Letter to Penpal 3

Lesson Context

This is the children's first formal written lesson. They should be in their 3rd year of learning German and from now on there will be 3 lessons per topic, the third of which will be a more formal written lesson to ideally go into the children's German books. The writing is broken down into 3 parts:

1. Basic information about myself and asking questions
2. Likes, dislikes, loves and favourite things
3. Family and friends

The vocabulary and grammar for these writing topics have been covered in various forms in previous lessons, but especially in 'Likes and Dislikes' and previous two 'Letter to Penpal' lessons.

 

Interspersed between the writing activities there will be fun activities such as 'walk around', 'charades' and 'description mime' 

 

Resources

Powerpoint presentation

'Weekdays and Family' flashcards for the starter activity

Hand outs which the children can take home for revision - front and back - these will be the hand outs from the previous 2 lessons - Letter to Penpal 1 and 2. I suggest printing them half size out so that Letter to Penpal 1 (2 sheets) are on 1 side and Letter to Penpal 2 (2 sheets) is on the other side  

'Walk around 2' cards - 1 each

'Like/Love/Favourite' cards - 1 each

'Family' cards - 1 each

 

*So on their desks at the start of the lesson each child should have 1 hand out, printed front to back and 3 cards - paper clipped together if possible. The flashcards (1 set between 2) are optional

 

Slide 2 - Main Introduction

Communicate LO and SC

 

Slide 3 - Starter activity - Das Kartenspiel - revision of 'Weekdays' and 'Family' vocabulary 

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. The 'Family' vocabulary will be useful in today's lesson.

 

Slide 4 - Fünf Fragen

This slide will be familiar to the children from their Zeit für Deutsch sessions and 'Letter to Penpal 1'. Explain that it will be useful as these are the kinds of things you would write in a first letter to a penpal. Get one child to ask you the questions and answer them using the red format provided. You may want to remind the children of how to say when to say when their birthday is (2 options):

 

1 Easy - Say 'im' and then the month - e.g. Ich habe im Januar Geburtstag

 

2 - Difficult - Say 'am' followed by the ordinal number and then the month - e.g. Ich habe am zehnten Januar Geburtstag

 

Give the children a couple of minutes to ask and answer the 5 questions with someone on their tables. Then randomly select a few children, ask each one the 5 questions and then reward term if they answer them correctly

 

Slide 5 - More information about myself

Again, the children should recognise this slide from 'Letter to Penpal 1'. Point out that you have added another 'ich bin ...' underneath the 'age' sentence. This is because in the previous lesson the children learnt lots of new adjectives to describe people so I would like them to put one or tow of them here to describe themselves. If the children are really struggling to remember the adjectives then quickly show them slides 12 and 13  

 

 You may want to go over the bottom sentence again:

*Im Moment habe ich ... an und das Wetter ist ... - At the moment I have ... on and the weather is ...

 

For the second part you may quickly want to point at yourself and a child and sag mir nach the German for what you/they are wearing. For the weather you may also want to remind the children of the following words they can put on the end:

sonning - sunny

heiß - hot

warm - warm

kalt - cold

eiskalt - icy cold

windig - windy

wolkig - cloudy

neblig - foggy

 

The children should have a walk around card each on their tables. Give the children 2 minutes to take a card, think about what they are going to say and the practise with a partner. Note that the extra 'ich bin' sentence has been added to the walk around card since 'Letter to Penpal 1' 

 

Slide 6 - Walk around

This is a similar activity to 'Kartentausch' in that the children walk around the classroom to find a partner with their hand up, high five them, speak some German, hand up again, find a new partner with their hand up and repeat. In this activity though, the children keep the same card and use it as a prompt to tell their partner about themselves. The children say the red and 'choose' the blue. Note that I have highlighted 'das Wetter ist' in blue. In this case the children may want to use another way of describing the weather such as 'die Sonne scheint', es regnet', or 'es schneit'.  

