fun at summer camp

Camp, week 1:

The dormitory area.  The facility is brand-spanking new and gorgeous.  (At least it was before the children arrived!)


Making ice cream.  If you do this activity, use the zip-lock bags.  The cheapy bags we used often split during the shaking session.

Materials necessary for making a snowman from a toilet paper roll.  This is the only kind of snowman you can make in hot, humid Dongguan. 


Fun with paper mache.  The first step to a great Halloween mask.


Painting posters in preparation for an evening performance.


He's got the whole world in his hands.  And the wind and rain.  And the sun and moon.  Snap those fingers and sing along. 


Spring, spring, flowers grow.  It's the best season, this we know.


Fall, fall, the leaves will blow.  It's the best season, this we know.  Little Katy did a great job of dropping the leaves.

The first Saturday outing was to a longnan orchard.  Classes were assigned trees to pick fruit from and then we built our own fire pits and cooked our own lunches.

Look what I have.


Want some?


Thank goodness I didn't need to use the facilities.


Building the fire pit.


Washing the rice.  One hopes the hands were washed first!


More food preparation.  Only one tiny cut on a finger from this exercise.


How to cook a weiner.  A novel cooking concept for these kids.


Yummy. They came back for seconds.


So glad I wasn't on the clean-up crew.

Week 2 - Holidays

Too many holidays for one week, but here they are...

Monday was Halloween.  These are the biggest pumpkins to be found in Dongguan.




Creative paper mache mask


The Aussie Team is ready for Halloween


Witch on a broom.  Yes, you can say that with a 'b' sometimes.


Witch relay race - cheering on my champion rider.


Bobbing for apples.  Our TA shows them how it's done.


Wednesday was Easter.  The four youngest classes celebrated at a local park.

Painting eggs


Little bunnies ready for the bunny hop race


Rolling the eggs down the hill


You can only use your nose


Hunting for Easter candy.  We made our own 'bunny baskets'


Christmas was Thursday.  First we had to make our own Christmas stockings.  Little hands did reasonably well with a needle and thread.




The candy/cookie houses were very disappointing to me because we had a serious communication breakdown regarding the icing.  What we were given was a poor substitute and there was very little of it for the 6 houses we wanted to make.  However, the kids did well with the materials they had.  We combined the oldest class with the youngest class and the experiment of having big hands working with little ones was a success.
Under construction


Finishing touches


Some little helpers skipped the whole house part and sent the cookies directly to the mouth.


Finished products




Santa made the long trip from the North Pole to Dongguan.  In concession to the weather, he wore sandals.


The kids learned to say, "Merry Christmas, thank you" and sometimes it came out all in a rush - Merrychristmasthankyou.  Note the lovely decorations on this student's stocking.


Santa and the TAs

Absolutely FABulous photos, Ruth. Looks like everyone had a blast!!  Congratulations on your Camp. and Thank You for sharing.

Wonderful, Ruth. Almost makes me wish I could stand to teach the larval stage.

Who said anything about teaching?  I was there to have fun and play with the kids.

Here are the three mini golf holes that were made for camp.  The bosses have promised 6 more for next year.  We suggested they might want to make them just a wee bit bigger. 




George's kids acting out "Waltzing Matilda"




Some students acting out "Where the wild things are."  Awesome face painting by their teacher and TAs.

George's kids acting out "Waltzing Matilda"

Ah, yes...

Once a jolly swagman camped by a Billabong
Under the shade of a Coolabah tree
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?"

Down come a jumbuck to drink at the water hole
Up jumped a swagman and grabbed him in glee
And he sang as he stowed him away in his tucker bag
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me'".

Up rode the Squatter a-riding his thoroughbred
Up rode the Trooper - one, two, three
"Where's that jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?",
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me".

But the swagman he up and jumped in the water hole
Drowning himself by the Coolabah tree,
And his ghost may be heard as it sings in the Billabong,
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?"

But I'm confused...wasn't this supposed to be an English  camp?


And is a hobo's food bag generally large enough to hold an entire sheep?

Of course the whole sheep fits in. Although let's hope the kids didn't take the drowning in the (paper) billabong literally. 

Week 2 - Holidays

Too many holidays for one week, but here they are...

Monday was Halloween. 

The Aussie Team is ready for Halloween

Wednesday was Easter. 

Christmas was Thursday. 

How could that not be a fun week?

Dressing the little sheep! She was all dressed, ready to go, but had to receive an award. So took the costume off, got the award and ran back to get costumed again. Guess what stupid dick put the sheepskin on inside out? Instead of being "woolly", she was covered in alphabet!!

And is a hobo's food bag generally large enough to hold an entire sheep?

She was a small sheep!

The billabong was fabric and after the swagman drowned in it, he picked it up and wore it as a ghost costume.  Fabulous directing on George's part.  The inside-out sheep costume was the biggest mistake in the entire final performance and it was worth a good laugh.  You can see in the second last picture how the little sheep DOES fit into the tucker bag.

How could that not be a fun week?

  It was a fun week, just packed too full.  If I do this again next year I'll spread the holidays out throughout the three week period.  The teachers who did crafts to go along with the holidays had trouble fitting them all in and adequately teaching each one.
 
About the English part of camp.  Couldn't get enough English teachers, so some kids learned Australian.

About the English part of camp. Couldn't get enough English teachers, so some kids learned Australian.

I feel sorry for them.   

Oh, I don't know. Those kids seem to enjoy it and learning Australian will enable them to understand many things and works that remain a mystery to other people. I always did wonder what language was needed to decipher Lewis Carroll and now I know.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Obviously, the venerable British Oxford don and celebrated mathematician wrote this poem using an Australian-English dictionary. Maybe you should use that poem for the next summper camp.