Lesson Plans

10 incredible Year 6 pupils stayed behind after school to help create our first lip-synch music video to the song 'Schokolade' by 'Deine Freunde'.

Most of the topics taught in the first year are influenced by the units provided by the Goethe Institut's excellent free resource, Deutsch mit Felix und Franzi.  In my first year of teaching German I found the Goethe Institut to be very helpful. Just get in contact with them and they will send you a copy of their lesson plans. I strongly recommend purchasing Felix the Frog and Franzi the Duck (about £10 for both) from the Goethe Institut as they form an integral part of my lessons. Indeed they have become unofficial mascots of my school. If you already have a teddy frog and duck they could do the job just fine. I refer to them as 'der Frosch' and 'die Ente' in my lesson plans. Other influences I use to build the Zeit für Deutsch lessons include, among others, the QCA KS2 German Scheme of Work, Kagan Co-operative Learning and Doug Lemov 'Teach Like a Champion' techniques.  

Before running Zeit für Deutsch sessions, you will need to build the children up to it. This will require 8 (45-minute to 1-hour) lessons. Within these lessons are activities and songs which will be used in the Zeit für Deutsch sessions. Every topic is covered by 2 1-hour lessons so you will cover 4 topics before you can start. The lessons are:

As you read my lesson plans, you may here me refer to some structures that you are not familiar with. Here are some of the main structures I use:

  • 'Ich und du, wir hören zu' - This is a chant to get the children's attention. Sing it and get the children sing it back to you. Do this twice.  Use this chant every time you want to get the children's attention in all German lessons.
  • 'Sag mir nach' - Repeat after me. Point at yourself and say the German. Then point at the children and they repeat what you just said. Do this 2 - 3 times for each new word to ensure correct pronunciation.
  • Der Kartentausch - Card Swap. The children find a partner with their hand up, say the German word in Red, the partner has to say the English word in Black. Show the correct answer to your partner. Swap cards. Hand up. Find a new partner with their hand up and repeat. After two minutes change the activity slightly so that the first partner says the English word and the partner has to say the German word. *Note - Point out that this is a translation exercise. Some children may try to answer the question.
  • Das Kartenspiel - The Flashcard Game. For a detailed explanation, click here and read the notes for slide 9. If you teach a German lesson straight after another lesson, I find this to be an excellent resource for the children to get on with learning before you even enter the room.
  • Zusammen (together) - Children to work with a partner using a wipe board and pen. For a detailed explanation, click here and read the notes for the plenary.
  • Celebrations - As you work through my lessons, you will come across this method I use to give the children 'Lob' (praise). When a child does something good, choose a chant (there are 3 in the first year) and the whole class sings it at the person. The first one is 'Das war gut' and it is sung to the tune of 'that's the way aha aha, I like it aha aha'. If you use der Frosch, die Ente and actions, the class will really get into it. Here's a clip of 'Das war gut' in action:

 

Zeit für Deutsch is designed to create a love of learning German and foreign languages and part of that involves making German lessons as fun, interactive and engaging as possible. There will be no writing in the first year.  Instead, you will collect evidence by filming the children in the last half term to show their progress. For parent testimonials after participating in the 'Continents 1' lesson, please click here

Zeit für Deutsch is a community of German teachers and learners. Amongst many other resources, the Powerpoints, Handouts and Flashcards are adaptable. If you have any ideas or have made any changes that you think work better then let me know and I will include them, and even mention you on the website.