 

Give the children about 3 minutes to 'walk around' encouraging them to speak to children that they don't know very well

 

Writing

The children should now write the first 3rd of their letter, using the walk around cards, hand outs and work they have just done to help them. Encourage them to use 'und' and 'aber' to make their writing more fluid

 

Slide 7 - Likes and dislikes - Animals, Clothes, School or Colours focus

Go through the vocabulary on the slide with the children. Point out that for the 'likes', they simply say 'Ich mag' followed by what they like - and then extra words if they want to say what they prefer or what they like the best. For dislikes, they simply say 'Ich mag' again, but they throw 'nicht' to the end. Get the children to talk to their partners for a few minutes about colours or more advanced vocabulary. This slide is on their hand outs to help them. After a few minutes randomly select and reward children who are able to say 5 sentences about a topic of their choice from animals, clothes, school or colours

*Note - the children should stick to the same topic for the 5 sentences. You may want to remind them of some animals, clothes or school vocabulary. Colours should be easy

 

Slide  8 - Gern - 4 sentences 

Go through the vocabulary on the slide and give some examples such as:

Ich esse gern Schinken

Ich esse nicht gern Zwiebeln

Ich trinke gern Limonade

Ich trinke nicht gern Wasser

 

Randomly select and reward some children who can come up with their own sentences

 

They don't necessarily have to stick to food and drink as I have put other sport and hobbies at the bottom of the 'gern' sheet. Point this out on the children's 'like/love/favourite' cards. After the time is up, randomly select and reward children who can read out their correct German sentences about what they like and don't like

 

Slide 9 - New food vocabulary

Go through the vocabulary on this slide if needed

 

Slide 10 - Charades

A volunteer from each team comes up and acts out one of their 'like/don't like' sentences. E.g. if they have written 'Ich esse gern Hänchen' - they would point at themselves, pretend to happily eat and then do an impression of a chicken. The class members have to say what the sentence is in German and whoever says the correct German sentence gets to come up to the front.

Note - Get the actor to tell you what the sentence is before they perform it 

 

Slide 11 - 'Love' and 'Favourites'

Go through the vocabulary on this slide and point out that you could put different things after 'Lieblings...' Ask the children to translate some sentences such as:

I love chicken

My favourite food is ham

My favourite drink is lemonade 

 

Writing

The children should now write the middle 3rd of their letter, using 'Like/Love/Favourite' cards, hand outs and work they have just done to help them. Encourage them to use 'und' and 'aber' to make their writing more fluid. Point out that the card is divided into 3 sections, separated by green lines, and they should work their way down the sections

 

Slides 12 - 13 - Describing people

Re-visit the vocabulary on these slides. The children should be familiar with most of the vocabulary on slide 12 from their 'animals' lessons. Ask occasional translation questions such as:

He is old

She is tall

He is small but strong

They are friendly

We are sad

He is good at football

She is always happy

He has green eyes

 

Slide 14 - Description mime

Invite one child to come to the front. They will win a reward if they manage to score '10 in a row'. Members of the class take turns to say a German adjective from slides 12 and 13 (the slides are on their sheets). The child at the front then has 10 seconds to act out or do an expression which reflects that adjective. For example if one of the class says 'glücklich' then the child at the front can pull a happy face. If anyone says an adjective that the child at the front has forgotten or can't mime, then the person who said the adjective can come to the front and go for '10 in a row' themselves

 

Slide 15 - Family and Friends

Go through the vocabulary on the slide with the children. Point out that 'mein' ends with an 'e' if you are talking about a female. Also point out that a male friend is 'Freund' and a female friend is 'Freundin'. Ask the children some translation questions that combine this slide with the previous 'describing people' slides such as:

My brother is big

My aunty is intelligent

My nan is called Nora and she is old

My friend David is normally happy and he is my best friend

     

Writing

The children should now write the final 3rd of their letter, using everything they have done up to now and the 'Family' cards to help them. The 'Family' cards contain the reading comprehension script from 'Letter to Penpal 2' and the 'describing people' adjectives. The children can use the reading comprehension as a guide template for their written work about their own family. Encourage them to use 'und' and 'aber' to make their writing more fluid 

 

Assessment and Evidence

Observe and ask questions

Monitoring of the written work - although the children have done writing tasks before, this is the children's first piece of formal written work so ideally it should go into their own German books

Refer back to the learning objective and success criteria after the final writing activity.  

Check achievement of the success criteria when you are on slide 16 by questioning and rewarding randomly selected children (using lollipop sticks) 

I suggest printing Letter to Penpal 1 (2 sheets) on 1 side and Letter to Penpal 2 (2 sheets) is on the other side - so effectively 4 hand outs on 1 sheet of paper 

 

On their desks at the start of the lesson each child should have 1 hand out, printed front to back and 3 cards - paper clipped together if possible. The flashcards (1 set between 2) are optional

 

I have also included a line Word Document with a black, red and yellow border in case you would like to use that