After updating the weather materials to include wintery words, I decided to make some bigger weather cards. Fitting all eight words on to one page seemed to be a bit of a squish, so I’ve spread them out over two pages. They work better for younger learners.
I’ve made them in color and black & white, in case the children prefer to color the cards themselves. They can be used as flashcards or print two sets and use them to play memory.
Last spring I posted some materials for weather-watching. But as it was already April, I did not include winter weather. Well, we’re at the beginning of a big Nor’easter here, about to get a whole lot of snow! So I wanted to add words for snow and ice to the checklist and weather cards. Here are the new materials!
If you are looking for the older materials without wintery weather words, they are in this post.
I often ask my young students what kind of weather they see out the window. (Was sehen wir aus dem Fester?) This allows them to answer in a simpler, more consistent noun-form. It avoids the mix of answers like “Die Sonne scheint.” – “Es schneit.” – “Es ist nebelig.” Once they master the nouns, it will be easier to move into the various sentence structures.
I also have a video to review the words. The word Eis is not included, however it is pronounced pretty much the same as the English “ice”.
All those fabulous Nutcracker projects created in pre-k/kindergarten, 1st & 2nd grade, 3rd & 4th grade, and 5th & 6th grade left some students extra time at the end of class. So I prepared a variety of worksheets and activities to keep them occupied if they finished early.
The favorite for the older kids was a maze that I hand-drew:
WORD SEARCHES
There were four levels of word searches. The first two were created for 1st & 2nd grade, the easiest one having words that only go horizontally. The words come directly from the stories of the Nutcracker that I told them. Each of the word searches come with a solution key!
The word searches for the older kids also had a glossary that could be printed on the back.
COLORING WITH SHAPES
Some children also enjoyed completing the shape coloring page that I created for the preschoolers.
Click the links to get to the activities!
Nutcracker Cut-out Puzzle (Weihnachtsbild Ergänzen Nussknacker)
KiGa-Portal had a simple puzzle to cut out and paste the missing parts of the nutcracker. Unfortunately, the link is no longer active.
Twinkl had some nice color-by-number activities.
I Spy (Weihnachtsbaum)
Another favorite was this “I Spy” Christmas Tree. Unfortunately, the site is currently under reconstruction. Hopefully it will be up and working again soon!
I wanted to give my elementary and middle school students some background information about nutcrackers. So after I told the story in each class, I gave them a worksheet in the form of a “Steckbrief“. We filled in the simple facts together. Each class got a different version, becoming more detailed as the kids get older.
It’s the same information, but with a little more to fill in.
They got more information.
You can download the Steckbriefe here as a PDF. Each one comes with an answer key.
Here is another language lesson in the form of a recipe! Today we are baking Apfelstrudel.
Here is the video, and below is a link to download the recipe in German & English.
Here is the PDF for the recipe:
Guten Appetit!
I created a couple of worksheets as follow-up activities, in case students are not able to back the strudel. The information needed to complete each of the worksheets can be found in the video. You can download them here.
There is a crossword puzzle:
And there is a short geography worksheet:
For the past two years, I have been singing the song “Mh mh macht der grüne Frosch im Teich” with my preschoolers and kindergartners. They LOVE it!
I usually do some lessons on farm animals in the spring, and we sing the song for several weeks in a row. I often bring a little canvas bag filled with my farm animal finger puppets (if you watched the video on counting farm animals, you know I have 12!), and I pull one out at a time. Then we sing about that animal.
Just because we’re learning from home right now doesn’t mean we have to skip the song! I made a video where I talk about the farm animals and what they “say” in German (yes! even animals speak differently in different languages!). Then I sing the song, using my finger puppets.
You can download the text to this traditional song here: Mh mh macht der grüne Frosch im Teich GitA
I also made a few coloring pages, a tracing worksheet, and a label-the-animal worksheet for the children to do after they watch the video.
You can download the PDFs here, too:
For this week’s remote lesson for my preschoolers & kindergartners, I wanted to review the weather. We had been working on it for several weeks before school closed. After our Hello song, we would review the words and record the weather in our chart.
Today I made a video to review the words:
You can download the weather vocabulary posters I use in the video here: Wetter Wortschatz Posters GitA
I created a weekly chart for recording the weather. It looks like this:
I also made a page of cards in color or black & white. They can be used as a whole sheet to review the words. Or they can be cut up into flashcards. If you print two sets, you can use them to play Memo!
