Campfire

Making the fire!

Every child helps gather wood – some kids won’t help, so turn it into a game: Who can be the fastest to … or bribe them – X amount of wood for 1 marshmallow.

Kids like lighting the fires, finding sticks for marshmallows, and making them points with their Swiss army knives.

During the campfire

You can:

• Make Smores - Smores  in Switzerland: Petite Buerre, think chocolate (Migros Budget bars work fine), marshmallows from the Turkish shop (Haribo has them with no gelatin, marshmallows from Migros and Coop have gelatin in them)
• Play games – just google “campfire games” “children” “large group” or any other key words and you will be overwhelmed! We will probably play "I can tap the stick just right" or "Make me laugh", "Categories" or "In the Pond" as versions of these I have played before in EN lessons (https://embracingthewind.com/campfire-games). 
• Play games with light sticks (not very environmental, but fun): https://www.thespruce.com/glow-stick-party-games-2104656
• Sing songs: It’s always nice if someone can play the guitar and songs can be sung!! (I can’t so we will not do this!)
• Tell a story: https://koa.com/blog/kid-friendly-spooky-campfire-stories

Here’s the story I told, adapted for ESL - https://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/07/the_fiftycent_piece.html  

• Ask kids how much it costs to stay in a hotel / Air BnB nowadays.
• Ask them how they travel to places – train, car, etc….

·        Tell them this was a long time ago, it cost about 50 cents to spend the night and that people traveled by horse and carriage.

50 cent piece 

There is a story told in Bergün about a family returning home from a trip to Chur – they travelled by horse and carriage. Can you picture all the bridges and windy roads that you saw on the train today? Back then, there was no such train line!! When they were somewhere near Filisur, or a few towns before Bergün, it was getting really dark, so they needed to stop and find somewhere to sleep for the night.

The husband saw a light through the trees and turned their horse into a small path leading up a hill. A nice little house stood at the top, and an old man and his wife met the family at the door. The old man and woman were in their pajamas and were about to go to bed. (A long time ago, you went to bed when the sun set!).  They saw the family and offered them a room (“Would you like to stay here tonight??”).

The old woman made them tea and served them cake (Smores!!). Then the travelers went to their room. The family wanted to pay the old couple (Can we pay you??), but the old man and old lady shook their heads “no”.

The family woke up early and tiptoed out of the house, leaving a shiny fifty-cent coin in the center of the kitchen table where the old couple could not miss it. They got back in in their horse and carriage and went to a little restaurant on their way home to have some lunch.

The husband mentioned the nice old couple to the owner of the restaurant and the man turned pale. "Where did you say that house was?" he asked. The husband described the location in detail. "You must be mistaken," said the restaurant owner. "That house was destroyed three years ago by a fire that killed the Brown family."

"I don't believe it," the husband said flatly. "Mr. and Mrs. Brown were alive and well last night."

After discussing this for a few more minutes, the couple and the restaurant owner drove the carriage back out of town towards the place. They turned into the path, which was overgrown with weeds, and climbed the hill. There they found a burned out shell of a house that had obviously not sheltered anyone for a long time.

"I must have missed the track," said the husband. And then his wife gave a terrified scream and fainted into his arms. As he caught her, the husband looked into the ruin and saw a burnt table with a shiny fifty-cent piece lying in the center.

Day 4: September 1

Today we went on an adventurous hike in the Swiss mountains. 

We took the traditional chair-lift up to Darlux, where our adventure started. The tour started with a challenging walk up the steep mountainside. On the top we were rewarded by a breath-taking view. From there on the walk was rather easy. We were surrounded by red leaved blueberry bushes. The landscape made us feel like autumn is approaching. 

Later on the trail we met a herd of cows with calves heading down from the alp. We zigzagged throw the numerous animals and finally found our way to a rocky mountainside where we enjoyed our lunch with a beautiful view. From there we were able to spot our final destination, the village of Chants. 

After eating we made our way down to Chants passing by several creeks with ice cold water. Once we stopped to create some land art. The result you can see on the picture below. After 3 ½ hours of hiking we arrived in Chants. It´s a charming village. In the Berggasthaus Piz Kesch we settled down and had a refreshing drink. The owner of the restaurant, an elderly friendly lady, told us about the wolf, which had killed two sheep just this morning. His future is unsure. After the lovely conversation with the lady we took the bus back to Bergun. We all arrived exhausted but healthy and satisfied at the Kurhaus.

