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

[jimipresley]

Do a mingle activity that focuses on a grammar point or things of interest. Here's an arbitrary example:

Ask people about their summer break. Find people whose names you can write in the blocks. Ask "What can you tell me?" Only write a name once.

Suggested questions:

1. I sang at KTV.
2. I had a big fight with someone in my family.
3. I didn't eat much candy.
4. I played some mah-jong.
5. I went to the cinema to see a movie.
6. I was bored during the holiday.
7. I have been exercising a lot recently.
8. I have been looking forward to Taiwan_Student's summer camp class.
9. I met an interesting boy/girl.
10. I enjoyed hot springs.
11. I played a lot of computer games.
12. I ate Japanese food.

You make a sheet of paper with 12 blocks. Each block has one of these questions. Try to find simple pictures to put in the blocks to help illustrate the questions. They have to find someone who has done one of the things and write their name in the block. They can't be lazy. They have to ask the questions. In English. And they have to get 12 DIFFERENT names.

High school kids and freshman uni students LOVE this. It gets them out of their seats, and they get to meet each other and learn each others' English names.

First explain the activity, and then go through the questions, clarifying any terms which they may not understand. Then do a demo with one of the smart, nerdy students to show how it works.

You can stretch this out for easily an hour or more. After everybody has 12 names, start going through the class:

"Hey, John! Who told you that they played a lot of computer games?"
"Maggie."
"Maggie! Put up your hand, please!"
"Hi Maggie! What games did you play? Who did you play with? Did you play online?"
"Maggie, tell us who said they'd been exercising a lot recently?"
"Andy."
"Andy! What were you doing?"
"Basketball"
"Wow! Basketball! Where did you play? How often? Every day?"

etc.

This activity is GREAT early on to get them up and chatting. An excellent ice-breaker.

[zender]

OR
You could have an EPA tournament!

[Taiwan_Student]

OR
You could have an EPA tournament!

Skuze me.... I live in the hills along the Cahulawassee River, I'm a little out of touch.. .

What's EPA. My searches only got me the department of environmental protection. ...
Sounds fun though.. what ever it is. Please point me to some reference material. ..

Jimipresley, great idea suggestion about the mingling exercises.

[jimipresley]

Do you have a screen and projector linked to the internet? If so, I'll give you another that works great, seeing as you gave me a recommend.

[antarcticbeech]

Elf Plankton Amarillo. Way, way, WAY more involved than PSS.

[BigJohn]

Large class formula:

Do some teacher centered fun games for starters and be very friendly in front of the class. Don't put too much pressure on them to participate, beyond some friendly cajolery, and show no anger - or fear.

See who speaks up, either in a negative or positive way. Select the positive students as group leaders, and let them pick their team members one at a time. Now you have manageable groups led by positive outgoing people. Give the groups the tasks and instill friendly rivalry between them, but still praise the non-winning groups.

Make sure they get some physical exercise twice a day, in the morning (but not first thing) and the afternoon.

Groups with lots of girls will also enjoy singing pop songs.

Buy a few candies and give them out in a very open way.

Have some activities where kids talk about their families. You can spot troubled kids this way and also seem like " a friend of the family".

[zender]

EPA = Elephant (thumbkin), Person (pointer), Ant (Pinky)
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Whoever said, "Elf, Plankton, Amarillo" was WAY off!

Amarillo?

You mean Armadillo? Now THAT would be a great game!
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For those of you who have never seen a Pink Fairy Armadillo, click below. It's as weird as a Platypus!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_fairy_armadillo

[Taiwan_Student]

Do you have a screen and projector linked to the internet? If so, I'll give you another that works great, seeing as you gave me a recommend.

Yes.. indeed... We're pretty high tech for back woods. Just hope the sound card will be plugged in next time..

[Taiwan_Student]

EPA = Elephant (thumbkin), Person (pointer), Ant (Pinky)
------------------------------------------------------------------

Whoever said, "Elf, Plankton, Amarillo" was WAY off!

Amarillo?

You mean Armadillo? Now THAT would be a great game!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
For those of you who have never seen a Pink Fairy Armadillo, click below. It's as weird as a Platypus!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_fairy_armadillo

How would you win at this game.. Doctor Who (Tom Baker) actually taught me Paper, Scissors, Stone. We were too advanced for that sort of thing, what with the "Pong Game" we all played in the US. Never saw it again until I came here. We know, scissors cut paper. Paper covers stone. Stone blunts scissors.. Whats the story with Elephant, Person, Ant. "Elephant sits on Person?"

BTW, I'm having trouble finding a good template for matching games. I downloaded one whose description was promising but... It uses a file extentsion ".ink"
http://www.mimioconnect.com/content/les ... e_template
I found the player but it is a trial version. I'd like something programmable, perhaps web based or at least Office compatible.

[zender]

How would you win at this game.. Whats the story with Elephant, Person, Ant. "Elephant sits on Person?"

Yes! Elephant sits on Person; Person steps on Ant; Ant beats Elephant because...well, because otherwise people would always throw an elephant... it would be unbeatable... no one would ever throw an Ant, and that game would suck.