Tag Archives: Eric Carle

Kopf, Schulter, Knie und Fuß / Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Posted in Book Materials, Books, Coloring Pages, Pre-K & K Class, Songs, Uncategorized by

Singing this classic children’s song is a great way to teach my pre-k/kindergarten classes about body parts.

I like to back into the song, teaching the parts of the face first. It’s nice to repeat these a number of times, because they only show up in the song one time, while the others repeat three times!

  • Augen (eyes)
  • Ohren (ears)
  • Nase (nose)
  • Mund (mouth)

We repeat those a couple of times. Then I point to them on me in a random order and ask if it is X? First I do it right, then I start to make “mistakes” 🙂 For example, I point to my nose and say: “Ist das die Nase?” They all say: “Jaaaaaa!” But later I’ll point to my eyes and say: “Sind das die Ohren?” Most of the children recognize the mistage and say: “Nein!”

Then we move on to the bigger body parts:

  • Kopf (head)
  • Schulter (shoulders)
  • Knie (knees)
  • Fuß (foot)

Once we have the vocabulary down, we sing the song! We usually start seated and then sing it again standing. This year we repeated the song one last time at the end of the lesson. It was a nice way to reinforce it. And next week, those facial features will come in handy when we start making our Kürbislaternen (Jack-o-Lanterns)!

It’s also fun to read Eric Carle’s book Von Kopf bis Fuß (From Head to Toe) with this lesson.

I always send home a coloring page for the children. Here is one with all 8 body parts. You can download it for free below!

Kopf Schulter Knie Fuß Malvorlage 2 GitADownload

Head, Shoulder, Knees, and … Feet!

Posted in Coloring Pages, Pre-K & K Class, Uncategorized by

Today at school, we brought back a favorite lesson from last year: Body Parts! The children loved singing the German version of “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” – which says Fuß instead of toes 🙂

We started off with the 8 body parts in the song:

  • der Kopf
  • die Schulter
  • das Knie
  • der Fuß
  • die Augen
  • die Ohren
  • die Nase
  • der Mund

Then we got to sing the song! In case you need the German words to the song, it goes like this:

Kopf und Schulter, Knie und Fuß, Knie und Fuß.
Kopf und Schulter, Knie und Fuß, Knie und Fuß.
Augen, Ohren, Nase, und Mund.
Kopf und Schulter, Knie und Fuß, Knie und Fuß.

We also did the Fingerspiel about the mouse family. (You can find it in my last teaching post: about Counting Mice.) And we read Eric Carle’s Von Kopf bis Fuß (Gerstenberg, 2011).

von-kopf-bis-fus

Finally, the children got to do a coloring page I created with all those body parts they learned at the beginning of the lesson:

kopf-schulter-knie-fus-malvorlage-gita

Download the coloring page in PDF here: Kopf Schulter Knie Fuß Malvorlage GitA

Spiders on the Farm

Posted in Book Materials, Coloring Pages, Pre-K & K Class, Uncategorized by

Today, I’ll be teaching a lesson based on Eric Carle’s book, Die kleine Spinne spinnt und schweigt.

First, we will review the five farm animals they learned when we read Klingelingeling:

  • die Katze
  • der Hund,
  • das Schwein
  • die Ente
  • das Pferd

Then I’ll use more images to introduce the other animals (and insect!) in the story:

  • die Kuh
  • das Schaf
  • die Ziege
  • der Hahn
  • die Eule
  • die Spinne

For the images, I found Eric Carle’s images in a bulletin board set on Amazon. (Nope, I don’t get compensation for mentioning this product! 🙂 )

We will also talk about the different sounds the animals make in German.

Next we sing “Die winzig kleine Spinne.” There are several German versions, including one called “Imse Bimse Spinne.” But this is the one that I know:

Die winzig kleine Spinne
kroch auf den Wasserhahn.
Dann kam der Regen
und ward sie aus der Bahn!
Dann kam die Sonne
und trocknet wieder auf.
Und die winzig kleine Spinne
kroch wiederum hinauf!

Finally, I will read the book to the children. I love to be dramatic when reading books to children 🙂  So I exaggerate the animal sounds and read in voices that sound like the various animals.

I always try to bring a craft or a coloring page for the children. This week, I’ll bring a coloring page with the six new animals on one side and the words to the song on the other. Here you can download a copy of the coloring sheet, which includes an extra page with the first five animals as well: Malvorlage kleine Spinne (PDF)