naturalmom
02-18-2009, 08:11 AM
For my children, speaking German is the most challenging. It's easy to do "passive" things, like watching movies, readalouds, having them read... Whenever I would announce "This mealtime we're just speaking German", I got WAY too many "Das schmeck!" or "Wie geht's?" So here's what I just started last week, and so far it's worked really well.
I used a Sachbilderbuch and a Themenlexikon that are only up to 2. Klasse (elementary age books about various topics - nature, animals, history...) I made up cards for all the topics, along with the books and pages they can be found in. Every day my 3 children have to each draw a card, read that topic, and give a talk on it the next morning. I put their initial on the card when they've done it, and it goes to the back of the pile. We may cycle through everything more than once, so each child covers each topic. (Books are expensive. We have to get all we can out of each resource!)
I like it because it gives them a topic - after all, it IS difficult to think of something to say if you're just told, "Talk!" Also, it provides them with any vocabulary they need in order to give their talk. (It is hard to remember "bud" or "larvae" in the second language).
For the talk, they can't just read out what is in the book. They can make notes if they want, but it can't be a direct copy. So far we've heard talks about the life cycle of ladybugs, changes in a tree through the year, what various animals eat, what (German) schools were like years ago, rain & fog, and lots of other different things.
This is in addition to the required German reading time we have that is supposed to be every day but is really about 3 times a week.
I used a Sachbilderbuch and a Themenlexikon that are only up to 2. Klasse (elementary age books about various topics - nature, animals, history...) I made up cards for all the topics, along with the books and pages they can be found in. Every day my 3 children have to each draw a card, read that topic, and give a talk on it the next morning. I put their initial on the card when they've done it, and it goes to the back of the pile. We may cycle through everything more than once, so each child covers each topic. (Books are expensive. We have to get all we can out of each resource!)
I like it because it gives them a topic - after all, it IS difficult to think of something to say if you're just told, "Talk!" Also, it provides them with any vocabulary they need in order to give their talk. (It is hard to remember "bud" or "larvae" in the second language).
For the talk, they can't just read out what is in the book. They can make notes if they want, but it can't be a direct copy. So far we've heard talks about the life cycle of ladybugs, changes in a tree through the year, what various animals eat, what (German) schools were like years ago, rain & fog, and lots of other different things.
This is in addition to the required German reading time we have that is supposed to be every day but is really about 3 times a week.