Last Day at Summer Camp
August 1, 2013 at 7:17 am | Posted in Summer in the City 2013 | Leave a commentOur last day was spent at Parque del Retiro. A shady green area kept us cool as students played many traditional American games. We started off by playing parachute games. All the students participated as a group and although the ages ranged from 7-16 they all had a great time.
The students then moved around various stations competing in Tug-of-War, Three Legged Race, sack race, bowling and hoola hoops. The students had a blast. It was a great way to round up a fabulous Summer Camp.
At the end of the day we went back to the Instituto Internacional and had a gallery presentation of all the students projects and handed out their Summer Camp certificates. Have a great summer and see you next year.
Teaching English with the “Dating Game”
July 31, 2013 at 10:04 am | Posted in Summer in the City 2013 | Leave a commentTags: Listening Skills, Teaching English
Maximizing Learning from a Snack
July 29, 2013 at 6:21 pm | Posted in Summer in the City 2013 | Leave a commentTags: Leveled Readers, Young Learners
It was our turn to make the snack for Summer camp. We had to make American sandwiches. It offered us a great opportunity to learn lots of language. We read the book “Sandwich and Soup,” a story about a boy who wished for a grown-up sandwich. The students loved the boy’s imaginary sandwich. I taught them the book’s vocabulary adding the new words to our word bank. Students guessed at the meanings of the words and we drew pictures and created sentences with the words. The students added the new words to their notebook. We did a story sequence together. Next the students made their own story sequence independently and drew their favorite part of the story.
After our break we read a leveled book called “How to make a sandwich” that was a bit above their reading level. I read it to them first. They then read it chorally and then we took turns reading a page. I then partnered students and gave them a black and white copy of the book. I tried to put a higher student with a lower student, so that they could help each other. They read it together a few times until they felt ready to come read it to me. Once they were ready I gave each their own black and white copy to color. While they were coloring I called each student individually to read with me. Even the lowest English speaker had made improvements in their ability to read the book. At the end we celebrated by sharing our coloring and reading all together from our own books.
When we finally got to make our snacks the students were calling all the sandwich items by their English names.
The following day first thing in class students read the book to their partner one more time. The next day they went around the room and read it to three different students. Next day they read it to three more. At the end of the week they again read it to me. Their pronunciation and confidence had vastly improved. They took their books home to read it to their parents.
By making the theme of our snack part of our lessons the students were able to practice the language with different modalities and improved their reading, pronunciation and comprehension.
Exploring Our Sense of Touch
July 29, 2013 at 2:42 pm | Posted in Summer in the City 2013 | Leave a commentTags: Field Trips, five senses, organizacion nacional de ciegos, organizacion nacional de ciegos españoles
Our field trip for our Five Senses Week was to the Museo Tiflologico de la ONCE (Organizacion Nacional de Ciegos Españoles). At the museum students were able to explore the different ways blind persons can see through the sense of touch. They were able to see the evolution of the tools used by blind persons. The students were impressed by all the books written in Braille.
Even more amazing were the works of art made by blind persons and persons with visual disabilities. One special treat was the miniature representations of the national and international monuments. Students went from one piece to another amazed at the fine detail of the pieces.
Learning English through the 80s
July 29, 2013 at 7:55 am | Posted in Summer in the City 2013 | Leave a commentTags: Parts of Speech
For our 80’s Week at the Summer Camp the Orange group focused on the parts of speech.
80’s Hairstyles
The students first learned about different famous figures: Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Pac-man, Papa Smurf, John DeLorean, Ronald Reagan. Then they learned about typical hairstyles from the 1980s and drew an 80s version of each other using the vocabulary they had learned. They watched music videos like Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ and Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’, then Weird Al Yankovic’s ‘Fat’ to practice looking for the different types of hairstyles.
Understanding English Through Songs
July 18, 2013 at 7:29 am | Posted in Summer in the City 2013 | Leave a commentTags: campamento, English, Young Learners
The Orange group learns some motions to the song ‘What a Wonderful World’, shared by one of its members, Andrea Blazquez Vazquez at the end of their dance session during rotations on Tuesday (July 9th).
The Orange group learned some typical dances of the 80s: MC Hammer dances (‘The Running Man’ and others), the Egyptian, and Vogue dances.
Experimenting with the Five Senses
July 18, 2013 at 7:21 am | Posted in Summer in the City 2013 | Leave a commentAll Summer in the City groups competed in the Odyssey of the Mind contest prepared by the Blue and Purple groups. The Blue and Purple groups explained to the other groups what the activity entailed and monitored the experiments. They did a great job explaining everything in English. Students moved through five centers to experiment the five senses. The students then enjoyed a snack made by the Orange group on Monday, July 8th. Congratulations to the winners, who were the members of the Red group! Way to go! It was their 2nd week in a row winning!
Learning English Through the Senses
July 18, 2013 at 7:02 am | Posted in Summer in the City 2013 | Leave a commentThe Yellow Group studied the senses exploring different senses through various experiments.
We did several experiments to test our senses, but focused on seeing and hearing in particular. After learning a bit about the anatomy of the eye we made a simple model of our eyeball. Plus, we talked about animation and how we perceive movement, after which we made a small flip book and a thaumatrope, a type of pre-book flip book, in which a string or stick threaded through two holes allows the disc to be spun, creating a simple animation out of the two-sided drawing.Exploring Our Galaxy: Red Group
July 18, 2013 at 6:43 am | Posted in Summer in the City 2013 | Leave a commentFor our Outer Space Week the Red Group won the Odyssey of the Mind contest with their alien. The students were very creative using ballons, face masks and pasta to create an Alien.
Creating Galaxies
We studied all about the earth’s galaxy. Then students had a blast creating galaxies using chalk and paper.
We also studied about the stars and constellations. Students created constellations using pins, star stickers, chalk and glitter. We had glitter all over our hands, face and hair.
To finalize our week we went to the Museo Geominero to study about rocks and fossils. Students were impressed with the large variety of rocks. They loved the various animal bones on display.
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Instituto Internacional: Inglés Americano para Jóvenes 
