Lesson Plans for 20-25 8-year-olds with less than two weeks for the basics...?

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sevaman99

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May 21, 2014
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I am taking on (with an assistant) up to 25 8-year-olds for 1-2 weeks at a time at a Summer camp in E Europe, so there is limited opportunity for 'teaching time'. I've adapted short session Lesson Plans to include only the following:
Alphabet
Numbers
Vocabulary
Pronouns & Proper Nouns
Useful Expressions
Basic conversations, i.e., "What is your name?" "My name is..." "How are you?" "I am fine.", etc.
Any suggestions? I know this sounds ambitious, but I am used to the situation and have had to adapt accordingly, but
any sensible and useful suggestions would be appreciated.
Seva
 

Teaching English Games

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Jul 23, 2006
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English Teacher
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English
Home Country
England
Current Location
France
Hello there Seva,

I think that learning the alphabet is a bit dry for a summer camp but that's only my personal opinion. It depends if you have to focus much on writing at the camp. If not then I might scrap that theme and do something more lively.

It's good that you have an assistant because you can do some work all together and also split the group of 25 into two groups of 12 (and a half!)

I've done summer camps and I use exclusively games to teach that way it doesn't seem so much like work. Also songs and plays and skits. The kids dress up to learn clothing, they wear blindfolds and guide each other around an obstacle course to learn directions, and they do silly role-plays to practise easy dialogues in the form of skits.

There's lots of movement and action, even outdoor running games that require some language to be said before running off with the egg and spoon (for example).
You can do apple bobbing and have the students watching chant a rhyme in English, the children trying to get the apples have to bite them before the chant comes to an end.

So there's a great deal of language learning that can go on that does not seem like 'teaching time' as you put it.

Check out my plays and skits and also games book that could be a big help to you if you need ideas along the lines of what I've written above.

As for the themes that you suggest, why not? I think that many kids will have done numbers and My name is at school, often they never get past that. It might be more fun to introduce something new to them that they are not constantly being bashed with in school ! (Animals, at the doctor, restaurant role-play).

Tip: If you find it boring, then they definitely will!

Shelley Ann Vernon
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com
Check the ESL plays page on the site for three free skits you could use at the camp.
 
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