Lesson Context

This is the children's first lesson on 'Continents' and I invited parents to come along and learn German with their children. Because of this, I changed the location to the school hall and there are also activities in the lesson which require a large space. The children already have some knowledge of countries from their Colours 2 with Flags lesson and they also learnt the word for Europe. This lesson expands on that knowledge by adding the 7 continents and many more countries from around the world. The children will learn how to say 'I travel to' and 'I visit' and will also create sentences using the more familiar 'das ist in ...'  

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Resources

A large area classroom/area. I did this lesson in the school hall and invited parents to take part

Power point presentation

Hand outs which the children can take home for revision

Large (A3) world map for each pair - see continents and countries hand out below

Countries (in German) to place on large world map - but print these out on A4

Kartentausch (card swap) cards

The continents written out (and drawn if possible) on very large paper - I used flip chart paper - These 7 papers should be placed on the floor in approximate order of where they are in the world

Slide 2

Communicate LO and SC

Explain that there are 7 continents and 20 countries in the lesson

Slides 3 - 8 - Continents and Countries

Sag mir nach the vocabulary on the slides and discuss patterns and words that are similar to English, for example the pattern of many German countries ending with -ien. Ask occasional questions such as 'how would you say Northern Ireland' or 'Southern Germany'?

*Slide 3 - Ask if anyone can guess why you have chosen Germany, Austria and Switzerland

*Slide 8 - As in English, sometimes the continent is called Oceania and sometimes simply 'Australia'. However if you use the term 'Australia' for a continent, that does not include New Zealand

*Slide 8 - I have written a 7 here as Antarctica is the 7th continent

Slide 9 - Card Swap (Kartentausch)

Before the Card Swap activity, sag mir nach the vocabulary on the slides.

Use the 'Kartentausch Continents 1' cards (see below) for this activity.

The children find a partner with their hand up, high five them and say 2 sentences, 1 above the blue line and 1 below (they can choose either 'I visit' or 'I travel to'). The country and continent is written in German (in red) on the card. If a child is feeling confident, they can attempt to say the sentences whilst covering the German with their fingers. The partner then does the same. Swap cards. Hand up. Find a new partner with their hand up and repeat.

Model this task beforehand and the give the children 3-5 minutes for the task, rewarding children who are clearly covering the German but still saying the sentences in German

Slide 10 - Countries and Continents

This activity will reinforce the vocabulary on slide 9. The children will work in pairs and use the large A3 world map and countries printed and cut up individually (see 'countries and continents' below). Each partner picks a country and then says 2 sentences from slide 9, 1 above the blue line and 1 below. As the child is saying 'das ist in ...', s/he places the country on the correct continent on the map. The children take it in turns with this activity until all countries are placed on the map. They may use their hand outs to help them.

Slide 11 - die Kontinente

Using lollipop sticks, choose children randomly to compete against each other. You will be using the very large (flip chart) 'continent' paper already set out on the floor. Say a country and the first child to walk to the continent that it is in, wins a reward. The child wins an extra reward if s/he is then able to say 2 sentences about the country, as practised in the previous 2 activities (from slide 9). It may be a good idea for the chosen children to start from the same point - perhaps a cone in the middle of the continents or from Antarktis.

*Note - If you don't have access to the hall, you could simply put A4 sheets with the name of continents on the walls around the classroom

Slide 12 - Plenary

Refer back to the LO and SC and ask the children if they can do the LO and each of the SC. If you have time you could run a competition where you randomly select (3) children to compete against each other to see who can name the most countries.

Assessment and Evidence

Observe and ask questions

Refer back to the learning objective and success criteria after the 'Continents' activity 

Check achievement of the success criteria by questioning and rewarding randomly selected children (using lollipop sticks)