SMSTSP ENGLISH IN CAMP ACTIVITIES 2013

A.   ICE BREAKERS

These are the sort of ‘get to know you’ games that can be as simple as finding out each others name, school, age, interests etc to fun games like matching pairs or describing people or objects.  Typical activities are:

1.     SEPARATE INTO DIFFERENT GROUPS

Instruct the entire camp to arrange themselves into different categories such as:

All from the same province

All from the same housing estate / road (for a school of local children)

All who were born in the same month

All who have the same number of siblings

All who like the same sport, colour, pets, pop stars, films, songs etc

2.     FINDING INFORMATION

This can be as simple as pasting some information on the backs of the children and each must go around asking each other one question about the information they cannot see with the objective of guessing what is written on their back.  The information could be the name of a famous person, or an animal, a colour or anything.  This can be varied by having pairs of words (or opposites) and the object is to find not only your own information, but also a partner whose information completes the pair.

For more advanced students this can be extended to finding out more detailed information on a worksheet.  A small number of questions should be used, and can be selected from the following:

Is there someone in the class who..?

has a birthday this month	is taller than you are	has a pet
has never missed a day of school	was born in the same month as you	has a tooth missing
wears glasses	does not like durian	can whistle
has been camping	is the only child in the family	has been outside of Malaysia
ride a bicycle	can swim	walks to school every day
is left handed	has more than 3 brothers and sisters	has seen the same movie at least 3 times
rides a bike to school	likes to eat western food more than Malaysian	lives in an apartment

3.     PAIR WORK INTERVIEWS

Students can be divided into pairs and asked to find out more specific information about each other.  This can be in the form of a worksheet which can find out facts or opinions.  An example of opinions is ‘Tell me about the best / worst:

movie	food	show on TV
gift you have received	thing about school	song
place I have been to	sport	toy
thing about being a girl	thing about being a boy	thing about Saturday

4.     SINGING

Students work in group to create group song

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B.   PHYSICAL EXERCISE:

1. AEROBICS AND STRETCHING EXERCISES,

-        where the instructions are given in English.

Language needed is mainly

bend	cross	face	hold	jog	jump	lie
lift	move	place	pull	push	reach	run
sit	stand	stretch	swing	touch	turn	walk

Pair Activities:

Tug of War –  face each other, cross legs and join hands then pull each  other over.

Gladiator – face each other, cross legs and hands at the back and push each others shoulders.

Scorpion – stand back to back with legs spread forwards and backwards.  Hold each others hands at the back and pull the opponent forward.

Anchor leg – stand back to back with one leg entwined round the opponents leg.  Try and pull each other.

2. GROUP ACTIVITIES:

Circle – hold hands and face in one direction and then tell them to face the other direction without letting go of hands

Spaghetti – small groups of 8 to 10 who stand in a circle and entwine their hands together so as to make a complicated knot.  The task is to undo the knot without letting go of each others hands.

 

 

 

 

C.    MEMORY RELAY  

Have the groups line up in teams and have one facilitator for each team.  The facilitators have a piece of paper that they can either show (or for more advanced students read) and the first person runs to the facilitator and has to remember the words and then run back to the second person in the team and tell them the words.  The second person then runs back to the facilitator and repeats the words.  If they are correct, they are sent back and the third person in the team runs forward and receives a new set of words and continues the game until all the list has been completed.

If the second person gets the words wrong or simply forgets some of the list, then they will be shown the list again and then take the words to the third person.  The team cannot progress to the next set of words until one person gets the words right.

This type of activity is ideal for cross curricular vocabulary and can be as easy or as difficult as you want to make it for instance a primary one list can be:

1	red	blue	green
2	arm	leg	head
3	up	down	across etc

For secondary pupils this can be:

1	Venus	Mars	Pluto	Saturn	Uranus
2	Preposition	Verb	Participle	Adjective	Adverb
3	Tibia	Fibia	Ulna	Radius	Femur

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D.  ARTISTIC CREATION

This type of activity is best done on longer camps when there is sufficient time and resources to allow the students to make a good quality product.  This particular activity is also best used when the camp has a specific theme, such as Pollution, Integration, Crime etc.

Designing your own poster

Topics:

Do not litter	Beautiful Malaysia	No Aedes, No Dengue
Anti Drugs	English Camp is fun	Teacher’s Day Celebration
Green and Clean is beautiful	National Day Celebration	Vision 2020
Don’t start smoking	Safety in School	Safety at home

Design your own uniform / logo / banner etc for your group

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E.    NEWSPAPER ACTIVITIES

Lots of different activities can be carried out with newspapers such as creating a collage of information or creating their own newspaper.

Examples are:

1.     SCAVENGER HUNT

Using a Newspaper, find the following items and cut and paste them on to a piece of paper:

A city outside Malaysia

A local singer

A headline story that is good news

A telephone number

A job

Something that you can see in a classroom

A picture of a Malaysian leader

An athlete in action

Something you can ride in (picture or word)

Your favourite TV show.

Jobs

Turn to the Appointments page in the newspaper

Cut and paste the names of 5 different jobs as advertised

Next to each, write what a person does in the job.  Eg. Chef – cooking

Write what job you would like to do when you grow up.

