Starting School Without Words

For many families, starting school is an exciting moment — and for children who do not yet speak or understand German, it can be a particularly unsettling one. The school entry workbook addresses this directly: it manages almost without words. Instead of reading texts or understanding sentences, children work with pictures, empty frames, and elements they can cut out.

Who is the workbook for?

The school entry workbook is aimed particularly at multilingual children who speak little German at the start of their school career. But it works for all children — because pictures need no translation. The workbook invites children to imagine, to create, and to settle in — without language becoming a barrier.

What's inside?

• Empty picture frames: Children draw themselves, their family, their home — in their own way, without a template.
• Cut-out sheets: Pre-formed elements that children can cut out and stick in — activities that require no language skills at all.
• Image-based tasks: Matching, connecting, colouring in — everything visual, everything without any reading requirement.

Why almost without words?

Language excludes — pictures include. A workbook that does without words also says: you belong here, even if you do not yet speak German. That is not a minor pedagogical detail. It is a statement of values.

At the same time, the workbook is practical for teachers and school leaders: it needs no preparation, no explanation, no translation. Simply hand it out — and the children begin.