As we mentioned before we made a land art. 

We made the art out of stones, wood, flowers and cranberries. All these items are all something you can catch and see on the way to the mountains. These items symbolize the alps, nature and mountains. 

We spent a nice week in Bergun. The group had a great time and we made precious connections. The international representation of students was an advantage for an interesting week. There were many inspiring conversations about art. We learned some much from each other and heard about different perspective about teaching and way of lives.

 

Hallo September

Day 3: August 31, 2022

Today we started with a village tour. The tour guide brought us around to see the landscape and the traditional houses. We learned a lot about how they have to keep the houses similar, to respect the traditional culture. There was even a prison in the town! And interesting was how they even built the three floors of the tower. You could see that the wall on the second floor was completely different than the third floor which was made out of smaller stones. Another interesting thing what that the fountains in the village have a ledge for the goats and the sheep to step up on when they get some water!

Today we also did different art tasks!

First we tried to use different perspectives to look at a picture. We took a small Winnie the Pooh toy and we turned it into the main character of our picture. You can see in our pictures!

Link to Images!

Then we worked with the charcoal where we had to draw the shadow of a transparent glass - we didn't have to draw the whole glass but just a part of it. 

In the afternoon, we had four stations to go around. We wrote a postcard and had to draw the picture on the front side which was fun because normally you don't do that. Then we painted a stone -  a souvenir stone from this place that we had to create. The next task was to whittle a dwarf from a stick. This was Cheng's first time using a Swiss army knife to do this!! She even got her knife stuck in the stick!!! The last task was just to listen to a story about another camp. It was interesting to know that Swiss kids can hike four to five hours!! It was also interesting to learn about different activities that can be done during hikes. 

Goodbye August!

Day 2: August 30, 2022

Last night we arrived at the campfire which had been lit upon our arrival. Then we heard a "kind of" scary story and had S'mores  which was the first time for some of us! We made charcoal -  it was interesting to learn that we can make our own and would do it with our own classes. We played a game (1 frog, 2 eyes, 4 legs....) which kept everyone on their toes!

Then we took showers and went to bed.......

Tuesday morning we woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed!! We were debriefed about the day. After we got this info, we went and bought our breakfast and lunch Volg. We got ready for the hike and we met Andreas who presented us with some information about the animals. After that we were informed about the unfortunate changes to the hiking trail and then we were on our way!

We were disappointed that we didn't see more animals! However, we had some good chats with the other students and the weather held!

As for campfires, in Singapore, we teach some cheers. We have a cheering competition to see who can be the loudest, get the kids hyped up and this helps to create team spirit. Prior to the campfire, there is preparation where teams create their cheers and group names! One example is "The Hungry Cheer" (hungry, hungry, very, very, .....). What also is good are campfire games like the telephone game, or two truths and a lie, or any basic icebreakers.

During the camp, we're also preparing a 3D village. It's based on a recollection of what we saw in the village. The Goosechase helped us to explore the village and this helped us to remember the details on the houses. We started the village individually with details we remembered, like the church or the flowers. If we had a class, in school or camp, we'd do this because there's no right or wrong and everyone can contribute something - it's a collaborative result. 

Today we got a lot of information about the animals and it was a lot of information!!! When kids are listening to such a presentation, they should take notes so that when they are on the hike, they can pull out their notes and add to them. We could also give kids booklets about the information with some gaps, and have them fill in those blanks. At the end of the trail, there could be a quiz so that they are better able to retain the information. We thought it was interesting to learn about the antlers and that they grow back every year and get bigger every year! We were stunned at how long the wingspan of the bearded vulture was!

Hiking with kids can be difficult! To incentivise them you can bribe them with gummy bears, gamify the experience (e.g. put them in groups so one group wins for doing something like completing an ABC list, not being caught complaining by the teacher, etc...), have enough breaks where there is something concrete they can do (e.g. seeing a playground to play at, etc....). 

Finally, make sure when you plan a camp, you check the schedules in case there are changes. Make sure that you check the trails and ask your school if there's money for this. 

