Fun in the sun-summertime lessons outside the classroom
06.06.2011. 16:08
The holiday counter says “5 days till the end of the school year,” all the grades are given, syllabus is covered, and there are no more exercises left to do in the coursebook. The sun is shining, birds are singing, and grass is greener than ever. You might start to wonder how on earth you will bear another lesson in the classroom if it goes without saying that your students won’t be able to concentrate even for one second. Or, consider another scenario.
You work as a teacher at a summer language camp, and it is 10 a.m., your time to start the lesson. There come your students with their notebooks, pencil cases, fi les with copied exercises. They sit down reluctantly in the corners of the lounge or canteen and wait till it is over, constantly peeking at their watches. Undoubtedly, summertime has its own rules; and it seems pointless to fight them. Why not take full advantage of the situation and let your students enjoy the unique experience of having an English lesson outdoors? This article presents the ways in which we can benefi t from the sun, fun, and English combination. It shows examples of activities which you can use during holiday courses or at the very end or beginning of the school year when the weather seems too temptingly favourable to stay indoors.
Outdoor lessons open up a possibility to start fresh. Throughout the school year or during a holiday course, we might encounter problems where students fail to cooperate to a desired degree. These problems might include disruptive behaviour of any sort, general lack of motivation, unwillingness to speak English, or reluctance to take active part in the activities we have planned. Before you work out a long-term plan how to avoid similar situations, surprise your students. Go outside, re-establish rules, and offer a selection of completely diff erent activities which will engage the children fully.
Beyond any doubt, outdoor lessons can revive the spirits and motivation more than standard lessons in the classroom. First of all, such classes are always unique, so children need to be deserving of such a lesson. On sunny days, students usually come and beg to go to the schoolyard with them. Moreover, lessons outside provide the change students need. These lessons are no longer lessons of English grammar or vocabulary but a combination of English and other activities, such as art, designing or making things, outdoor sports or any other form of physical movement, discovering the world, or
trying to solve puzzles. Outdoor lessons can easily change into a real and unforgettable adventure.
However, the successful sun-fun-English combination needs to be well-planned to allow everybody, including you as a teacher, to enjoy an outdoor lesson.
THE SUN – getting organised
Being outside obviously means no desks, chairs, or comfortable cushions. It also involves direct and blazing sun, strong wind, lots of small insects, people passing by and talking, or any other disruptions.
- Find a quiet place, far from the hustle and bustle
of everyday life.
- Choose a place in the shade. It is almost impossible
to concentrate when sitting in full sun.
- If you plan to sit with your students, don’t count to find a lovely fallen tree to rest on. Bring enough blankets or mattresses. Children need some space because if it gets too crowded, they will start pushing, elbowing, and fi nally quarrelling.
- Carefully select the materials you want to use outdoors. Make sure it is not a pile of small pieces of paper which will go away with the fi rst gust of wind. Try to guarantee that they will last even if the first drops of rain appear suddenly. Think twice before you take something and before you take too much and turn it into an ordinary lesson.
THE FUN – increasing motivation
When you plan an outdoor lesson, make sure it will be special, different from the ones you spend indoors with your students. Try new activities, and incorporate movement: running, chasing, hiding. Go back to your childhood memories, and think of the activities you used to play with your friends after school. And, most important of all, come to that lesson smiling, energetic, and full of enthusiasm. Positive attitude is highly infectious!
ENGLISH – making them speak
Forget about the specific language aims; try to concentrate on getting your students to talk. First of all, establish the basic rule: No Polish. Being outside is fine as long as students try to speak English. At first, children, especially if they are not used to, will complain, give up, find it
impossible. But, be persistent, praise their attempts, and don’t correct if they try to say something. Make a box with special prizes where you can keep slips of paper with ideas such as no homework, another lesson outside, a movie lesson, etc. At the end of the lesson, if you feel your students deserve it, let them choose one slip of paper with the prize. On the other hand, indicate clearly you don’t approve of Polish. Don’t make it too serious at the beginning: frown upon every word in Polish that you hear, wag your fi nger, and look meaningfully at students who speak Polish.