2.     PAPER CHASE

Find the following items in the newspaper.  It could be a word, phrase, a headline, picture, advertisement, a cartoon etc and it can be anywhere in the newspaper.  When you have found the item, cut it out and paste it on a big sheet of paper.

A city outside Malaysia	A local singer	A headline that is bad news
A foreign actor	A team sports result	A place you like to visit
A picture of a happy person	An expert in something	Conflict in a foreign country
An article about the police	A job in construction	A comic strip with an animal
A number written as a word	A word with 4 N’s	A health issue
A word with 12 letters	A country in Africa	A musical instrument
	Something that :
moves	uses electricity	is hot
you can smell	is sticky	is sweet
is slippery	is soft	is smooth
is round	you can find in a the jungle	you can see in school
tastes good	that you can read	is made of wood

3.     PEOPLE PLACES AND THINGS

Take three sheets of paper.  Label one PEOPLE, another PLACES and the third THINGS

Look through the newspaper.

Cut out 5 pictures that show different kinds of people.  Paste them on your PEOPLE paper

Cut out 5 pictures that show places.  Paste these pictures on your PLACES paper.

Cut out 5 pictures about THINGS.  Paste these pictures on your THINGS paper

F.    CULTURAL NIGHT

-       SKETCHES/ TV COMMERCIAL / GROUP PRESENTATIONS

This can be in the form of short dramas or sketches which the group should be given time to work out.  This could be used, for instance in conjunction with the poster activity where they could be asked to produce a 30 second TV commercial to accompany their poster campaign, or it could be a short drama illustrating the theme of the camp

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G.   TREASURE HUNT

Station:  Around the school compound

When organizing treasure hunts where the groups have to move around the camp location to find the clues or objects it is advisable to direct different groups to different clues first so as to avoid a mad rush of participants to the same clue.  If there is a standard worksheet which is to be used for all the participants this should not be given out at the commencement of the activity.  The worksheets should be distributed around each clue area and group one should be directed to the first clue to pick up their worksheets, then group two should first go to the second clue spot, group three the third etc.  The groups should then continue the treasure hunt from this point forward.

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1. TREASURE HUNTS

This type of activity can be divided into two main types, indoors and outdoors.  It can consist of physical objects that have to be collected, or information that has to be found out.  Depending upon the English ability of the participants the treasure hunt can be made more challenging by introducing clues rather than the actual names of objects. For example:

This activity can be conducted either indoors or outdoors. Find the following articles and when you have collected them all, bring them to the teacher.  This is a race – the team that brings ALL the articles the fastest will get the most points
Description	Article
A piece of round decorative metal
A time machine
Something  to protect the left foot
Something made of glass or plastic to make things look clearer
Something with wood and carbon (known also as lead)
A writing object that can make things blue
Some papers with words on them
A piece of round metal used to buy things
A piece of string used to secure footwear
A piece of cloth used to protect the feet
A sharp object used to join cloth together
An object used to measure short distances
A book that tells you the meaning of words
A container for writing implements

2. TREASURE HUNT

Task : 

Pupils are given a list of items and questions that they have to find and answer.  Pupils will have to search for the items around the school compound.  They are given 45 minutes to complete the task.  The group that manages to answer the questions correctly and find the most objects required will be the winner.

1.	How many coconut trees are there in the school compound?
3.	What is the colour of Pn. Yang’s car and who is she?
4.	What is the colour of the headmaster’s car and what is the cars plate number?
5.	Find 4 different types of leaves around the school and name the plants.  Leaves must be shown to the teacher in charge at the end of the game.
6.	Find 4 hoops which are yellow, red, blue and green in colour.
7.	Find the teacher who is in charge of “Music Room”.  Ask for her name and signature.  (Clue: she teaches in 1 Tabah.)
8.	Find a piece of paper with Pn. Rohani’ s name written on it.
9.	Name a plant that can be found in “Home stay compound ” that can be used as a traditional medicine. (Clue: It’s good for people with high blood pressure)
10.	Name the type of fish in the “Taman Sumber Sains” pond

                                   

3.  A TREASURE HUNT TO FIND INFORMATION SUCH AS

What are the words written on the Park bench located next to the statue?

How many windows are there on the south side of the main building?

What was the name of the Head Teacher in 1935?

What is the date of the school opening?

These types of questions will obviously be made locally and once again can vary in difficulty depending upon the level of the participants.

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H.  PROBLEM SOLVING ACTIVITES

This can be in the form of giving groups different scenarios and asking them what they would do in such situations, or can be puzzles or logic problems that the group has to solve together

1.     HYPOTHETICAL SITUATIONS

Groups can also be asked to come up with solutions to hypothetical situations such as:

What would you do if:

You discovered a fire in the school

You were approached by a stranger to go with them in their car.

You saw your friend stealing candy from a shop

You were being bullied by older and bigger boys at school

2.     INVENTORS

Students discuss an invention that would be useful to them.

They will draw/create/ invent/ present the invention – describing what it is for and giving instructions on how to use it.

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I.      ONGOING ACTIVITY - JOURNAL WRITING/ PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

This is not so much a part of the group competition but participants can be given an opportunity to make a journal or write down things they have learned or experienced at the camp

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