Day 1: August 29, 2022

We arrived at 11:15. Then we had a succinct introduction by the director. Afterwards, we got a tour of the antique, vintage, unique house and the first task. We ate on the sunny picnic terrace. Afterwards, the tasks were explained. We went into our groups and started with the tasks. We came back and are hangrily awaiting dinner! Bergün is very cute, picturesque, straight out of a postcard and every house has its own special detailing! We are happy that the group is not all that big - it's cozy! Like this we can better get to know one another and we like mingling with different people.

Translating the text on the house was hysterical!!! We actually translated the text from the wrong house and we still won!! We also liked making the videos, especially acting like animals and having snowball fights!

Using GooseChase is something we'd definitely like to try out in class and you can do it without the computer by having a "scavenger hunt". Mingling is also fun to do with kids - you can call it speed dating and you can adapt it very well to different topics. 

At other camps, we mostly experienced that we only had to clean at the end and often meals were cooked for us! Camping camps are another experience, more rustic, with more tasks - more group cooking or outdoor cooking, more latrine cleaning!! For class camps it's important that each group does everything, so that the chores rotate and each group has to get up early once, clean up once, etc....We think it's a good idea as well if there's a fun end to camp, with some sort of show, whereby every group has to plan something! With younger kids, it's important that safety come first. Planning is also of utmost importance - in class the weeks before, menus can be planned out precisely with the quantity of ingredients and the utensils listed and the cost calculated. Perhaps the sleeping situation can be sketched out in advance - perhaps kids can choose or perhaps the teacher has to do this. 

Reconnoitring in Bergün!

Original post: May 2022

While I am very excited to participate in this project and to spend a week with PH students, I am skeptical about the role of English as part of a class camp in a part of Switzerland where, actually, Romansh is important. If you are interested in following developments in Romansh teaching, I suggest you sign up for the Babylonia newsletter as there will be an issue on this coming up, and in the past, there were many Babylonia issues in and on Romansh. However, back to English! Here are a few general ideas for integrating English in a class camp.

"Normal" school in a different place

 Teachers CAN, as part of a class camp, not "just" have fun, but teach subjects for the week. Teachers CAN organize a camp in a way that there are still regular school lessons, just in a different place, and using the area around them. In this sense, EN can also be "taught" in Bergün and here are a few ideas for some lessons:

• Role plays - a tourist asking about the area or asking for directions
• Movies - some of the "Heidi" movies were filmed in Graubünden, there are other films that were filmed in the area (Jenatsch, etc... also for DE).
• Routines - why not have some routines for English instead of lessons: morning sport in English / meal routines (presenting the menu, serving, etc...); evening game.
• and so on...

Like this you can think about a schedule during camp time where each subject is still "taught" but in a different place and using the area. 

Including English in school before the camp

If you are planning a class camp in Bergün, why not do some planning for the camp in your English lessons the weeks before the camp and then NOT use English during class!! For example:

• Plan out meals in English lessons;
• Learn about the region in English (tourist info websites in English) - each pair can take a site and present the history of it or what there is to do;
• Plan out activities and things to do and present suggestions in English;

During the camp

These are things that we will do with you!

After the camp

• Write google reviews (in English);
• Write a summary of sorts;
• Each groups makes a poster about a place visited and follows up with more information.

The most wonderful camp in Klosters!

 

I got to attend the most wonderful camp in Klosters in July of 2022! There were 2 classes of 4th graders - 40 kids! The general planning is HERE (in German).

Here's a brief overview of the days!

• Monday: Travel to Klosters with a stop for a hike and lunch at Heidiland. Here's the Heidiland search. In the evening, we had a campfire.
• Tuesday: Hike from Klosters Dorf (where we stayed) up to Madrisa via the hanging bridge (the THRILL). The hike took about 4  hours (5 for some) and we took the gondola down. In the evening, we had a game night and everyone played games. We also wrote and decorated post cards.
• Wednesday: We walked from Klosters Dorf to Klosters Platz, did the Dwarf Path and had an "Art and Pool" day with various activities. In the evening, kids finished some art projects and also did the scavenger hunt behind the house. They also prepared for the talent show!
• Thursday: We went to Schatzalp and walked around there. We planned on using the "SommerRodelbahn" but it rained, so only half the class got to do that! We had a lot of fun in Davos at the playground there. In the evening, we ended with a disco and dancing and the most amazing talent show ever!
• Friday: we packed and cleaned and left at 10am!

There is a blog and there are many pictures I will show you in person! But compared to the camp we went on two years ago, which was also fun, this one was so much more fun!