What is Aladin?

 

Aladin is a collection of educational resources designed for educators and parents who wish to teach heritage languages to children.

Through playful and creative activities, Aladin helps children learn the language while also gaining knowledge of—and appreciation for—their culture and origins.

Aladin offers tools and inspiration to make language learning a fun, engaging, and meaningful experience, promoting both linguistic skills and cultural identity.

 

The Aladin Apporach

 

Aladin is not only a collection of resources but also a method of collaborative practice and knowledge sharing among educators and learners of heritage languages. Based on a shared exploration of existing teaching practices—our own and those discovered in exhibitions, libraries, and non-formal educational spaces—we designed and tested new, language-specific teaching methods.
These methods integrate tools and ideas exchanged and developed collaboratively in Berlin, Marseille, and Paris. The approach is rooted in cross-cultural learning, drawing from our collective experiences.

Who Are We?

 

The Aladin collection was created by four organizations based in Paris, Berlin, and Marseille. Each is engaged in supporting migrants, refugees, and families in exile through initiatives that promote inclusion and cultural connection.

We believe that valuing one’s heritage language and culture is essential for personal empowerment and successful inclusion. By recognizing and celebrating cultural roots, individuals—especially children—can build confidence and foster respect for diversity. Aladin reflects this vision by offering tools that nurture both language learning and cultural pride.

COTA ONG

COTA ONG is an association focusing on education through art, ecological and participatory design, community and capacity building for migrants, refugees, artists and craftspeople.

CRN

CRN conducts research, designs and organises courses and trainings in non-formal education for young people, adults and in the field of vocational education and training.

Koopkultur

The Koopkultur team and the organisation’s partners are experts in various fields, including participatory practices, cultural education, socio-cultural work, language education and multilingualism.

Sindiane

Sindiane is an innovative legal, psychological and community health self-support and empowerment project. 

The Sindiane project is running in the framework of the the programs of JUST developping actions that lead to social transformation and greater social justice.

What Does the Aladin Online Handbook Contain?

On the Aladin website, you’ll find a variety of activity descriptions developed and tested in both international and local workshops with Arabic, Hungarian, Romanian, Polish, and Ukrainian-speaking communities in France and Germany.All resources are free and suitable for learners of all ages—from early childhood to adulthood.

The activities integrate elements from different art forms—mainly visual arts, but also performing arts and music—in two key ways:

Cultural Exploration: Activities focus on visual and musical elements from Arabic, Hungarian, Romanian, and Polish cultures, supporting access to cultural heritage and reinforcing a sense of identity.

Creative Learning Methods: Activities involve crafting, hands-on making, and physical expression, turning language learning into a creative, engaging, and empowering experience.

This approach promotes a positive, collective, and intergenerational learning experience—supporting language acquisition and strengthening community connections across generations.

 

The Intruder and the Four Seasons

The Intruder and the four seasons is an interactive educational activity designed to enhance language skills through the exploration of the four seasons. Utilizing the “L’Intrus” card game format, this activity incorporates visual arts and seasonal themes to foster vocabulary development, sentence construction, and creative expression.

Mapping Poland’s Legends

This educational and fun game helps children to consolidate their knowledge of Poland’s geography and
the country’s cultural heritage of legends.

La balade des connaissances (à Damas)

Cette activité propose une promenade interactive dans la vieille ville de Damas, guidée par 8 lettres à découvrir. À chaque étape, des jeux permettent aux enfants d’améliorer leur écriture arabe tout en explorant l’histoire et le patrimoine de la ville. Le parcours aborde aussi des thèmes importants comme la paix et la diversité. Une expérience ludique et éducative, pensée pour les enfants en situation d’exil.

Animating Letters – Learn to Write with Stop Motion!

A playful way to explore the alphabet, build words, and practice writing through animation. Create fun, patterned letters, then bring them to life using stop motion!

Création de compositions de lettres

Explorer la beauté des formes des lettres arabes en composant des groupes de deux ou trois lettres pour créer des motifs graphiques originaux, en sortant du cadre traditionnel de la calligraphie.

Créer une horloge pour apprendre les chiffres en arabe

Explorer la beauté des formes des lettres arabes en composant des groupes de deux ou trois lettres pour créer des motifs graphiques originaux, en sortant du cadre traditionnel de la calligraphie.

الثُّلُث – Thuluth: Geometric Scrabble with Arabic Word Roots

Thuluth is a mosaic-inspired board game that builds Arabic vocabulary and highlights the language’s structural beauty. Named after the three-letter root system and a classical calligraphic style, the game blends art, logic, and language. Players form roots on a triangular board, earning points and developing their skills through play. Suitable for all levels, from beginners to native speakers.

Kufic Script Inspired Mosaic

Through this workshop, participants simultaneously engage their language skills (recognition, writing, pronunciation) and their artistic sense, while immersing themselves in the geometric and historical heritage of Kufic script.

