Friday, August 3, 2012

What I Learned From English Summer Camp 2012

Moral of the story: Kids come to camps for the snacks. And maybe the aircon. But it's mostly the massive amount of snacks that they get. If less kids came, shit got cray with the amount of kai bai bo (rock scissors paper) games to see who got the extras.

On top of that, to get said snacks, all they had to do is play super awesome, fun games with me. I extensively planned out my week-long summer camp that consisted of two 1 hour & 20 minute classes, with the first being grades 3-4 and the second being grades 5-6. 

Ugghhh...I didn't do anything that I had planned. 

Instead, I played games that allowed the kids to use their English, both speaking and writing, including the whisper game, a writing/speaking game that focused on phonics, a photo scavenger hunt and a slapping game (originally based on the song Down By The Banks of the Hanky Panky, but using numbers, letters, etc.). Note: Some great camp games can also be found here and here. I had worksheets on worksheets (on worksheets) for the Tangled movie that I was planning on incorporating, but I learned within the first class that that was probably not going to fly. 

I started the week dreading camp, but this past week of lessons, even without a coteacher or a textbook and increasing the regular lesson time from 40 minutes to 1 hour & 20 minutes, was my favorite time at Bulguksa thus far. Some of the kids are so much smarter than they let on in regular classes and I'm incredibly thankful that I got to know them on a more personal level.

I now have less than two weeks until I take my vacation to the freaking Philippines!!

xo
...you mean you can't tell that this is me?
Courtesy of one of my favorite boys
Some of the kids with their stashes


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