Weekend English Camp

Last weekend we had an English camp on Saturday for primary students. We had students from our school as well as 2 others in the area. Because there was a variety of schools, some students spoke better English than others, nonetheless it was still fun. I volunteered to help with the kindergartners. I was put in charge of songs. Those of you that have seen me in action, you know I can rile up a group of kids with some songs! Well... it sort of happened that way. The camp was from 9-1:30 on Saturday and I had 4 groups of kindergartners for 30 minutes each. Not only did I have to teach them a song, but they were going to perform it for their parents at the end of the day. Lots of pressure. And, these aren't your average kindergartners. In Thailand there are 3 levels: K-1, K-2, and K-3. They start in K-1 at the age of 3! Yes, it's true. So I had 3-5 year olds. It was a bit hectic. There were several kids who wet their pants, some who cried, some who just ran around the room and didn't pay attention, but there were also some who loved the songs and sang along. Even if they didn't know English they could mumble the tune and follow the motions.
We sang the itsy bitsy spider, a fun song about wiggling like a bug, and my all time favorite, the hippopotamus song. If you have yet to see it, you're in luck, because I have it on video :)

Hip-Hip-Hip-popotamus from Elizabeth Dawson on Vimeo.

I also got to know a fabulous 4th grader from another school named Pong. His English was wonderful and he taught me some Thai words. He wanted to play tag pretty much the whole time, which was fun for the first 5 minutes, but after that, in the heat and flip-flops, it was not the most fun game. But he was a great kid!

Me and Mr. Allan, a volunteer from Canada who was instrumental in putting together the program for the day (and many other things as well!). (Yes I do have antenna's on my head... it was a bug theme)


Me and Pong with the awesome star bracelet he made