Charlie talks to his German friends online. Lena and Moritz are painting a poster to advertise a gig for their band, the Neon Monsters.
They are going to paint a portrait of their friend Jakob in the style of German expressionist painter Franz Marc.
Marc is famous for painting yellow cows and blue horses.
Jakob is worried when Lena says she is going to paint his face orange.
They name many different colours as they paint. Jakob is horrified at the result of his portrait!
This short film is from the BBC series, Virtually There: Germany.
In this series of short fun films, a British boy practices German by talking to a group of children in Berlin via a tablet. Virtually There: Germany revises basic German vocabulary in a series of real-life settings, and using memorable songs.
Teacher Notes
This could be used to introduce or revise colours in German.
You could use this short film to support the use of classroom language on a daily basis - when organising pupils into teams, name each team with a German colour, for example, 'das blaue Team'.
A good listening activity could be to read out a sequence of colours and ask pupils to build a tower using multi-link cubes in the same colour order as your sequence.
You could also call out colours and ask your pupils to run and touch that colour somewhere in the classroom.
Support pronunciation by highlighting the [y:] ü phoneme in 'Grün'.
How does the umlaut change the pronunciation of u in German?
Focus on the [y] j phoneme in 'Jakob', 'Jens'.
Support understanding of grammar by highlighting capital letters for nouns, for example, 'das Gesicht'.
Practise the structure 'Meine Lieblingsfarbe ist…'.
Find out pupils' favourite German colour by carrying out a class survey.
Teach them the names of animals in German, and get them to draw animals in unusual colours.
Use these as flashcards to practise both colours and animal nouns.
Compare the spelling of German colours to English.
Challenge your pupils to write as many colours down from memory as they can.
This film also provides curriculum links to art and the work of Franz Marc.
Curriculum Notes
This film could be used for teaching German at KS2 or at a beginner level in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and 2nd Level or beginner level in Scotland.
More from Virtually There: Germany
Making new friends in Berlin. video
Charlie’s learning German at school, and practising online with some children in Berlin. They introduce themselves and show him around some of the city’s most famous sites.
A birthday surprise in Berlin. video
Charlie’s German friends plan a birthday surprise for Lena, making her a cake with 12 candles and singing her a birthday song.
A German food adventure. video
Charlie talks to his friend who is buying a snack at a sausage stall in Berlin, and to his other German friends who are making unusual kebabs with everything they can find in the fridge.
Adventure playground in Berlin. video
Charlie’s German friend Jens says he’s bored. Lena and Annika suggest different games in German for them all to play.
A song to learn the days of the week in German. video
A lighthearted and catchy song in English and German to practise the days of the week.
Der die das song. video
A fun song that explains the three genders of nouns in German whilst revising parts of the body.
Getting directions in Berlin. video
Charlie’s German friends get lost on the way to their concert. They are given directions, and Charlie helps them get there just in time.
Shopping at the flea market. video
Charlie’s German friend Lena can’t decide what to wear for a party. She takes him to a local flea market where they haggle with a stallholder to buy a colourful wig.
A song about playing games. video
A lively song for learning German in which children sing about Karneval and playing games.