The Intruder and the Four Seasons

The Intruder and the four seasons is an interactive educational activity designed to enhance language skills through the exploration of the four seasons. Utilizing the “L’Intrus” card game format, this activity incorporates visual arts and seasonal themes to foster vocabulary development, sentence construction, and creative expression.

Art and Fashion – The Wawel Heads

Museum visits are an excellent way to combine heritage language teaching and art. But what if no interesting museums are nearby? Here, virtual museums are a good alternative. In this workshop we aim to show how freely available online resources published by museums can be used for a wide variety of art-based learning activities.

Reading Yoga

Reading Yoga is an engaging, movement-based storytelling activity that uses a children’s book to support language development. It is designed to bring together multilingual families in a playful and culturally resonant setting.

Sensorial Writing

This activity encourages preschool children to use familiar language, learn new words, and engage in playful, creative writing exercises using sensory materials, with or without the involvement of their parents. It transforms vocabulary learning into a hands-on, memorable experience that sparks imagination and curiosity.

Word Search with Transparent Sheet

This playful reading activity helps children explore a story by finding, highlighting, and creatively rewriting key words. Through colors and shapes, they build simple or advanced sentences, making language learning fun and interactive.

Fold, Snip, Paste! – The Art of Polish Paper Cuts

Paper cuts are a long-standing tradition of Polish peasant culture. The best-known, from Kurpie and Łowicz, were cut with sheep shears. They range from simple to intricate designs, from single-colour cuts to collages and illustrated stories and have been used to decorate walls and windows. This makes them a perfect means to combine a creative activity with heritage language learning.

True and False Friends – a Memory Game

With this game, learners not only improve their vocabulary, avoiding lexical pitfalls while also benefitting from existing knowledge of the majority language. They also playfully gain a better understanding of the historical and cultural ties that link their heritage language to the majority language.

Proverbidioms

This activity helps participants understand idioms by turning them into creative drawings. While having fun, they learn the meaning behind unusual expressions, explore how language works, and practice using their imagination.

Exploring Word Fields Through Calligrams

In this method, calligrams (or picture poems) serve as an inspiration for exploring word fields centred on common terms, such as the name of animals. Learners are asked to fill a silhouette with words and phrases related to the image, thereby enriching their vocabulary in the heritage language.

The Intruder – Card Game

The Intruder is a versatile and interactive multilingual card game designed to enhance language learning across multiple levels (A1-C2) while fostering creativity, imagination, and cultural awareness. Perfect for classrooms or family gatherings, this game offers both online and printed versions, allowing players to explore language in a fun, dynamic way.

Stop Dance with Pictures

This method integrates movement, music, and language learning through a dynamic game where children dance, freeze on picture cards, and respond to prompts. By identifying features, naming objects, and rhyming, they develop cognitive skills, creativity, and multicultural awareness while staying physically active.

Word search game in a story passage

A fun and educational game that helps children improve reading comprehension and word recognition! Players read a short passage and search for specific words, underlining them with a colored pen. Younger children can form sentences orally, while advanced learners can write sentences using the words they find. Perfect for enhancing vocabulary and literacy skills!

Discover Background Research – For Further Understanding

To deepen your understanding of heritage language education in France and Germany—whether as a parent or educator—you are invited to read our background study.
This study includes:

  • A historical overview of heritage language education in both countries
  • Case studies of current opportunities and policies
  • A synthesis of interviews with educators and learners about their motivations, methods, and challenges
    Inspiring examples of how art is used in language education, which can help you design your own creative learning experiences

How to Use Aladin Activity Descriptions

 

In the Activities section of the website, you’ll find 24 creative workshop ideas that support both language development and cultural exploration.

Descriptions are in English, with downloadable versions in German, French, Arabic, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, and Ukrainian.
Available languages are listed on the activity overview page, and you can download each version using the buttons to the right of each activity description.

Adaptation for Different Languages

 

The described activities were tested in the heritage languages taught by the Aladin project partners. Therefore, cultural references, vocabulary examples, and linked resources correspond to those languages.

However, most activities can be adapted to other languages, age groups, and proficiency levels.
 To help with adaptation, each activity includes:

  • Recommendations for adjusting the content
  • Tips for practical setup
  • Notes on possible challenges and useful resources

These are based on shared reflections and experiences of the project partners.

Parents, Families, and Community Involvement in Language Learning

 

In the case of heritage languages, learners are often motivated more by personal than professional reasons.
That’s why it is essential to involve parents, grandparents, and community members in the learning process—especially for children. The aim is to create natural, joyful, and meaningful opportunities to use the language, reinforcing a sense of belonging and pride in one’s cultural heritage.
Aladin activities are designed as creative language games that can also be practiced without a professional educator. Specific recommendations for parents are included in each activity description to support and encourage home-based language learning.