If none of this works, explain that they have five warnings and then, they will have to come back to the classroom. If they really enjoy the lesson outside, they will feel responsible as the whole group and start reminding each other “no Polish, no Polish.” Remember to always act immediately and
adhere to the rule. Children will fi nally understand that this is the only way it is going to work.
SOME ENGLISH AND A LOT OF FUN
There are lots of outdoor activities and games which can be adapted to help children practise English. There is also a long list of games which have nothing to do with teaching or learning English. However, they might be used as the first small steps which students take to bridge the gap between learning and uncontrolled playing. The object of these games is not to reinforce any structure, sentence types, or vocabulary group. Their primary goal is the sheer fun combined with English. Of course, it depends on you and your students how much English you add intothe game.
- Before you start adapting any games to teach
English, use the ones your kids love and are
familiar with. How about playing dodgeball,
rope jumping, or playing games such as Uno
or Eurobusiness? Set one condition-“English
only.” If necessary, pre-teach useful phrases
your students might need during the game;
and let them have fun. Monitor and help
with the language. You will be surprised how
quickly and easily your students get involved
in playing in English.
- Smugglers and spies is a game played outside
in a closed area. Divide your students into
two groups: one will be spies and the other
smugglers. To make it clear who belongs to
which team, children can wear armbands in
two different colours. Before you start playing,
explain the rules. The team of smugglers is
given a set of small pieces of paper which
represent the goods they want to smuggle. It
also contains information how many points
each product or thing is worth, for example,
chocolate–40 points, quantity of the same
pieces of paper–8; sugar–30 points, quantity–10;
gunpowder–80 points, quantity–5; map to a
buried treasure–500 points, quantity.
- Before the game starts, each team gathers up
and discusses the strategy. Spies need to set up
their headquarters by pointing to a particular
piece of land with defi nite boundaries.
Smugglers need to hide their goods within
external layers of their clothes, for example, in
the shoes, in the pockets, under the cap.
- During the game, smugglers need to get
inside the spies’ headquarters and hand in the
goods to the scorekeeper who is waiting there.
Then, such a spy is allowed to walk freely and
continue playing. Spies, on the other hand,
must intercept the goods by catching (tagging)
a smuggler on his/her way to the headquarters.
In such a case, a spy is allowed to search the
smuggler. In this time, a smuggler must stand
still; and to measure the time of the search, s/he
can either say a poem, count to twenty, starting
with one Mississippi, two Mississippi, or say the
whole alphabet from A to Z and from Z to A. If
during the search, a spy finds some goods, s/he
hands them over to the scorekeeper.
- The game is played for a pre-arranged period
of time. When it is over, the value of goods each
team possesses at that stage is counted. Of
course, only the goods which have been handed
over to the scorekeeper are taken into account.
The winner is the team who has more goods.
The game might seem complicated but it is fun
and you need to teach a few phrases to make
it a fully English game such as stand here, hide,
count, here you are etc.
- The game might seem complicated, but it is fun;
and you need to teach a few phrases, such as
stand here, hide, count, here you are, etc., to make
it a fully English game.
- One of the most popular games played outside
is a stalking game. As there are two teams, you
need to play that game with another teacher. One
team runs away leaving signs and tasks for the
other team, which must follow them, complete
the tasks, and, at the end, find their hiding place
in a given period of time. Students should write all
the tasks in English. To make it more challenging,
instead of drawing signs, the running team might
leave directions written in English or give a map
of their route with some descriptions prepared
beforehand. Moreover, think of a way to promote
speaking English. In each team, there might be one
spy who will remember or count all the phrases and
words said in Polish and then, together with the
teacher accompanying that group, report them at
the end of game. The more-English speaking team
should be given a special prize.
- Ask your students to draw anything they like. While they are doing this, just walk around asking in English what it is. If you prefer, give topics. Kids usually enjoy drawing monsters or designing a fantasy island. When they finish, ask them to describe their pictures in English.
- Drawing can also take form of a competitive game. Divide your students into two or three groups, and assign each group some space. Make sure these places are not too close to one another. Tell each group to draw everything they can see and are able to name in English. After twenty minutes, students
present their pictures, count and name all the things they’ve drawn.
