Finally, this is our first blog about a German story book! You may not know that my degree is with the university of Lille in English &German; however I have unfortunately not taught German on a regular basis since 2003; I do like to share German stories on special visits though!
Language of text : German
Author or source : Helme Heine
Intended age of students : Key Stage 2/3
Source reference : 9783407770066
You can buy it here at Little Linguist.
When you read the story to the children, they can point to the ear and nose whenever you mention them. If you have a hare toy, you may want to try to give it a red nose and a blue ear to help you out ! If you have toys for the other animals in the story (duck, fish, bird, fox and rabbit) children can join in by passing them around when they come up in the story.
Rationale :
This is a lovely short story which can be used just for the pleasure of reading/listening to German sounds and rhymes. The illustrations are clear and pretty making it easy for the children to understand what is going on. It is also a positive story about accepting yourself for who you are and also about how the things which you may think are bad can turn out to be good for you.
Outcomes :
You can use the story to introduce or reinforce adjectival agreements as well as body parts and/or colours. You may also want to focus on the rhyming sounds and phonics. I think the children could also write their own versions of the story with a different animal and different body parts and colours, though they may not manage to make it all rhyme.
Topics or themes :
Animals ; colours ; body parts ; accepting yourself
Grammar :
Adjectival agreement, past tense
How much time required: 10 minutes to an hour
I do not own many authentic German picture books so if you have a recommendation please do share it with me! Danke sehr!
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