winter camp

                         

It's that time of year again, the temperature is below zero, the wind is blowing, and my ondol bill is out of control...which means...it's winter in Korea. Winter is a special time for Public School teachers. We get to share in the special joy of Christmas in Korea -

We also get to host a winter camp! Hoorah! A winter camp! Oh what fun! Some people hate camp time, and some people love camp time...well...love it or hate it...there's no avoiding it....so today I am going to put up some camp ideas I've had and link off to where you might find useful ppts and stuff to help make planning your camp a little easier.

Now, many of you may have already had a summer camp, and you're probably asking how a winter camp is different. The short answer is that they are exactly the same. The long answer is that with any camp you should take a look at using the season, and incorporating it in your camp. In summer we had the World Cup, in winter we have Christmas, New Years Eve, snow, ice, and a whole heap of other stuff that you can theme into your lessons. You can also use the same sort of themes you used in summer (teamwork, vacations, the world etc) in winter camp.

I like to section my camp out so that each day has a different theme. Now...my camp structure is simple. Two weeks of classes, two groups per week, ten 40 minute classes per group. So I have to plan two 40 minute classes for each day, and I can use the same lessons two times (once with Group A and again with Group B). Before you start planning, you need to know how your school is gonna set up your camp, then you need to work out how many lessons you have to plan. You also need to find out if your school has any specific rules about camp...at my school, I'm not allowed to show movies, at other schools teachers aren't allowed to bring food into the classroom and so on. Once you know these details, you can start to plan the nuts and bolts of the actual camp.

I always start by trawling around my computer and various other places (mediafire and waygook.org mostly (links to follow) to try to find some inspiration (this has been made a little more difficult since that idiot deleted gepikteachers7 on mediafire...which is where all of the camp files were! Once I've found a few decent files, I'll work out some themes, and then try to think of some games/ppts/activities relating to those themes.

So...here's a sample winter camp plan.

Grade 3 and 4 Camp.

Day One

Session One

Introduction. Camp Rules. Name Tags.

Session Two.

Divide into teams. Team names. Team Flags

Day Two – Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Session One.

Discussion of New Year, and New Years Resolutions. Students make their own New Years Resolution and write it down to give to their parents.

Session Two.

Games! New Years Bomb game, and Christmas Present game.

Day Three – Who Am I? Who Are You?

Session One.

Friends PPT. Followed by questionnaire for friend.

Session Two.

Introductions. Students must introduce their friend.

Homework….students must gather information and materials to make a poster about King Sejong.

Day Four – Korean History Day.

Session One.

Discuss the life of King Sejong. What do students know? Discuss findings, and show PPT of King Sejong.

Session Two.

Have students make their King Sejong poster. Assist students. Play ‘Sejong Says’.

Day Five – Farewell.

Session One.

I Love The World Program. Show song. Hand out lyrics. Show song and sing-along. Go through ppt. Discuss elements of song. Have children draw (solo) four things they love about the world…and label them.

Session Two.

Farewell Games.

Now...this is the plan that I handed in last year for winter camp. There is one crucial detail here...I didn't follow that plan at all. I handed it in...and then ignored it. I'm not even sure why I did that...but I know from looking at the plan, that it's nothing like what I ended up doing. Key elements are. Here's another plan...that's much closer to what I actually did for camp (the point here is that I often make a quick plan to give to my teacher to keep her happy...and then slowly plan a better camp than the plan I gave to her. Why? Because your camp is your chance to cement your reputation at the school. The students remember your camps...if your camp is good...you win their little hearts and minds...if your camp is terrible...well...you can guess.)

Day One- Introductions.

• Introduction - Welcome to camp!
• Camp Rules!!! (something similar to my Advanced Class Rules)
• Discuss how to introduce yourself. What can you say? What do you ask?
• Introduce myself.
• PPT - Interview a Classmate.
• Ask questions about everyone's friends...elicit responses.
• Create name tags.
• Learn Beatles song, "Hello".
• Review and preview.

Day Two - Making Teams

• Camp Rules and introduction to the day.
• Bombman game.
• Flags and Yakko's World.
• PPT - Guess The Country
• Discuss the importance of team names and identity...name teams.
• Create Team Flags.
• Simple points games to create rivalry - Class Rock Scissors Paper, Simon Says, Hangman.

Day Three - Food.

• Camp Rules and Introduction.
• Today we will learn about food...ask about their favorite foods.
• Read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and discuss.
• Food Quiz
• Food Bomb Game.
• Make peanut butter sandwiches....have the students write down the steps required to make a peanut butter sandwich...then review and re-write until it makes sense. Follow the recipe and make peanut butter sandwiches together.

Day Four - Super Hero Day.

• Camp Rules and Introduction to the day.
• TPR Simon Says.
• Superheroes and villains. Talk about heroes and villians...who do the students know? What are their attributes? What are their weaknesses?
• Make a comic book. One student draws and their partner writes words. The first frame, student a writes dialogue, and b draws what happens, the second frame student b draws first and then a writes the dialogue.
• Teams make either a superhero or super villain...design and draw and write notes about his/her super powers/weaknesses. Then...we make them fight! rolling two six sided dice per team, and starting with 50 points we roll...the losing roll loses the difference between the two rolls in points (for example if I roll a ten and you roll a twelve, then I lose two points).
• Watch - "The Snowman"

Day Five - Bye Bye

• Camp Rules and introduction to the day.
• Finish watching "The Snowman"
• True/false quiz re the snowman.
• New Years Resolutions Snowfight - Discuss New Years Resolutions. What do they mean? Why do we make them? Have each student write their resolution on a piece of paper...but make sure that they know that they must keep it a secret!! Then...scrunch the paper into balls and have a 'snowfight'. Continue for a few minutes...then everyone collects one piece of paper. Sit in a circle, read the resolution out...and try to guess who wrote it. Whoever guesses the most correctly....wins!!
• My Crazy Invention.

Now...there's plenty in there...with your own ideas...you should have a winter camp up and running in no time.

The mediafire login is gepikteachers1@yahoo.com and the password is kimchi.

For other camp related files, check waygook.org's selection here.

Good luck...happy camping...and feel free to ask questions about the ppts or links...or to post your own suggestions and ideas.

Cheers,

Burndog.