Planning of the day
When I plan a city camp I usually prepare a framework of what we are going to work on: the topic, the games, the songs and the final show we are going to perform.
This is how I get prepared but it is only once I've started working with the children that I decide what precisely we do. I like to exploit their creativity. Every time a boy or a girl proposes to change the rules of a game, I try to orient their ideas to improve the game.
This way the children feel important because they understand that their ideas are important.
When I first meet children I ask them to sit in a circle and I tell them which is the topic I have decided to deal with during the time we spend together.
Before starting the activities I prepare a poster with some clocks drawn on it, but I don’t draw the hands of the clock because I decide with them how long the activities should last. While we plan the day I draw the arms of the clocks.
- Warm up activity & welcome song
- ARTS & CRAFT
- Break
- ACTIVITY
- LUNCH TIME
- ACTIVITY
- BREAK
- ACTIVITY
- Bye bye song
When I ask the children to introduce themselves I also ask what their hobbies are so that I can find opportunities when working with the groups or during the break to ask them do something that he/she can do and the others can't and let her/him feel appreciated in the group.
Methodology: games, songs, storytelling and drama
I usually use Total Physical Approach method that is to say, I usually give orders and the children have to react according to what I ask them to do. During this activity it is not asked to utter any words, they just have to move to make me understand that they have learned what I have been teaching before.
Through this method shy or distracted children can learn by imitating their friends.
I also use Suggestopoedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suggestopedia : it’s a method invented by Lozanov, a Bulgarian neuropsychiatric doctor who discovered that, if we put some non speaking English people in a comfortable room with a relaxing music and in this context we read them stories for 10 minutes for 10 days, after that period people will understand English without studying it on grammar books or any kind of books.