Das Ist Deutsch! = That Is German!
In Year 4, I asked the students to have a look on their desks and identify anything that is German or made in Germany that they use on a daily basis. Without much effort they were able to identify many products by just looking in their pencil cases and finding various stationery such as pencils, highlighters, erasers , sharpeners, rulers and glue with the words MADE IN GERMANY. They were very surprised that Staedtler, Faber-Castell, Stabilo and Pritt were in fact German. Staedtler founded in 1835 by J.S. Staedtler, Faber-Castell in 1761 by Kaspar Faber and Stabilo in 1855 by G. Grossberger & H. Kurz are all long standing companies producing stationery, all from the Nuremberg area in German, as this area was rich in graphite and clay mines needed for making pencils. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwan-Stabilo“)
To discover that Pritt was produced by the German company called Henkel was an unexpected fact. Henkel was founded by Friedrich Karl Henkel in 1876 , the Pritt stick was developed and marketed in 1969 after extensive research and just celebrated its 50 years on the shelf. (https://www.prittworld.co.za/en/about-Pritt/pritt-history.html)
The year 4’s were asked to investigate further: “What kind of products or brands can I identify in my home or at the shops that are considered German or made in Germany?” and to bring the item and present it to the class.
At home they realised that they use many German products e.g. Nivea which is produced by Beiersdorf and many items from the brand Adidas, such as sport shoes and soccer balls. Adidas, a company founded in 1949 by Adolf (Adi) Dassler in Herzogenaurach, is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe.
(https://www.adidas-group.com/en/group/history/)
At the shops the products are numerous but the sweets Haribo stand out because of their availability everywhere. The company Haribo was founded in 1920 by Hans Riegel Sr. from Bonn, Germany hence HARIBO the acronym from his name and place of birth. He invented the Gummibärchen (Gummy Bear) in 1922. (https://www.haribo.com/enGB/home.html)
We will continue to discover many new things about Germany in 2020.
One of the 10 compelling reasons in the article “Why learn German?”, is that German companies are considered global market leaders and many brands and corporations are found worldwide. Exploring these brands with the students has helped them realize how important learning German can be.(https://www.fluentu.com/blog/german/why-learn-german/)
Thank you to all the parents who attended the Interactive Curriculum morning recently to learn more about the curriculum and especially to the Year 1 parents who showed great interest in the exciting journey their children are starting in the the world of new languages.
Frau Kerstin Pani
German Teacher Junior School
