English camp

I mentioned last post I was asked to do two weeks of activity days for the top class in each grade level. Matthayom 3, 4, and 5 (American equivalent would be 9th, 10th, and 11th grade) each got two days, and Matthayom 1 and 2 (American equivalent would be 7th and 8th grade) each got one day.

I decided to design the activities so they were pretty much do-able for any level, and that way I could re-use the activities for most of the days since I didn't have a ton of preparation time. I themed each day around music. Conversation practice revolved around favorite types of music, songs, and bands. Each class learned the lyrics to "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction, and the three older classes got to choose another song to learn on the second day. We played a guessing game with music genres, and I had one activity where I hid clues around the room. The students were divided into teams, and one person on the team would stay at the table and write while everyone else would go around the room finding the clues and then come back to tell them to the team writer. Once everyone had all the clues, they filled in a chart based on the clues. It was great to get them up and moving around, although I did have one student who, clearly bored during one of the activities before the find-the-clues game, found one near his desk, wadded it up into a tiny ball, and threw it across the room. Sometimes teen and pre-teen behavior is the same no matter what country you're in.

Each of the groups in all the classes formed their own bands for one activity (so they had to decide what they'd call their band, what kind of music they would play, who would play what instrument, and so on). On the second day for the older classes, I had the students pick out rhymes from the lyrics they'd learned, and then try to use rhymes to write a few lines of their own. Some of the classes went all out and put their lyrics to the tune of a song they already knew and sang it when the time came to share with the class. One of the groups even arranged guitar accompaniment. It was very impressive!

The activity days were a lot of fun, although it was a little exhausting to teach for the whole day. Having a microphone spared me any strain on my voice, which sometimes does funny things if I'm trying to make myself heard for a long period of time. It was nice to be in a room that allowed for a lot of different activities. I also liked that the students didn't have any homework from other classes to try to sneakily work on while I was teaching!

And now, I'm on holiday for two months! Lots of travel to come!