Last Saturday (13th August 2011) marked 50 years since the construction of the Berlin Wall. Commemoration services were held throughout Berlin

Karneval @ The Austrian Club

During Term 1 a group of Year 7 students were invited the attend a Karneval celebration at the Austrian Club in Adelaide.

Karneval is an annual celebration in Germany where people get to dress up, watch parades and have a great time. Traditionally it was held to scare away the winter spirits and welcome spring to Germany.

Our Karneval day started with craft activities, where we made masks and bookmarks while watching a DVD about Karneval in Germany. After a very tasty afternoon tea the children then participated in their own Karneval parade – complete with lollies being thrown about!

Here are some photos of our day:

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Richtung / Direction Task

During Term 1 the Year 6/7 students focussed on directional words in German. Once they had learned the relevant words the students then designed a city or town and using a specific sentence structure, navigated someone through from point A to point B.

It was great to see our middle years students being able to construct sentences themselves, improving both their reading and writing skills. This task also had the students develop skills in using a German/English dictionary.

Here are some examples of the finished products:

Die Berliner Mauer / The Berlin Wall

Our middle school students have just begun a unit looking at the effects both the construction of and the falling of the Berlin Wall had on the German people.

For a lot of students this has been a very eye-opening experience and has challenged their thinking in many ways.

Soon students will begin creating an artwork that could be found on the Berlin Wall. This artwork will need to reflect the sentiment of the German people at the time of the fall of the Wall and show their understanding of what the collapse meant.

Keep checking back to see examples as they are produced!

Useful websites about the Berlin Wall:

• Newseum: The Berlin Wall – Easy-to-navigate flash site detailing the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall
• East Side Gallery – Fantastic photos of the remaining part of the Berlin Wall after it was restored in 2009
• Berlin Wall Online – Breaks the major events around the Wall down into parts along with extra facts and interesting information

Over the past term we have been learning all about the role of the Berlin Wall in German history.

We have learned many fascinating things about this time in history but still have many wonderings.

Here are some questions we would like to try and answer about the Berlin Wall:

To show what we’ve learned during our lessons about the Berlin Wall we’ve used sticky notes to put our thoughts onto a wall!

If you want to see this wall as a full page click on ‘Post a Sticky’ and it will open it in a new window.

What do you think of our learning?

The building of and the collapse of the Berlin Wall will always be an important part of Germany’s history. It divided a country for 28 years and had a huge effect on the lives of many German people.

Here is a video from November 1989 documenting the historical collapse of the Berlin Wall. It was recorded on November 10th, one day after the borders between East and West Berlin were opened for the first time in nearly thirty years. After watching the video think about how the German people felt during this historical time. Can you imagine being in the same situation?

Berlin Wall Collapses – 1989

Berlin Wall Collapses from Carly Smith on Vimeo.

The next video shows how the German people commemorated  twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall – November 9th 2009. There were many celebrations in Berlin at this time including, as our year 6/7s have seen, the repainting of the East Side Gallery.

To celebrate the fall of the Wall and the coming together of the German people large dominoes, that looked similar to the slabs of concrete that used to make up the Wall, were painted and lined up one after the other. The first domino was pushed which led to the chain reaction of all the dominoes falling down. After watching the video consider: why did they choose to use dominoes to signify the fall of the Wall? What did they mean?

20 Year Anniversary – 2009

20 Year Anniversary from Carly Smith on Vimeo.

In German we have been looking at the effects the Berlin Wall had on the German people. Using Google Maps, we were able to zoom in on places in Berlin that were affected by the Wall. Have a look at the screen grabs we got!

Here is a screen grab of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Look carefully at the intersection in front. Can you see the bricks that show where the Berlin Wall used to be?

The East Side Gallery - the bit of the Wall that is still standing. The Wall has been repainted since this photo was taken and now looks much brighter and cleaner!

If you would like to have a look at these parts of Berlin at home you need to:

• Go to Google Maps
• Type in either ‘Brandenburg Gate, Berlin’ or ‘East Side Gallery, Berlin’
• Drag the little yellow man onto the map where you want to see the ‘street view’
• Use the forwards/backwards and zoom controls to navigate yourself around the streets of Berlin!

If you have any troubles using Google Maps come and ask Frau Smith for a quick demonstration.

Challenge:

How far can you follow the brick path in Berlin that shows you where the Wall used to run?

Have a look at the Middle Years @ Craigburn page to see some photos from the Year 7 Karneval excursion to the Austrian Club in Adelaide.