This week at camp went great! Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to many of our volunteers from the first week, but we gained two girls from the U.S. who jumped right in and helped to maintain the same level of structure and fun for the campers.
More students signed up this week so we are up to a total of about 15 campers all together. They are very enthusiastic about learning and, this week, we are beginning to see some concrete progress. Almost every child can name all the colors and can count to ten easily. We continue to practice the skills taught from week to week while adding on new vocabulary.
This week our focus was on clothing and parts of the body. The campers learned one of their favorite songs so far:
Head, shoulders, knees and toes!
It's great to see them using the song as a reference when asked to name body parts while in different contexts. They all practiced some reading this week and are becoming more and more familiar with letter sounds in English. During the morning meetings we asked the children to name what they are wearing and they all seemed to enjoy this (especially when they announced their clothing while clapping their hands in a rhythm).
We ended the week with what was probably the campers favorite activity, a water balloon fight! The kids practiced all of their vocabulary while playing games with the water balloons. The structured game crumbled, however when the campers (and counselors) decided it was way too hot not to just get wet :)
Next week, we hope to work on prepositions and pronouns. It's exciting to see the quick progress of the students; it's time to challenge them now with full sentences!
The first week of camp was incredibly successful. All of the volunteers worked together in order to establish a routine that would be easy for the campers to follow, but also to allow for some flexibility as the camp grows.
We were very lucky to have two elementary school teachers from the United States who were able to help with setting up a 'morning meeting' as well as an efficient way to run the groups throughout the day. During the morning meetings we practiced introductions, and by the end of the week, all the campers were able to say "Hello, my name is _____" giving a high-five or shaking hands with fellow campers and counselors. We also spent some time focusing on days of the week, as well as how to say the date.
Our overall focus of the week, however was on colors and fruits. The children were separated into different groups based on their ages. The groups were given fruit names, so it seemed only appropriate that they be able to understand what the different fruits mean! The children also practiced colors while learning about the different fruits and were able to answer questions about the color of clothing and objects by the end of the week.
One of the children's favorite activities is singing. We practiced the song:
I like bananas, coconuts and grapes
I like bananas coconuts and grapes
I like bananas cocounts and grapes,
That's why they call me
TARZAN OF THE APES
Of course all the campers screamed the last part on the top of their lungs, pounding their chests just like Tarzan :)
The children played many games, such as duck, duck, goose; but using mango, mango, banana etc.
Overall, the children seemed to learn a lot, while having fun. We expect that we will have more campers in coming weeks and are excited to continue growing!
