Why Are ESL Summer Camps Necessary For Young Learners?

22nd April 2022

Summer Camps are primarily meant to bring students outside of the sometimes boring classroom setting and let them take part in the learning process and enjoy it through outdoor activities.

ESL Summer Camps provide kids with the opportunity to learn and make use of different activities to learn and review new words and develop a good English vocabulary.

These camps usually focus on three important aspects to encourage ESL learning which includes learning, innovation, and adventure. It is indeed a great way to enjoy your summer and work on your English at the same time.Those pursuing Online TEFL Course in Singapore are better adept at conducting the right activities in these ESL summer camps.

Access to Outdoor Learning Opportunities

Generally the outdoor activities that the young learners cannot engage in or do not have access to, are included in the summer camps.

Summer Camp is a great way for students to meet other learners of their age and at the same time learn and review vocabulary by combining fun outdoor summer activities with ESL learning.

This kind of interactive outdoor experiences has a deep impact on the learners’ young minds, encouraging their imagination as they develop their English language abilities.

Hence, these ESL summer camps let the students have great fun outside of the classroom setting, at the same time providing them with the opportunity to enrich their vocabulary.

There are numerous fun activities that bring excitement and enjoyment to ESL learning. Given below are 3 common English summer camp activities for vocabulary development.

3 English Vocabulary Summer Camp Activities:

Colorful Bracelet making

There is an art theme day in the camp where the students are given the task to create bracelets, necklaces, and rings from colored beads.

You can use this interesting activity to introduce/analyze different color to students. To continue with the activity, group your students and start by separating each color of beads into separate containers for each of the groups.

Give an elastic string to each student. Hold up a color, say the color, and let the students repeat it after you. By repeating this, the class can create a bracelet together. You name a color and each student holds up the color, repeats the name, and then places it on the string. Continue with this activity until the class has created a unified bracelet.

You can also allow the students take turns to name a color to add to the bracelet. After completing this exercise, you can let the students create their items freely. After they are done with their items such as a necklace, bracelet, or ring, they can show those to the group and describe the colors that they’ve used to create their item.

Verb Race

As can be understood from its name, this activity lets students know and review verbs or action vocabulary.

Before beginning with the activity, as the teacher, you are required to go through a list of verbs and then explain the actions. Pair up the students and let them mimic the action after you.

In a pair, one student must be the racer and the other is the director. The director has a list comprising of five to ten verbs that is directed towards the racer to complete. For instance: 1. Run, 2. Stop, 3. Hop 3 times, 4. Jump 4 times…and so on.

Therefore, the director needs to read the list one at a time for their partner (the racer) to complete the action.

After the racer is able to complete the action correctly, the director is allowed to move on to the next action and continue henceforth until they complete all actions and the racer reaches the finish line.

After completing the first round, the pair then must switch roles to start the activity all over again. The team to that completes the actions correctly in both the round wins.

1, 2, 3 shine

This is considered to be one of the best games to assess numbers, especially with a large number of students.

Here, the students are separated into two groups with the same number of students on each group and are made to stand opposite each other.

In both groups, each student will be given the same number starting from number 1

For instance: if there are 50 students, students from each group will receive the same numberonce.

Then the activity begins. As the teacher, place an item in the center between the two teams. Call a random number between 1 and 50, and the students with that number is supposed to race to the item to be the first to touch it.

The team member who touches earns a point for his/her team.

Continue with the activity until you have called all the numbers at least twice. The one which earns the most points wins.

The Importance of Interactive Outdoor Learning

Teachers and administrators/organizers may find it challenging to create an interactive ESL Summer Camp experience for the young learners, but it is indeed an opportunity to create a positive, innovative, outdoor learning experience for the learners.

With different kinds of activities, the summer camp encourages the students to use different English vocabulary in a setting invoking imagination, thereby enabling them to have long-lasting learning.

The main aspect of ESL learning includes Vocabulary Games and activities. These activitieshave been designed to amuse students and capture their attention to create an interest in learning at the same time persuading them to use the English language creatively and confidently. Online TEFL Course in Singapore is something that’s worth considering.

The various types of vocabulary games and activities used in ESL summer camps continue to create a fun learning experience for the young learners that don’t feel like normal classroom learning.