Tiny Sputniks

Day 12: We didn't have class because we played laser tag! I actually decided last minute to go and very last minute to play. I had a weird headache (I think from hitting my head at the sauna), that didn't feel like a headache you get from a lack of caffeine. Once we got to the center I decided I'd play, and I'm so glad I did because I had a blast! Also, my team won all three games (all of them, minus me, are pictured below.

Day 13: | Quidditch: Our Quidditch class was really fun. I began the lesson by going over Quidditch: rules, players, equipment. They watched a short YouTube video about the game (even though most of them had seen the movie). Then, we played Steal the Snitch, which is just my Harry Potter name for Steal the Bacon, for House points. I split the groups into two teams based on House points. The highest and lowest scoring groups were on one team and the two middle groups were on another. They really enjoyed the game, but my partner teacher and I had to keep changing the rules because they'd try to cheat or they weren't playing how they were supposed to be playing. Overall, though, it was a fun game for them to play!

Day 14: | Potions and Final Ceremony: This was our last class of the camp, and I couldn't believe it was already over. For this class I created a potions workbook and we discussed how to make recipes and then they created a potion as a group for final House points. The House in this class with the most points was the winner! In both classes Ravenclaw won, but it was so fun to see how close the scores were right up until the end.

The camp officially finished with the closing ceremonies. The students performed talents and skits for family and members of the community. In between the performances awards were given to students and staff. All the native English speakers also received additional gifts, which was completely unnecessary, but always welcome. I started to cry giving my last speech because it started to hit me that I would be leaving in a few days. My friend, Elizabeth, was nice enough to take the pictures below for me because my phone will randomly shut off and won't turn back on until the battery dies. Of course that happened right before the ceremony when I purposely charged my phone so I could take photos. That's life though.

I was really surprised about the feedback I got for my Harry Potter sessions. I didn't know what to expect since my director always told us to do something with American culture. I, honestly, don't like teaching American culture because they already get so much of it in movies and music. I think the students really enjoyed it, and I was shocked at how many great things my director said about it as well! Hard work really does pay off!

This is part two of a three-part post on this year's summer camp. If you missed part one you can read it here!

Day 8 | Care of Magical Creatures: For this class we started the lesson talking about dragons, learning related vocabulary, and learning a little bit about their history. Next, we had a dragon egg toss. They partnered up with someone from their team and were each given a dragon egg (balloon filled with water). We went outside and they tossed it back and forth. If their balloon dropped and broke they were out. The last team standing was the winner, and the winners won 100 points for their House. We went back inside and I taught them how to make dragon head origami. We finished the class by decorating our dragons and watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.

Group 1 and Group 2 winners! They won 100 points for their houses. The great thing about this camp was that it required luck and skill to get house points so everyone had an equal opportunity to win.

Day 9: No classes because we went bowling! I also saw a lot of cats on my way to work...

Day 10: | Herbology: This is around the time where my schedule gets a little messed up because one group is a day behind, so I will still present it as if everything happened on the same day. I taught them vocabulary related to plants, we played a few review games, then we played a big Mario PowerPoint game for House points. I guess I didn't take any pictures this day. Oops!

Day 11: | Astronomy and Divination: This was probably my favorite class of the camp! For the divination class we started by talking about what divination is, and then we did different activities that predicted their future. The first one was looking into a crystal ball (on the PowerPoint) and talking about what they might see in their own future. The second activity was palm reading. They each got a partner and the PowerPoint had different hand lines and what they meant. Afterwards, we discussed what their palm lines said and whether they thought it was true for them and their partner or not.

For the third activity they read Tarot Cards. I had different Harry Potter characters on a card. With their partner they would choose 3 cards at random and they learned their wizard score based on the chart on the PowerPoint. I awarded the person in the class with the highest score House points.

Our fourth and last activity was reading tea leaves. This didn't work exactly how I wanted, but I wasn't too bothered by it because the previous activities were great! I gave each person a cup with tea leaves and put the tea leaf reading chart on the PowerPoint. They were supposed to look in their partners cup and try to tell them what image they saw and what it meant. A lot of students asked me to help them, so I just made up some kind of design I saw even if it wasn't close. We finished the class with a short Astronomy lesson where we talked about different vocabulary words and then talked about astrological signs.