Category Archives: Games

Travel Games for Germany and the Netherlands

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We’ll be heading back to the Netherlands and Germany this summer. We fly in and out of Frankfurt and then have about a 5-hour drive to and from the Netherlands. So in addition to packing things to keep the kiddos busy on the airplane, I have a separate stash of things to keep them busy in the car.

I just finished creating a set of cards that can be used in a variety of ways. You can play Memory, I Spy, Go Fish. Or laminate an entire sheet and mark off the things you see with a dry erase marker (did you know they make washable ones?!) or a small post-it. There are two pages of various items – one for each of the boys (that way there is no competition over who sees what first!). And there is also a one-page set of just vehicles. At the end, there is an additional sheet to help count up a few of the things you might see on a long drive.

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Items included are:

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The vehicles page includes: das Flugzeug, der Bus, der LKW, das Fahrrad, ein gelbes Auto, der Bagger, der Traktor, der Kipper, das Motorrad, der Hubschrauber, das Feuerwehrauto, & der Zug.

I’d love to hear how you use the cards!!

UPDATE- August 2016:

Froggy really enjoyed the game of looking for items on his page. Hippo lost interest after finding just a few. We went with the option of covering the found items with post-its (the 1 7/8″squares worked perfectly):

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UPDATE – July 2017:

We will be taking the scavenger hunt with us again this year! But I also found another, longer hunt – with only German words! – at another blogger’s site. Check out THIS POST for more info!

UPDATE – May 2018: 

I have made a new version of my Road Trip Scavenger Hunt! This one is adjusted more to traveling by train, but it could work well from the car, too! Check out THIS POST to get the new FREE download!

German Date #3: Planet Activity

Posted in Games, Getting them to read more, Uncategorized by

Our space fun continued today on our third German Date 🙂

I hadn’t had time to create anything snazzy before I picked up Froggy from school. So while we dug into our fro-yo, I whipped up a quick worksheet to go with some stickers I’d picked up at the craft store. The planet stickers are by Mrs Grossmann’s. They come with six planets, so I created questions to go with them.

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Don’t look too closely! When I got home, AP2 found a few mistakes! Well, I wrote up the activity in a more formal document – with corrections! – and you can download it here:

Space Sticker Activity (PDF)

We also used the activity as an opportunity to practice German letters. Once Froggy came up with the answer, I spelled the planet in German for him. Those vowels get a bit confusing!

I tried to get him to play Hangman (Galgenmenschen) with me as well, but I couldn’t persuade him. It would be another great way to practice those letters!

Instead, we brought out the Space Cards again. This time, we played Fische! (Go Fish!). We used two sets of the cards. He chose to use the set with pictures and words plus the set with just pictures. I think it might have helped to put out the set with pictures and words, since I’m still learning which planets are which! Then we could have matched picture cards to word cards. But the game still was lots of fun. We played twice! Here you can see my hand, the deck of cards for “fishing,” and Froggy’s matches.

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Fische!!

German Date #2: More Space Games

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This was the second week in a row that Froggy and I went on a German date after school. We went for frozen yogurt at a place that was pretty empty and chose a nice big table to play a space game. Today it was Weltraum Memo (Space Memory). At first, he tried to back out of it, saying he’d rather go home and watch something. But then I offered fro yo (ehem, I mean “ice cream”) instead of hot chocolate, and he was game (excuse the pun!).

We played two rounds of Weltraum Memo. I had to prompt the German often, but that was okay. He even repeated some whole sentences. (That counts as a full triumph around here!)

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Variation of the game:

Froggy & AP2 came up with a new version of the game, since there are three of each card (one with picture & word, one with picture, one with word). They used the cards with both picture and word as the “control”. Those cards were dealt evenly between the two of them and laid out in front of each player. The remaining cards were turned over, as usual. Players took turns turning over two cards at a time to find a match. But! You could only keep the cards if the set matched one of your own control cards.

For example, if I had “der Mond” and Froggy turned over the match for “der Mond,” he could not keep it. I would have to remember where it was on my turn and collect the match myself.