All three of these pages are included in this Wetterbericht (weather report) PDF: Wetterbericht Woche GitA
When I first talk to my young students about the weather, I ask them: “Was für Wetter haben wir heute?” (What kind of weather do we have today?) This question prompts them to answer with the noun form: Sonne – Wind – Regen (sun, wind, rain, etc.). It keeps things simple at first.
Later we can get into the question: “Wie ist das Wetter heute?” (How is the weather today?). Those answers can vary: “Die Sonne scheint.” – “Es ist winding.” – “Es regnet.” (The sun is shining. – It is windy. – It’s raining.)
If you want to practice writing some of the words, I made some worksheets a couple of years ago that work nicely with these materials. Click on over to this post about weather to find those!
This week’s Story Listening lesson was Der süße Brei (The Sweet Porridge). It comes from the collection of Grimm’s fairy tales. But it is not very well-known here in the US.
At first the children thought it was Goldilocks. Good guess. But no 🙂 Afterward, some children were reminded of Tomi dePaola’s book Strega Nona. I love when they make connections! Maybe I’ll have to tell that one later in the year??
Here’s my finished board:
Yup. I have a chalkboard this year! Can’t remember the last time I used a chalkboard 🙂
I created some work for the students to do in between our weekly classes again. But honestly, their curriculum is already so packed, I don’t think they have time to do them. That’s okay, though. It would be more for reinforcement. But the stories alone are enough 🙂
I’ll still share with you what I created here:
There is a vocabulary worksheet. Students are given an image and the German word; they have to write the English. Then they are given a booklet with the story. The words from the vocab sheet are in bold. They have to illustrate the book.
Download the vocabulary sheet for FREE: Der süße Brei Wortschatz GitA
Download the booklet for FREE: Der süße Brei booklet GitA
The story is available on the Great Story Reading Project 🙂
Today was my first day teaching a full schedule! Well, I’ll be teaching 6 classes, once a week, to grades pre-K through 4th. It’s a big change from just the one pre-K/kindergarten class, though!
In grades 1 – 4, I will be using the Story Listening method. I absolutely loved the looks on my students’ faces when I told them I was going to tell them a story … ALL in German … and that they would understand it! The skepticism was palpable!
I chose a short, familiar story to start off with: Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I simplified the beginning and the end. I also changed up some of the food, choosing foods I thought most kids would eat 🙂 So on Saturday, my caterpillar eats a hamburger, French fries, pizza, pasta, a waffle, ice cream, and chocolate! That really got their attention!
But really, it didn’t take long for the students to recognize the story! I did not tell them ahead of time what the story would be. Once they guessed, I put the title (in German) on the board.
I only have the children for 30 minutes, once a week. So I will leave some work in the classrooms for them to do during the week. For this lesson, there are two tasks.
First is a vocabulary sheet that has images and words in German. The students have to write the English word underneath. For the younger students, I created a version that has tracing words in English, since they are still learning to spell!
The second task is to create their own reader of the story. I made a booklet with the text – main words from the vocab sheets are in bold. They have to illustrate the book. I also made a finished sample to leave with the non-German-speaking teachers 🙂
Clipart credits:
We did have some time after the story, so we sang “Ich habe Hunger”.
You can download the poster from this post.
Then we played a simple game. I asked them if they liked one of the foods from the story (pointing to the board). If the answer was “yes” they went to the right of the room. If the answer was “no” they went to the left side. It was good for some movement, and they enjoyed it!
Download the vocabulary worksheet for FREE: Die kleine Raupe Wortschatz GitA
Due to copyright issues I have not provided the booklet for download.
I haven’t had time to come up with any of my own activities for the Winter Olympics. But I’ve found some nice worksheets and reading cards on other sites that I thought I’d share.
I really like the materials over on Lehrmittelperlen (you must subscribe to obtain access to their materials – about $20 per year).
Other reading cards about the various sports can be found at Fächerübergreifend leicht gemacht.
KinderSuppe has a variety of materials and activities (search “Olympische Winterspiele”). You have to subscribe to obtain access to most of their materials, however they do offer some things for free:
What are you doing to learn about the Winter Olympics in German?
German in the Afternoon Activities 