Summ 'er ideas.
Many of us English teachers travel and teach at summer/winter camps. They can be draining, living there with students and seemingly on duty. On the other hand, they can be so rewarding and fun! You get to teach a lot of more immersive and active stuff. You also have a lot more time on your hands to do things (usually).
Arts and Crafts: These are perfect for camp. Go to our Arts and Craft resources for some ideas. I really love the pop up cars for kids and talking about colors and more. Other ideas might be as follows - Making and flying Kites / sculptures / paper mache / painting / vocabulary pictures and drawing / comic book or story book making (see our Pictures for teachers and comic area).
Videos: Videos are super for summer! Particularly good for camp are video series and I'd recommend both Extra English and Wallace and Grommit . Both have workbooks/materials. Shawn the Sheep is fun too! You might also try the movie BIG with Tom Hanks. These activities are excellent and this would take a full 2 week summer camp to do everything. Lots of other videos here on EFL Classroom 2.0 -- use our A/V player . Family Album U.S.A. though older, is also neat and with a workbook. See all our video based lessons.
Music: Students love music and why not start a pop song club? Also, maybe a choir or even make a Project Peace Video by downloading and using one of the Peace Packs? I'd also recommend our Karaoke (download the player and you are set. We also have lots of Last One Standing games in video but just make your own with your own student's favorite songs! Nelson, a member here, also has some great kids music videos of all sorts. One great activity with music is to have the student's change the lyrics. Use a song like "IF I had A Million Dollars" and get the students to change and then sing their own lyrics! See all our music based lessons and also our lyric sheets + resources, hundreds!
Reading: Despite our common assumptions, students DO love a good story and a good book. Use the stories on our Story page or Gif Lingua Books with students! Also, print out some books and make your own library for students. Have them make reading circles and discuss what they read or write reports and share their reports to the class. A book club is a wonderful idea. Another is to have students "gloss" the print out books. They read and in the right margin , write the meaning of hard words in their own language. Then, when another student reads the book, they have some support for their understanding of the text. Get glossing!
Games/activities: PPT Games. There are so many. I'll share some below (like Zip - Zap) but please go to this folder and get hundreds of ideas. Many lists of games. In particular, I recommend David Paul's 100 Games. Also, see our Lessons in a Can for wonderful ideas of all sorts. IF you have a computer, use the Powerpoint Games of all sorts - I highly recommend Top 5 and BAAM, two games of my own creation. Use the Top 5 worksheet with the game and play for prizes. Price is Right is also fun with whiteboards to hold up the price guessing. So many more, investigate HERE or on our GAMES page or even use our Learning Arcade.
Flashcards: Go here to our flashcard page. Watch the screencast and learn how to print, use, display our hundreds of flashcard sets for all levels. A perfect communicative way to spend hours at camp.
Computer Lab? : Use English Central! Students record their voices, copying video and get feedback. Or just spice up your instruction and make it fun with all kinds of spinners, makers, timers, vocab practice at our Teacher's Toolbox!
Interactive Whiteboard or not - our Language Lab also can't be beat!
I'll be sharing more ideas here. Drop by and help us out with ideas or tell us what you are doing!
I've been asked to teach English at a summer camp that is entirely outdoors. No computers, no video. Every prop I use, I take with me. Can you help me?