German for local school

The summer is upon us and honing those hard won German skills might be far down your and your children’s holiday list.

Still, you may want to encourage your local school kid to keep on practicing some German during the holidays to be sure she keeps up her language skills during the long break. Or if you are just about to relocate, you probably want to give your child a head start.
If all of you are learning German you can turn this into a family challenge!

Play games while sitting in the 10km queue in front of the Gotthard tunnel. Or maybe you need to entertain the kids while waiting to board your hopelessly delayed flight to a faraway tropical island or to get some distraction while awaiting the results of your twentieth Covid test.

If you are not traveling and want your child to practice some German, scroll further down for a list with interactive games and vocabulary practices.

1. Travel games

I spy with my little eyes – Ich sehe was, was Du nicht siehst

To play this game, you describe something you can see in the car/airport/hotel/hiking path/road and see if the other person can find what they are thinking of.

Who can name 5 items in German you can see out of the window/in the airport/on the beach….?  or categories: Name 5 foods, find 5 blond girls (blonde Mädchen) people wearing clothes like (Ein Mann mit einer roten Hose)…

Interactive German resources for home learning

Beginners resources for young learners in KG and lower primary

My favourite! Lernvideos für Kinder von Andrea Thionville (KG-gr3)!

Videos for young learners of German

https://www.youtube.com/user/andreathionville/playlists

Learn with me, alphabet songs for young learners (KG, 1st grade)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ3H7o7zTVu9YVzHd1RLYZ0Vl51jXN091

Songs, rhymes for young learners

https://www.youtube.com/user/HooplaKidzDeutsch/playlists

German with Felix and Franzi:
https://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/en/spr/unt/kum/dfk/dff.html

Primary and secondary school resources for beginner and intermediate levels

Interactive games and more

German topics A1-A2 (from 2nd grade-middle school)
https://learningapps.org/index.php?s=Daz
https://www.german-games.net/
https://www.digitaldialects.com/German.htm

The Polly Lingual site provides some of the more fun games on the list within their online courses, including Hangman, Whack-a-Word, Alphabet Soup and something called a Verb Conjugation Trainer
https://pollylingu.al/de/en

A range of different interactive topic and grammar exercises

(School/time/days/months/seasons/Family/Clothes/Seasons/hobbies/prepositions/verbs/pets/winter sports etc…:) (Start with the topic Schulsachen and scroll down)
https://h5p.org/user/140646/mycontent
https://deutsch-lernen.zum.de/wiki/Schulsachen_(Interaktive_%C3%9Cbungen)

Grammar

These two webpages have a lot of interactive practice games and exercises
https://case.edu/artsci/modlang/webgerman/
https://deutsch.lingolia.com/en/grammar

Verbs

Verbs frequently used in school for beginners
https://quizlet.com/218012741/daz-verben-in-der-schule-flash-cards/

Haben und sein (Präsens)
https://deutsch-lernen.zum.de/wiki/Haben_und_sein_-_im_Pr%C3%A4sens_(Interaktive_%C3%9Cbungen)

Tagesablauf/daily routines
https://quizlet.com/252003441/verben-fur-den-tagesablauf-flash-cards/

Tenses

The correct use of the Präteritum (simple past) is very important for academic writing and schools introduce the Präteritum from 3rd grade onwards:
https://deutsch.lingolia.com/en/grammar/tenses/simple-past/exercises

Perfect tense is widely used in spoken German and has many irregular forms that your child needs to practice.
http://germansteps.com/german-grammar/perfect-tense-exercises-1/https://quizlet.com/56203808/daz-verben-im-prasens-und-perfekt-flash-cards/
https://quizlet.com/301916568/perfekt-sein-flash-cards/
https://quizlet.com/_bqoeqg?x=1qqt&i=4gg1r8

Article drill

Articles are critically important in the German language and learning articles can seem daunting. In order to get a ‘feel’ for the right article, regular practice is key!
https://materials.lehrerweb.at/fileadmin/materials/gs/deutsch/online/wort_satz/best_artikel.pdf
https://www.digipuzzle.net/digipuzzle/kids/puzzles/fquiz_words_articles_de.htm?language=german&linkback=../../../de/lernspiele/wortspiele/index.htm
https://www.digipuzzle.net/digipuzzle/food/puzzles/sorting_food_de.htm?language=german&linkback=../../../de/lernspiele/wortspiele/index.htm

Intermediate/advanced learners:

https://www.germancenter-st.com/en/online-grammar-german-exercises/259-simple-past-tense-in-german-online-exercise

Prepositions

(where are you going, where are you? in, zu…)
This is another piece of grammar that German learners, even advanced ones, find difficult:
https://quizlet.com/260977102/carlo-wohin-gehst-du-flash-cards/
https://quizlet.com/260975297/carlo-wo-gibt-es-flash-cards/

Adjectives

Der kleine Mann, ein kleiner Mann or mit dem kleinen Mann-using the correct form of the adjective in German is a challenge for all German learners!
https://deutschlernerblog.de/uebungen-zur-adjektivdeklination-deutsch-a1-a2/

Sentence order

German sentence order varies significantly from English sentence order and even advanced DaZ students often struggle with using the correct sentence order in written German:

https://deutsch-lernen.zum.de/wiki/Verbstellung_im_Aussagesatz_(Interaktive_%C3%9Cbungen)
https://deutsch-lernen.zum.de/wiki/Tekamolo_(Interaktive_%C3%9Cbungen)

Do you need more information on learning the local language at school?

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