Touring Germany: Week 2

I admit it. I ‘cheated’ a bit this week. I found a fun way to teach the kids about Germany this week, all under the guise of a game.

Highlights Magazine offers spy adventure kits that include a puzzle, a guidebook to the country, suspect cards, a case file, and a puzzle book. I picked up one called “The Bummer in Berlin” (completely unused) at a book sale the week we started our study of Germany. When I pulled it out and told the girls we were going to solve a mystery in Germany…well, let’s just say they were excited!! So when I say I cheated ~ we just followed along, learning discreetly about Germany through reading/searching for clues, and I had very little work to do!

Each day we completed several pages in the puzzle book to find clues, eliminate villains and tried to discover where the stolen item might be hiding. We used our guidebook (basically a book about Germany) to learn things about Germany and answer questions to find clues. We also used website links to get a little better look at some of the things we were talking about.

{I included a link to the Highlights kits here ~ it’s set up similar to a book club. First one is free and you pay for the rest of the kits as you receive them. You can view a sample here. I am in no way affiliated with them – just wanted to pass the info along in case you were interested}.

Monday

• Put our puzzle of Germany together
• Learned about the Brandenburg gate ~ a 200 year old monument in Berlin {several of the suspects were trying to mingle in the tourist crowd}
• Took a ‘walk’ through the Tiergarten, the largest park in Berlin.
• Talked about the wall between East/West Berlin
• Learned about the cuckoo clocks and the famous Black Forest

Tuesday

• Traveled to Stuttgart and visited the Mercedes Benz factory
• Learned about the autobahn and lederhosen
• Learned about the importance of the Rhine River
• Looked at pictures of a palace Frederick the Great built – Sanssouci {means without worries}

Wednesday

• Traveled down the Rhine River and learned more about some of the other rivers in Germany (put together a crossword puzzle with all of their names)
• Looked at some of the different castles along the Rhine River
• Listened to the German numbers and also German phrases
• Talked about the war and Adolf Hitler

Thursday

• Toured the Beethoven museum online
• Learned about the Frisian islands off Germany’s North coast (which I never realized were there….)
• Solved our mystery ~ figured out what was stolen, where the thief hid it, and who did it!

Websites & Links we used:

• CityPanoramas – 360 view of the Brandenburg Gate
• Mercedes – tour the Mercedes-Benz museum
• 100% German Places – picture tour of Sanssouci, a palace built by Frederick the Great
• Lorely Info – links to castles along the Rhine River
• Time 4 Kids – audio clips of German phrases
• Speedyconkiwi on YouTube – has lots of video clips with examples of how to count to 10, months of the year, days of the week, etc…
• Beethoven-Haus Museum – virtual tour of the museum