Another variation would be to turn over all the cards, and in order to collect a match, you would have to find all three matching cards! We haven’t been brave enough to try that one yet 🙂

You can find the cards to download and print on this post.

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Space Game

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In another attempt to use more German with Froggy, we’ve started a German “date” after school on Mondays. Last week, we went to a cafe for some hot chocolate (even though it was early May, it was still unusually chilly!) and sat at a big table to play a space game.

I found the game on the site Lehrmittel Perlen. I haven’t used the site too much yet, but it has an awful lot of materials. (You do have to pay an annual fee of about €20 in order to download materials.)

This Space Game (Spiel mit Weltraumwörtern) comes with cards that include an image an description of the following terms:

  • Sonne
  • Milchstraße
  • Mond
  • Sternbild
  • Teleskop
  • Asteroiden
  • Astronomie
  • Planeten

There is also a set of cards in black-and-white with the image, word, and space for children to write.

The game itself is simple, yet fun. Print out the game board and mini cards with the same images. Cut up the mini cards. Use a game piece (also included as a mini card, but rather large for the game board, so I may just use one of our own game pieces next time) to move around the board. Draw cards to see which space to move to. And of course, have the child say the word that goes with the picture! But watch out – if you get a star, you must go to that colored star, even if it means moving backward!

Weltraumwoerterspiel

Froggy really enjoyed the game, and he was using all the space words!

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Space Memory

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My 6-year-old is really into space these days! The other day, he found some German Memory cards in my office and wanted to play. He really enjoyed it 🙂  So I decided to make a space-themed German Memory game.

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Space Cards (PDF)

There are three kinds of cards included:

  • Cards with images and words
  • Cards with images only
  • Cards with words only

You can mix and match them however you like!

Space words included are:

  • der Asteroid
  • die Erde
  • das Hubble-Weltraumteleskop
  • der Jupiter
  • der Mars
  • der Merkur
  • der Meteor
  • die Milchstraße
  • der Mond
  • der Neptun
  • der Planet / die Planeten
  • der Pluto
  • der Saturn
  • Schwarzes Loch
  • die Sonne
  • das Sonnensystem
  • die Uranus
  • die Venus

I created the images in full-sized 8 1/2 x 11 sheets, so you can use them for posters. Or just print 4 or 6 to a page to created smaller cards.

Tips for printing:

  • Print on cardstock or on paper that has a pattern on the back side, so that the images don’t show through!
  • I printed the cards 6 to a page, and the size was perfect. Kind of like playing cards.

Viel Spaß!

Update May 16, 2016: I just discovered a mistake on one of the cards, so it is now updated!

Body Parts Game

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I saw an idea for a body parts game as I browsed through Pinterest one day. Here is the result:

Körperteile Spiel

We played this game during story hour last week, and it was a big hit! It probably would have helped to do a quick review of the six body parts in the game before we started playing. Next time!  We played the simpler version of the game. Even though there was no competition involved – and hence no winner – the children really enjoyed it. They wanted to take it home, but we decided to save the game boards and body parts to play again at another story hour 🙂

Here’s how it works:

Preparations:

  1. Download the Körpertiele Spiel document above.
  2. Print out the images of the boys, one color (p. 2) and one grayscale (p. 3), per player. Print on cardstock, or you can laminate them for longer use!
  3. Cut out the colored image of the boy. Then cut him up into body parts: head, arms, hands, torso, legs, and feet.
  4. Print out one copy of the page with the body parts in squares. Again, laminate if you wish. Cut out the squares and tape them to the foam die.

 Additional materials (optional):

2½-inch foam die

 Rules of the game:

 

  • Each child gets a “game board” with a grayscale image of the boy and one set of body parts in color.
  • Children take turns rolling the die. Whatever body part s/he rolls, s/he can put on to the grayscale body.
  • The first child to complete the boy wins!
  • *If you don’t have a die, you could use the squares as cards, and children take turns drawing a card.
  • *Of course, when they roll a body part, they have to say the word!

 

For a simpler version with younger children:

  • Children take turns rolling the die.
  • Each child says the name of the body part, while all children add the body part to their grayscale body pictures.