Whew! It was the first day of camp with the kids, and what a fun and tiring day it was! The theme this week is “Under the Water”, so anything to do with the ocean and sea-life.
The morning started off rather quiet while we waited for all the children to arrive. I had put out some books and coloring sheets to keep them occupied, which I’m so glad I did because otherwise there would have been nothing for them to do during this time! Around 9AM it was time to start the program, so we took the kids down to a park-like area by the river to do our morning circle – where everyone shared their name, something they like, and how they feel on a scale of 1 to 10. 
After that we stretched together and ate snacks, during which time we tried to encourage the kids to chat in English with us about what they were eating.
We then walked back to the school and split into two groups – one with the younger kids, and another with the older kids. We spent time picking a team name and coming up with some rules for us to follow during the camp week. I was one of the leaders of the younger group, and we thought of some sea animals then voted on our favorite – finally deciding on the name “Team Dolphin”. Tim was one of the leaders of the older group, who called themselves “Team We” – they even came up with a logo and a slogan! Also, we gave everyone their “Camp Passport” to fill out with their name and other information about them, and they created their name tags.Since we had the markers out it was also an appropriate time for us to start the first project we had prepared for the day: magnet fishing! The first step was to have the kids color some paper fish, which we then cut out and attached a paperclip to each fish. Before the second half of the activity it was time for lunch, which required us to walk to a nearby restaurant. The food was provided by AKS, and they were able to make sure Tim and I received vegetarian options. In fact, we were pleasantly surprised to find that all the other teachers are also vegetarian, so we weren’t the only ones! It was a very delicious two-course meal – cabbage, carrot, and potato soup with a side of bread, and rice with steamed zucchini, cauliflower, and bell pepper.
After lunch we meditated for a few minutes before having one group do the second half of the fishing activity, while the other group learned about what kinds of animals live on land versus kinds that live in the water. The kids seemed to really enjoy trying to pick up the fish out of a basket that was also made of metal, which made it even more challenging to attach the magnet to an actual fish.They naturally wanted to compete with the other team, so we counted (in English) the total number of fish each team was able to catch. Both teams came out pretty much even, but the younger team ended up catching one more fish than the older team. Tim’s co-teacher felt this was unfair because the younger team had one more member than the older team so they all insisted Tim take a turn as well, but we both secretly agreed his fish didn’t count.
The afternoon activity was a little stressful for me because my original activity didn’t work out. I was going to do an experiment involving water, food coloring, and dish soap, but the type of food coloring we had was more gel than liquid, so it didn’t have the proper effect in the water.
Instead I quickly put together an alternative activity where we put several different objects and materials into water to see which ones would sink and which ones would float. This worked out really well because we were able to teach the children several new vocabulary words, as well as a little science!
The rest of the afternoon consisted of practicing a simple dialogue, such as “Hi, my name is ____. What’s yours?”, “I am feeling ____. How are you?” and playing musical chairs along to music with lyrics in English. Before the kids left, we had another circle time where we asked them what their favorite activity was. Tim and I were so pleased to hear a few of them say the fishing game or the science experiment was their favorite, since we put a lot of effort into preparing those activities and it was gratifying to know that they enjoyed them!
All-in-all it was a really long, exciting, fulfilling, and enlightening day.Lots of love from Lithuania!
Checkout all of our photos in our European Adventure 2018 album:
Awesome! I love all that you guys did! This just seems to me that you guys are in the right place at the right time. You both look so involved and interested (not surprisingly). I love that you meditated that the other teachers were also vegetarian. Where are some of the other teachers from?
ReplyDeleteLots of love to you both!
Thanks! Yeah, we were both super into it, and all the other teachers were very active too!
DeleteAll the other teachers and volunteers are from Lithuania, so we are the only ones at this camp from another country. There are other people from other countries, but they are working at different camp locations.
Love to you both!