- A piece of asphalt can turn into a gigantic board game where students play with their whole body jumping from square to square as if they were counters. Start by asking children to design and draw their own board game. Then, they should invent the tasks which must be completed when players land
on particular squares. When everything is ready, have fun and try out all the games.
- -Try a variation of hopscotch by drawing a large spiral resembling a snail’s shell. The circle in the centre should be left empty and labelled “home”. The rest of the snail’s shell should be divided into around 15-20 spaces. The first player must hop on one foot and land in each space until s/he reaches
“home” base where s/ he lands on both feet, turns around, and continues hopping on one foot from “home” to start. If the child does it without stepping on any line, s/he can write his/her name or initials on any space s/he wants. The next player starts hopping but can’t stand on the space with the
initials of other players. The winner is the person whose name is written on most spaces. To add English to that game, tell students to say a different word in English on every space they land. They might, for example, fi nish the sentences such as In the forest, I can see… For breakfast, I eat … In my
free time, I …
ON THE BLANKET
Sitting in the shade and playing is a perfect alternative when your kids feel tired after running, chasing, and hiding in the forest. Actually, you may use any board or card games to keep them interested. Even the games in Polish might work if you control the language the students use. The great advantage of introducing games in such a form is that children simply get used to playing them in English. Sometimes, during the summer camp, you can hear them playing in English behind the closed door of their room.
- Who am I? is a game available in shops, but it might be funny to prepare your own version with the students. Cut out strips of cardboard, and staple them together to make a headband for each child. Use flashcards, or ask children to prepare a set of pictures. During the game, choose one child to come to the front. That child needs to wear a headband with a picture stuck with Blu-Tac or paper clips. The task of that person is to guess his/ her identity. With younger or less advanced students, help students to create hints; forexample, ask them, “Is it an animal or a person?” or “Does it live on
farm or in Africa?” Students whose English is better should say sentences such as “You are an animal”, “You live on the farm”, “You eat grass”. The person who has been the most active in giving clues in English comes to the front with his/her headband to guess his/her identity in the new round. Make sure everyone is somehow given that chance.
- Bom, bom, bom is a game which resembles ordinary charades; but by adding element of chasing, it is a perfect exercise for an outdoor lesson. Divide students into two groups. Each group should sit on a separate blanket. The fi rst team stands up, comes to the front and starts a short dialogue with the other team:
Team 1: “Here we come.”
Team 2: “Where are you from?”
Team 1: “New York.”
Team 2: “What’s your trade?”
Team 1: “Ice cream and lemonade.”
Then, the first team presents their charades (for example, they present the activity washing hands) and the other team tries to guess what it is. When the correct answer is said, team 2 tries to catch team 1 before they come back and sit down on their blanket. No Polish is allowed during the game. Every phrase or word said in Polish is one penalty point. When the team collects 10 penalty points, the other team gives them a task to do.
- I spy or Bumble Bee is a settling activity which calms children down and lets them regain energy after exhausting exercises. Sit with your students on the blankets, more or less in a circle formation. Have a quick look around, and say I spy with my little eye something beginning with “t”. With little children who don’t know how to spell, make it a phonics exercise. They need to find a word starting with a given sound. With older students, change sounds into letters. In that way, players need to think how the word is spelled. Children try to guess the object you think of by naming all the things they see Is it a tree? The person who guesses correctly picks a new item.
In a similar game, the bumble bee, one child is chosen to be the king of bees. S/he says:
Bumble bee, bumble bee
I see something you don’t see
And the colour of it is red
The rest of the children tries to guess what the king of bees is thinking about. The person who names that thing first becomes the king of bees in the next round.
FINDING GAMES
Looking for clues or finding answers or hints appeals to everyone. It is relatively easy to incorporate English into these activities by giving tasks or questions only in English and accepting the answers in the same language.
