Woche Zwei!

February 12, 2016 by Carly Smith

Another busy week in the German classroom!

The German room is lucky enough to now have a huge Sony TV on the wall! Mrs Robertson’s Year 6/7 class had a unique German lesson on the oval while it was installed on Tuesday morning. What a difference it makes! The students have really benefited from having the board to assist with their German learning.

This week the Year 6/7s focussed on how to ask and answer a variety of questions they might ask when meeting someone new. They then used this information, along with other German knowledge, to compose a role play with a partner. The students loved having the freedom to actually write their own play, rather than read a prepared one, and their pronunciation is quickly improving.

The Year 4/5 students focussed on counting this week, extending or revising skills to 100. Counting in German is all about patterns and we all found once we understood the pattern, counting became easy! The most challenging part of this task was when the students needed to explain how they:

changed a numeral into a word
changed a word into a numeral

It can be difficult to put into words or pictures what our brains are doing but by being able to explain our strategies, we are more powerful learners.

Woche Eins!

February 5, 2016 by Carly Smith

What a great first week we’ve had in the German room!

The Year 6/7s started their lessons off by brainstorming the purpose of language learning. Each group had a piece of paper with WHY written in the middle. They then needed to think about why it is that language learning is so important. The students came up with many great ideas, such as:

if they wanted to travel overseas one day
if they one day have a job that needs a language
if an exchange student came to stay with them
to learn about another culture

We also discussed the benefits language learning has on their learning in other subject areas and the problem-solving skills it promotes.

The students then reflected on what they feel they are successful at in German and formed goals for German in 2016. It was interesting to read that the majority of students want to speak, speak and speak! Conversational German is certainly an area the students want to develop so we will be working extra hard on that this term!

The students then formed pairs and worked their way down an ‘interview’ list. Without any translations, the students had to use their problem-solving skills by finding keywords in the questions and working out what they were asking. I was very impressed with their ability to do this.

The Year 3-5 students started off their German year with a ‘Leute Bingo,’ or ‘People Bingo’ game. They had to move around the classroom asking students questions about themselves. If they received a ‘ja’ answer, they wrote that students name in the box. If it was a ‘nein’ answer, they moved on. This was a fun way to break the ice and get chatting ‘auf deutsch!’

All students have enjoyed the new classroom and we’ve had a ‘wunderbar’ first week!

First German Tasting Day Session

November 26, 2015 by Carly Smith

On Tuesday the first three Year 3-5 classes participated in their German Tasting Day experience. Along with tasting the products, each student completed their ‘tasting notes.’

Students had to say what they were eating, if they liked it or not and provide one more describing sentence – all in German!

It was a lot of fun – and there were a lot of interesting reactions to Sauerkraut!

Little Red Riding Hood – auf Deutsch!

November 11, 2015 by Carly Smith

Here is another great example of a podcast created by a group of Year 6/7 students. Enjoy!

Little Red Riding Hood – auf deutsch!

There Was an Old Woman… Who Swallowed a Fliege!

November 5, 2015 by Carly Smith

Here is a fantastic example of the project our 6/7 students have been working on this term.

Since Week 1 the students have chosen groups, selected a play, practised their lines, used strategies to improve their pronunciation and in most cases, filmed their presentations.

This process has not been without its challenges and students have had to work through different situations, negotiate with peers and support each other.

The students have put in a very high level of effort into the assignment and I am very proud of their products!

Here is the German play created by Elise, Arabella, Mia and Tayla – enjoy!

German Plays – The Planning

October 15, 2015 by Carly Smith

This term the Year 6/7 classes (and one 5/6) will be working in small groups to produce a play entirely in German. Oral language is to be central to their presentation.

Each group will:

choose a small group to work in (3-4 people)
select an appropriate German play from either the Beginner play book or the Intermediate play book
put together a proposal of how they will be presenting their play (movie, podcast, play, etc)
support each other in rehearsing the language
create a presentation that will then be shared with peers and on the blog

The first sessions this week went very well and the students were completely engaged in the task for their entire lesson. The ideas about their presentations are exciting and we are all looking forward to sharing the finished products.

Some of the projects our students are working on are iMovies, puppet plays, finger puppet plays and podcasts.

Stay tuned for the next stage of the projects!

Essen und Trinken – Can you match them?

October 13, 2015 by Carly Smith

Today our Year 3-5 students were given a challenge. They worked in small groups to try and match 12 pictures of food and drinks with the matching word. It was a challenge as this was before any learning about the subject!

A lot of students found that there are strong links between some German and English words (like Salat/salad, Kaffee/coffee) and that we actually use some German words in our everyday language (Schnitzel).

We then looked at the terms for meal times (Fruhstuck, Mittagessen, Abendessen und Nachtisch) and started sorting pictures of food into the ‘best fit’ mealtime.

Welcome to Term 4!

October 12, 2015 by Carly Smith

Term 4 already! This term the Year 3-7 students at Craigburn will be having their German lessons. Stay tuned to see the exciting things they get up to in the German classroom!

Translating Success!

June 23, 2015 by Carly Smith

We had very clever Year 4/5s today. Students were given an A3 sized letter written COMPLETELY in German. At first, they were nervous about having so much German in front of them but, working in pairs, they soon discovered that they could in fact read and understand the majority of the letter.

Points that we discussed today were:

– key word recognition is important to understanding the general idea of a sentence

– you do not need to understand every word to be successful at translating

– you know more than you think you do!

6/7 Euro Designs

June 21, 2015 by Carly Smith

Our Year 6/7 students have been learning all about Germany’s place in Europe, how car number plates can tell you where the car is from and how one side of the Euro coin is common and the other is reflective of the country that designed it. With this is mind, our students have designed their own side of the Euro coin, reflecting themselves. They drafted ideas and then used colour paper to make a collage design. Here are some of the final products!