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| Team building activities were incorporated into the first week as well. |
June 25th marked the first day of camp! Ten campers from the Puerto Plata barrios joined us for a week of fun and learning. We started off the week by introducing English vocabulary for parts of the body, feelings, and family members. Each morning when campers arrived we sat together in Morning Meeting to greet each other and review the day's activities. Throughout the morning kids worked in small groups to practice vocabulary at three stations; art, songs and active games.
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| Milena with her "I feel" drawing and sentence. |
In art, Counselor Katie, led campers in drawing pictures of themselves and labeling the parts of their bodies; head, arms, hand, feet, etc. Later in the week kids played charades with "feeling" words in English: like happy, sad, tired, and hungry. They had a marvelous time acting out the different words and guessing what each other was "feeling." Campers then wrote sentences using the vocabulary. For example, "I feel cold when it rains."
Throughout the week, campers and Counselor Sandra learned and sang many songs to help them remember the new vocabulary. To review the parts of the body kids learned "Head, shoulders, knees and toes." They sang, "If you're happy and you know it..." and "I have a happy feeling down in my heart" to practice "feeling" words. Finally students took part in writing their own chant by describing their family: "I have a mother and a father and a brother and un gato."
Campers learned new games that helped them remember all of the vocabulary we were teaching them! A favorite was a race to tape the names of the body parts, in the correct place, onto a partner faster than the other pairs. Kids enjoyed the Olde English "Hokey Cokey," thanks to our British mate, Counselor Kate! Campers also played a variety of games, like bowling, to practice numbers and letters of the alphabet.
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| Instead of "duck, duck, goose", we played "up, up, down". |
Each day campers met together for story time. Three stories were introduced this week. The first was "Three Billy Goats Gruff." We discussed the meaning of the words "big," "middle," and "small." Students compared objects that would fit into each category. We also read the story "Swishy Tail" about a fish who gets lost in the sea. On each page of the story Swishy Tail says, "I feel so lonely" and "I want to go home." We talked about the meaning of "I feel" and "I want". These phrases tied in perfectly with the vocabulary for feelings. The final book we read this week was called "Dinosaur." This was another book with a lot of repeating vocabulary. We have reread all three books, and many of the campers can recite by memory the words that repeat in the story.
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| Story time! |
To end each day we gathered together in Closing Circle. Each student shared at least one new word they learned throughout the day and the meaning of that word. Campers also sang a song or played an activity they had learned that day.
On Friday campers were given a mini-exam to test what vocabulary they learned that week as a way for counselors to gauge the effectiveness of the activities that week. They were tested on body parts, family members, numbers, "I feel" and "I want". The average score was 88%. The second week of camp is focusing on vocabulary for around the house and in the community. :)
We still have two hopeful campers, Medlen and Juliana, who are not yet sponsored. These two are anxious to go to camp if anyone can sponsor them! Sponsors received updates about their camper's first week of camp with pictures and quiz scores. Thank you to those of you who are sponsoring campers!
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