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:
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)
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