- Divide your students into groups, and give each team a list of questions about the area around your school or hotel if you are on a language camp. Clearly explain where children are allowed to run during the information chase. Make sure it is a small, safe, and closed area. A school playground would
be great. All questions should check students’ knowledge of that area, for example: How many windows are there on the northern wall of school building? What colour are the benches? How many steps are there from the school entrance to a football pitch? Children write the answers on an answer sheet and bring it back to you when they are ready. Award extra points for being the first, second, or third team to find out all the answers. Next, check the answers carefully and declare winners.
If your children are too small to work with a list of questions written in English, prepare a table with questions and names of teams: If your children are too small to work with a list of questions written in English prepare a table with questions and names of teams.
Then, give each team a diff erent question at a time and tell them to come back to you when they have an answer. Write OK, and give them a new question.
If the answer is not correct, tell them to go and check it again. Always give questions at random order so that the teams do not crowd around one place and together, work out the same answer.
Naturally, as the teams run around, it is almost impossible to control their English. You can walk around all the time trying to overhear what they say.
Award bonus points if you catch them speaking English unexpectedly.
- Treasure hunt is another classic game which can be played in many diff erent ways. The object of the game is to find the clues which will lead you to the treasure. It’s a good idea to play that game within a closed and safe area allowing children to run freely in teams. One of the simplest forms you can use with primary children is to give them a simple map of that area with places marked with a cross. There, they must look for a clue, which is a small picture with a number hidden on the tree, under a bush, etc. The picture can show, for example, a dog and number 3. It means that the first letter
of the word dog (“d”) is the third letter in the final clue which will show where the treasure is hidden. The final clue should be at least 7 letters long to be challenging enough, and it should refer to a place easily identifiable by kids. In that spot, hide something small but nice, like a box of sweets or lollipops. As with the information chase, walk around and check their English.
- Scavenger huntis a popular and brilliant game which can be played with kids, teenagers, or even adults. The basic idea of the activity is to send teams with a list of things to find or tasks to complete. To play that game, divide your students into two groups. Each group needs to go for the hunt with
another teacher. The object of the game is to find all the things on the list or perform all the tasks. The best way to check how the tasks are completed is to equip each team with a camera (a mobile phone will do as well). Then, they need to take a picture of every item from the list or of themselves
while performing the task. When the teams come back, together, they choose the winners by taking into account the performance of each task and the time in which the list was completed. There are many scavenger hunt ideas on the Internet, for example: build a house for ants or find a bird feather, a bunch of red, yellow, blue, and orange flowers, a stick that looks like “Y”, two different birds, a yellow butterfly, an animal with most legs, and so on.
MOVING AROUND
Being outdoors and sitting on the blanket for the whole “lesson” seems like wasting the opportunity. Kids need to move, especially if they are on the playground or in the forest. Design your lesson plans in such a way to add movement activities here and there.
- Blindfolded walk is an activity during which students work and walk in pairs. One child is blindfolded, and the other must direct his/her friend from point A to point B. The route should be varied, including going on or under something. You might also draw a maze on the pavement and have blindfolded
students walk guided step by step by their friends. They must not cross the lines.
- To play four corners, you need to choose a relatively small area with four corners. A football pitch is ideal, but a meadow or a part of forest will be fine; you just need to state clearly where the four “corners” are. Each corner is appointed a number, and children are divided into four groups and sent to each corner. One child, chosen to be “it,” stands in the middle. That child says, “Two, dance like happy monkeys,” and all the children in corner number two must perform that task. If they don’t, they are out. If children from any other corners do it by mistake, they are out as well. After each round, you need to redistribute the rest of children so that there is more or less an equal number of players in each corner. Proceed until there is only one child left who becomes “it” in the next round. When doing that activity, pay special attention to eliminating talks in Polish in each corner. You might note down who speaks most English (for example, commenting Do it now, watch out, our turn, listen) and choose that player to be “it” in the next round.
Planning and selecting activities for an outdoor lesson seems easy. But before you actually decide to do something, think and answer these three questions: Will my students really get involved in that activity? Will they speak English? Will I be able to control and monitor their behaviour? Only
well-selected activities with a clear purpose and good balance between fun and language make unforgettable outdoor lessons and motivate students to speak English even if they only know twenty words.
Weronika Sałandyk
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