Introduction
The aim of this activity is to teach the children new vocabulary that relates to die Jahreszeiten, which in German means the seasons. As seasons are one of the crucial rhythms of nature, this is an important topic.
Target group and Time
The target group of this activity are 5th and 6th grade students. I think this is the ideal age group since most of the students still need to learn new words during the activity. The time is 12 minutes; however, it could also be suitable for a 30 minutes activity (if other elements are added).
Learning objectives
As indicated above, the aim is to teach students new vocabulary that relates to nature and the concept of the seasons while also enjoying a game.
Instructions to set up the activity
Students are asked to take a seat in a circle and are provided with a card that they should read for themselves and think about what the sentence could relate to. (They can ask questions if necessary.) In the next step, students can discuss their ideas in the large group. Once the topic is clear and discussed in the plenary, the student are given words/facts/actions that relate to the seasons (see PDF below) which they have to perform in front of the group. The other students need to guess what this pantomime could be.
Letting it run
There are different cards - each holds a fact about one of the four seasons - for example "people with allergies are sneezing" or "leaves are falling to the ground".
- Each students gets one card should first (by themselves) read it and think about which season the fact could relate to.
- Students are asked to to read out their sentence and take a guess. Students can mention something like weather during spring/fall/winter/summer.
- When the hint has been mentioned the group talks about what the seasons names are, their circular order - the students get cards that say "the four seasons", "winter", "spring", "autumn/fall", "summer".
- The students are asked to visualise the seasons by using the cards (e.g. create a circle or listing them in a chronological order)
- Lastly, the students should put their "fact" cards next to the corresponding seasons.
Visuals/ cards
I have cut out the images which I gave to the students to let them guess the topic.I did the same with the words from the PDF and used them as described above.
