Games are a great way to engage pupils so they have fun whilst they are learning in a meaningful context. To differentiate the learning activities for classes of different abilities, the games have been colour coded according to the amount of German words that appear in the games. "Grün" is for the lower ability group, "gelb" is for the middle ability group, and "rot" is for the higher ability group. At the front of the book you will find a detailed plan of which German words each ability group has for each topic. The 8 great topics in this fantastic book include clothes, drinks, numbers, pet animals, fruit, food, sport and weather. The differentiated games in this book include: Snakes and ladders, dominoes, board game style games, coordinates and 3 or 4 in a row.
The games are ideal for pupils aged 7 - 14 and have been created by a qualified teacher, with 20 years experience in teaching languages to children. For each game there is a useful German vocabulary list, many with pictures, for all the words the pupils need for that game.
Each topic also has a set of mini cards. There are so many different language games that can be played using mini cards, for example the pairs card game, guess the word etc, so at the back of the book there are 16 ideas of activities to do with the mini cards. The pair work activity instructions can either be given as an instructions page for the children to choose their own game, or you can choose the games the children will play. For the games using the mini cards you can decide if you want the whole class to have all the cards, or if you continue to ask groups to focus on the words outlined in the detailed vocabulary plan for their group.
The games can be played to learn or revise German vocabulary for the 8 topics, or the pupils can practise making German sentences or questions as they play the games. For each topic there are ideas for making sentences or questions using the words in that topic, and you can choose what you want the pupils to practise as they play the games.
Once photocopied the games are an excellent classroom resource that can be used time and time again. The mini cards look good photocopied onto card, and to make the different sets easy to separate you could use 3 or 4 different colours when photocopying. The other games look lovely photocopied onto either A4 or A3. Games are ideal for repetition, reinforcement, encourage a positive approach to learning a foreign language and also encourage the development of good social and communication skills. Let's make learning German fun!
