Stille Nacht - Silent Night

Lesson Context

This is designed to be a stand-alone lesson. However as the language is not beginners level, I would suggest that the children should have had at least a few months of German before you teach them this lesson

Resources

Power point presentation

Hand outs which the children can take home for revision

YouTube clip of Stille Nacht - I have included a bilingual one below but any will do

Scavenger Hunt/Make a Sentence Cards

Main Introduction

Slide 2

Communicate LO and SC

Slide 3 - Starter activity - Das Kartenspiel - revision of 'Introduction' vocabulary and Colours

Explain that the children should be using the 'Lob' words on slide 3 and let them get on with it. Reward children for using the 'Lob' words. This game is not particularly necessary for the lesson but I have included it as a 'warm up' activity 

Slides 4 - 5 - Stille Nacht (Hyperlink to a YouTube video on the title)

Sag mir nach (repeat after me) the vocabulary on the slides. Then get the children to 'sing' each line after you.

Point out the following pronunciation points:

Heilige (Holy) - Pronounced h - igh - lig (not heelig)

Schläft (sleep/ing) - Pronounced Sch - lair - ft

You may also wish to point out that while 'Knabe' does mean boy, it is old fashioned and the common word for boy is (der) Junge

Slide 6 - Vocabulary Revision

Sag mir nach (repeat after me) these four words and tell the children that you will randomly select and test (and reward) someone at the end of the lesson who can recall them. These are in the lyrics but they are also very useful words for future German learning

Slide 7 - Scavenger Hunt (or Make a Sentence)

Slide 8 - Who is singing?

Ask a child to come to the front of the class and stand with his/her back to the other children. Someone from the class then sings one of the lines from 'Stille Nacht' in German (in a funny voice if they wish) and the person at the front has to guess who sang the line. If the person at the front guesses correctly then they stay where they are, if not the singer gets to go to the front. The person at the front has the chance of earning a bonus reward if they are also able to correctly translate the sentence into English   

Slide 9 - Plenary/Round of Stille Nacht

Sing 'Stille Nacht' once through and then explain how a 'round' works. For simplicity, I have set up the song in 6 pairs of lines (on the slide you can see 6 pairs - there is a box around the first two just to make it clear for the children). Once one group finishes a pair, the next group starts the same pair, while the first group carries onto the next pair and this repeats until all of the groups finish. You could introduce several groups into the activity, depending on how well the class does.  I find this works very well if you demonstrate it through first with a single more able child, so the class can see how it works.

Assessment and Evidence

Observe and ask questions

Refer back to the success criteria after the round of 'Stille Nacht', specifically the second bullet point. As you said you would do on slide 6, randomly select, test (and reward) someone who can recall them.