Germany Unit for Fourth Grade
Germany is one of the countries that we choose to learn more about this year in our homeschool. Each month we looked more closely at some of the food, cultures, films, traditions, geography and more for different countries and cultures.
In an ideal world we would hop on a plane and immerse ourselves in all things German, but that wasn’t possible at the time so we did the next best thing. We read and tasted and watched and listened to whatever we could to learn more about the culture and traditions of Germany.
Below is how we explored Germany in our homeschool. If you’re working with younger kids, you may want to also read this post of more general Germany Unit Ideas.
affiliate links are included below.
Geography, Flag, Language and other Basic Facts
We began by finding Germany on the map and globe.
These cute printable books from 123Homeschool4Me were a nice introduction. They include another little map and some basic facts about Germany. They are simple enough for Kindergarten, but my Fourth Graders enjoyed reading through them and coloring them in while I read aloud to them.
We also used these printable cards from The Wise Owl Factory to learn a few basic words in German that we tried to integrate into our days.
Architecture, Castles and Minecraft
Then we looked at photos in books and online of different architecture in Germany. This is one of the parts I most wished we could do in person, but this post on Mama Smiles from their adventures let us live through their travels.
I anticipated (correctly for once!) that my kids would love that the Neuschwanstein Castle near Munich was the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s castle.
My son adores Minecraft so we have been incorporating it where we can into our learning. This Minecraft Lab book has a lab about building castles. My kids built sugar cube castles, used oil pastels and watercolors to paint castles, and then they built a castle in Minecraft together.
Grimm Fairy Tales
The German Brothers Grimm, while not the authors of fairy tales, gathered a huge collection of fairy tales. Many of them are the ones that we know and love. My kids love stories of all kinds so I knew they’d enjoy diving into some of the fairy tales the Grimm brothers collected.
We focused on Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin and Hansel and Gretel.
Snow White
- Crafty Moms Share has some different versions of Snow White on her blog. Here is one.
- Snow White Pony Bead Craft from Artsy Momma
Rumpelstiltskin
- Here’s one version of Rumpelstiltskin also from Crafty Moms Share.
Hansel and Gretel
We chose to dive in deeper into Hansel and Gretel. First we read several version:
Hansel and Gretel
by Holly Hobbie
Find Online
Hansel and Gretel
by Rachel Isadora
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Hansel and Gretel
by Bethan Woollvin
Find Online
Then we worked together to write a script. The kids retold the story which helped me check for comprehension and we formed it into a simple script. Then they practiced, made costumes, and performed the play for their grandparents.
German Food
My kids have been very interested in learning how to cook lately so we cooked some German Oktoberfest type food. They cooked different kinds of sausages, soft pretzels, and sauerkraut for dinner one night and made German Ham Sandwiches (something I grew up eating) another day.
