2014 Camp Week Two!

Week two has flown by and it’s time for a quick update!

Peace Corps Volunteer Amanda here filling you in on everything that happened at camp.

The 85 individual students we had at camp this week worked really hard to learn the English words that related to their school. The stations were the same, but that definitely doesn’t mean things have gotten monotonous. With the addition of Peace Corps Volunteer Sara the students also gained a Frisbee for their outdoor games. The older students really took to playing Ultimate Frisbee and Sara found a way to bond with the students. We were sad to see her go on Friday.

We also gained an enthusiastic volunteer named Morganne. She was “Row Row Rowing her Boat” and “Bah Bah Black Sheeping” her way into the hearts of the students all week. The pupils also reviewed many of the songs from week one and really seem to like “5 Little Monkeys”.

In the reading room I split time between reviewing vocabulary, reading to the students, and having the students read to the group. I find it helpful for review to play games using the vocabulary words, so this week we played hangman. A lot of this has to do with the fact that individual letters are so important to the English language so I want the students to be able to recognize individual letters outside of whole words. My favorite part of camp is when I can find an enthusiastic reader to read aloud to his or her peers. I tend to find three a day who really want to take on the challenge of reading to the other students, so I try to make that time enjoyable. More than just a reading station, I hope we can also encourage a culture of books within the students.

This weeks art classes were a lot of fun, because we were focusing on colors. Taylor was able to use water and food coloring to demonstrate different aspects of blending colors. Joanne was able to encourage a lot of use of colors when she helped the students make rainbows using color and coffee filters. It's always nice when we can find a way for the students to express their creativity through art. 

Field day Friday came around lickity split and the teams were ready for their three legged races. Like we say, work hard and then play hard and play hard they did. Everybody tried their best, but the white team came out on top. That was ironic for the week focusing on color and white wins. Oh, science.

All in all it was a very successful week of camp. The students are eager to come and the volunteers are all eager to help them learn. We can’t wait to see what week three will bring.