“What’s it like teaching English in South Korea?”
I get this question all the time, right after, “Why’d you decide to come to Korea?” For some reason, people seem to think that being an ESL teacher in South Korea is a glamorous position. The truth is, after a while, things are pretty regular. Once the students get used to you, your days go by just as they would anywhere else.
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The second week of my Summer English Camp was spent with 15 of my 5th and 6th graders. I really enjoy my time with the older students. I can have a different kind of fun with them; they have a little more personality, most of them know a little more English, and our activities can be a little more exciting. Here are some of the activities we did this week during camp!
Musical Chairs: a great activity for the first day of camp to help students have fun and loosen up. I also let some of the students who were out choose the songs, and they really enjoyed that!
What’s your dream job? Students learned about some exciting jobs (i.e., ice cream taster, roller coaster tester, sky diving teacher, etc.), discussed their dream jobs, and made business cards.
Let’s go shopping: Students made items for their store and used key expressions to buy and sell their items. They also had fake money to spend, and they had a BLAST! Each student had $30 to use, and one student bought and sold so wisely that he had $71 at the end of the activity.
**Note: It might be a good idea to have students bring in small, inexpensive objects for them to price and sell. It would take this activity to another level!**
Travel: We learned about the continents and learned about a few countries. We also talked about where they would like to travel and what they would need. Then they made their own passports with their dream travel destinations. 
Can you come to my birthday party?: We learned about months, days, and ordinal numbers. We also learned how to invite someone to our party or event and made invitations.
Potato Sack Relay Race: The students actually really loved this! It’s the same relay race that we all grew up on! Shout out to my co-teacher for getting the sacks because I had no idea where to get them.
**Note: This game would be even more fun if it is played outside, but it was raining and the larger rooms in the school were occupied. But they still had fun!**
Egg Drop: This is the classic egg drop activity that most of us have done as children. I gave them some materials (balloons, paper, straws, tape) and an egg. Their mission was to use the materials in order to prevent their egg from breaking when dropped.
**Note: This activity would be better if the egg could be dropped from the second or third floor window. However, it was raining, and there are gardens right outside of our window, so we couldn’t do that.**
Although we did other things this week (including making cupcakes in a cup), these were just some of our activities. If you taught English summer camp, what successful activities have you done with your students? Do you have any suggestions? Let me know!
Honestly, for me, one of the best parts of teaching English Camp is Dance Day. Sure, I enjoy playing games with my students and helping them become more confident with their English speaking abilities, but there’s something so fun about the whole class getting up, dancing, and having a good time.
During the Winter English Camp, I taught the students the Cupid Shuffle, the Macarena, and the Cha Cha Slide. (Shout out to BSSK for helping me come up with some fun songs for students to dance to!) It was so fun!! When teaching the dances, I began by introducing the song and showing them the music video. This helped them to get excited to learn the dance. Then, I went over any vocabulary that they needed to know and I taught the steps. Then we’d practice the dance a few times and have a dance competition between the boys and girls. Here’s the video from last year:
Since Dance Day was such a hit last English Camp, I decided to bring it back for my 3rd and 4th graders. Since my co-teacher really liked the Cupid Shuffle, we decided to do it again! We also incorporated the Wobble, Gummy Bear, and the Sid Shuffle (from Ice Age 4) into our dance day. We also did the Hokey Pokey and the 5 Little Monkeys, but I didn’t record it. Check it out!
What kind of dances should I do for Dance Day next time? If you did English Camp, what fun songs or dances did you do?
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