

Azalea & Charlotte

Grace & Amy

Isabelle & Arabella

Sam, Matthew & Thomas

Frau Robertson’s Klasse

March 3, 2016 by Carly Smith

So far this term our Year 6/7 students have been participating in activities that has equipped them with the skills needed to produce a German podcast.

They have: