Autumn Memory Game: Why are memory games useful in language lessons?

Only recently I have created a new Memory Game for our young German learners.

Click here for a pdf version.

New Words:

• das Laub – the foliage. Example sentence: “Das Laub liegt auf dem Boden.”
• der Igel – the hedgehog. Example sentence: “Der Igel versteckt sich im Laub.”
• der Baum -the tree. Example sentence: “Der Baum ist groß.”
• die Pilze- the mushrooms. Example question: “Magst du Pilze?”
• der Drachen -the kite. Example question: Hast du einen bunten Drachen?”
• das Eichhörnchen – the squirrel. Example sentence: “Das Eichhörnchen sitzt auf dem Baum.”
• der Regenschirm -the umbrella. Example sentence: “Oh nein, es regnet! Ich brauche einen Regenschirm.”

When I was a child, I used to be a big fan of memory games and I still love using them in my language lessons. Obviously memory games provide a healthy exercise for our brains! After about 2 minutes, my German learners tend to become very competitive. Everybody wants to win the game!

Memory games also promote our visual memory and increase our general concentration. When you are teaching new vocabulary, memory games are definitely a brilliant teaching tool. You could make the game even more challenging and ask your students to create short sentences with the newly learned words. For example, if they pick two ‘Regenschirme’ (umbrellas) they have to form a sentence: “Wenn es regnet, brauche ich einen Regenschirm.” (I need an umbrella when it rains.)

In this worksheet your students have to look for autumn words.

Click here for a pdf version.

Can you find the autumn words?
der Fuchs – the fox , der Baum – the tree, die Wolken – the clouds, die Eule – the owl, der Regen – the rain, die Blätter- the leaves, kalt – cold, der Igel – the hedgehog, der Regenbogen – the rainbow, der Regenschirm – the umbrella, der Schal- the scarf, der Drachen- the kite, die Pilze – the mushrooms, das Laub- the foliage, der Apfel- the apple, der Kürbis – the pumpkin, der Wind- the wind

Autumn video

My videos have changed a lot in the last 12 months, especially from a design perspective. I created this video last year and it is extremely useful if your students still need to learn their autumn vocabulary.

• der Regen- the rain
• Es ist Herbst. Im Herbst regnet es oft. – It is autumn. In autumn it rains often.
• der Baum – the tree
• Schau! Die bunten Blätter fallen vom Baum. – Look! The colourful leaves are falling off the tree.
• Es wird früh dunkel.- It gets dark early.
• der Drachen- the kite
• Anton lässt den Drachen steigen.- Anton flies a kite.
• der Wind- the wind
• Draußen ist es windig.-It is windy outside.
• der Kürbis -the pumpkin
• Überall kann man Kürbisse kaufen. -Everywhere one can buy pumpkins.
• Bald ist Halloween!- Soon it is Halloween!