English Fun Camp for HS Freshman with almost no English. Help!

[Taiwan_Student]

I'm assigned to do two days of "English Fun camp" for HS students.

I have to 1. Be fun! 2. Low enough to encourage students to like English and the foreigner standing there, but high enough to not poor the one or two students in the front row.

Some things I think I will do...

1 KK Concentration
2. Descriptive Drawing Give the kids an out line of a fish, describe the different parts of the fish. Ask the students to color it. (Though HS students probably wont have markers.

Describe people have the students draw them.. again lack of markers may be a problem.

3. Rhymes and simple riddles.. need suggestions...
I'm basically used to teacher upper level bushi ban students..

[tomthorne]

What is "KK Concentration"?

Anyway, I'm thinking watching Mr. Bean. Mr. Bean is great because it involves virtually no English language and makes westerners look stupid. This way none of the students lose face. EFL teachers the world over rely on Mr. Bean. Don't worry, I won't charge for this advice.

[Taiwan_Student]

What is "KK Concentration"?

Anyway, I'm thinking watching Mr. Bean. Mr. Bean is great because it involves virtually no English language and makes westerners look stupid. This way none of the students lose face. EFL teachers the world over rely on Mr. Bean. Don't worry, I won't charge for this advice.

This is one fine pickle....
I do teach a higher level "reading" at that school. My contact in that school is a significant other... so I can' t totally loose face either..

Hate when people say.. OK.. just play fun English games when you don't have much English to play with...

OK..
KK concentration... Kids simple concentration game.. Have cards on the board that represent the KK symbols and their English equivalents.
The cards are numbered. Have the kids call out the correct match between the symbol and the English letter(s). Match the cards stay turned over. Not a match, turn the card back over. Perhaps have some cutie picture on the back, as a reward

Wheel of Fortune or should I say "Die of fortune". That's popular among my more advanced students. Especially using sentences to so the kids can use the SVO rule and word size/ and letter frequency to predict the possible letter. "_ _ _ _ _ / _ _ /_ / _ _ _ _ . "

I can use Shrek 1 DVD that has a program on it that allows you to replace the voices of the characters with your own.. It works and syncs rather well... But the amount of feeling in the voice of these kids, or lack of it can be frightening.. But then again. I can have fun with my own voice.. They are like Willy Wanka (Gene Wilder) yelling "Stop, stop don't go near the chocolate river" His yell was but a whisper with no feeling.

Show Mr. Bean.. do they really like it? I then need to follow it up with some kind of activity. Which Bean scene or movie do you recommend.

Scavenger Hunt.. I've got to check that out the campus and design some clues.

[BigJohn]

I suggest doing things that relate to HS kids pre-existing interests:

1) basketball
2) baseball
3) rap music
4) street dancing

You could translate a dozen or so basketball terms and have them play a game. In addition to regularly scored points, they get extra points for correct use of English in the game. For example: "Hey Dave! Pass!" or "Foul!" or "Nice shot!"

You could get a few rap song in English that weren't obscene and teach them to them, then have a rap competition. Or groups could do a dance combo to a popular rap song.

You can also get them to design their own flag of Taiwan with symbols like Yushan, surfing beaches, etc. The winners get a prize.

Remember: the more you keep them competing against each other (with activities they relate to) the less they will feel inclined to give you a hard time.

[Taiwan_Student]

I suggest doing things that relate to HS kids pre-existing interests:

1) basketball
2) baseball
3) rap music
4) street dancing

You could translate a dozen or so basketball terms and have them play a game. In addition to regularly scored points, they get extra points for correct use of English in the game. For example: "Hey Dave! Pass!" or "Foul!" or "Nice shot!"

You could get a few rap song in English that weren't obscene and teach them to them, then have a rap competition. Or groups could do a dance combo to a popular rap song.

You can also get them to design their own flag of Taiwan with symbols like Yushan, surfing beaches, etc. The winners get a prize.

Remember: the more you keep them competing against each other (with activities they relate to) the less they will feel inclined to give you a hard time.

Wow.. Great Ideas Big John... this is why I hate living in the country. No one to hang out with.. no one to observe or share ideas with....

Help me out with an appropriate rap song. I don't listen general listen to that kind of music... (I've got a music service.. so. I can get almost anything.. ) The songs my regular students like to share with me don't get too far before the F- word comes up.. and I have to pull the plug..

The flag idea is great! These kids have some artistic talent!

More ideas please.. The big thing is class size. We're talking almost forty students here.

[zender]

You've got two days to fill?

Teach them how to play "Paper, Scissors, Stone" in English.
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Two days later:
Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa!

Teacher: OK! It looks like that's all we have time for. It's been great having you as students! Bye! (Teacher exits room)

Paper, Scissor, Stone! WaaHaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa! Paper, Scissor, Stone! HaHaHa!

[jimipresley]

Are they going to be sitting at desks or do you have space to get them on the floor in a circle?

[zender]

Doesn't matter! Paper, Scissors, Stone will work at desks or on the floor.

In fact, you could decide which is better by playing Paper, Scissors, Stone.

[Taiwan_Student]

Sorry, brief note... Mostly Girls. Setting Language Lab/Multimedia room. They are High School kids.. Paper Scissors, Stone.. a bit below.

It will be too hot to go out.. I've got the important phonics and grammar covered the first day.. need some cool things like funny tongue twisters, or stories to read.. or better games than PSS.

EDIT.... I have use of Power Point, a huge white board and a projection screen. ...

I'm looking for some easy to program Jeopardy/concentration (matching templates). Unfortuntaly all I have here at home is Chinese office for Windows. So, I will be bumbling through creating any PPT Presentation.

[zender]

So you want something a little more advanced than PPS.

I suggest EPA. That should be good for a few hours.

It's a little more involved than PPS, but every bit as fun.

I suggest you have elimination rounds and crown an EPA champion at the end.

Make sure they're clear on the strategy before you let them start the competition.

If you have EPA teams, you could have team championships as well as individual champs.

Have fun with it. If you give a good demonstatration and ham it up a bit, they'll get into it, too.

Enjoy!