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!
The Year 4/5 students have been very busy over the past few weeks working towards putting a short iMovie together in German.
Firstly the students had to form groups and then work co-operatively to write their own script. The script was set in a cafe or restaurant and needed to include some key questions and phrases we’ve been learning in class. The students then had other language to work with to make their script flow well and sound natural.
After writing the script the groups started rehearsing. It was very important that groups clearly used our ‘secret language’ or ‘write it as it sounds’ strategy. We know this improves pronunciation a lot!
Most groups are now up to filming with that happening over this week and next week. We will share some final products soon!
Over the past few weeks the Year 3 and Year 3/4 class have been working hard on their ‘Creature Creation’ task in German.
The students first had to draft their creature and construct 5 sentences describing it. This information needed to include the creature’s name, age, birthday, hair colour and style and eye colour.
The students then moved onto creating their creature using paper art.
The finished products have added some lovely colour to our German room!
Over the next week the Year 4/5s will be accessing Languagenut to practise their language with a custom-made unit. Here are the instructions to get to this unit.
2. Click on the purple square with the German ‘Languagenutter’ inside of it. This appears after the dice.
3. Click on the ‘Teacher Content’ square.
4. Click on the ‘Eating Out – Year 4/5 Task’ unit.
5. You will now be able to practice to become familiar with the language, practice it and then go for a medal!
We have a very creative student in our school! After being introduced to and playing the new game I brought back from German, ‘Wie Immer Ich,’ Carys went home and made her own!
Carys found a small Pringles container and poked five holes around the edge and one in the middle. She then sealed up the 5 outside holes and found sticks in her back garden to use for the game. Finally, Carys even made her own dice!
Thank you for sharing your creativity with us, Carys!
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!
In German the Year 4/5 students have had the task of developing interviewing skills. Students are reading and matching questions and answers and then are interviewing a peer, completely in German!
Eadie and Eliza completed this task today and then decided to film their interview using iMovie. I was VERY impressed with their fluency and pronunciation.
Please click the link ABOVEÂ their photo to watch their interview!
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 1Â – Year 7 students
Video 2Â – Year 3 students
Video 3Â – Year 5 students
Video 4Â – Year 3 students
Video 5Â – Year 7 students
Video 6Â – Year 7 students
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!
Towards the end of last term the primary students participated in a task that saw them making a ‘lucky dip’ creature!
To begin with, each student was given 5 slips of paper. One the first piece they had to choose a number between 1 and 10 and write that along with the word ‘Augen’ (eyes). On the second, a number with ‘Bein’ (legs), the third, a number with ‘Arm’, the fourth, a number with ‘Kopf’ (head) and the last a colour and ‘Haar’ (hair).
They then folded each piece and put in the 5 different labelled containers.
Next, each student took in turns to choose one piece from each container. They needed to then create a creature using the number of body parts they had ‘lucky dipped.’ We had a lot of 10 headed creatures!
It was a fun game to practice numbers, writing and reading in German.
