Our first of two summer camps is finished and I have to say – Harry Potter Camp was fantastic! The program was such a hit with the students, parents, and staff, that we will be repeating the camp this winter.
For those of you that don’t teach in Korea, it is customary for public schools (and special schools) to have summer and winter camps. These camps are 1/2 day and are based around a special theme. In July, Global Station hosted a Harry Potter Camp for high-level elementary students and will host a Christmas Camp (next week) for elementary students of all levels.
Here’s a Time Lapse video of the majority of our classes. This was my first time doing Time Lapse and my first time working with video editing software ^^
As teachers, we were very excited about Harry Potter Camp – we personally chose the theme and had relative free-range on our topics and activities. After working closely with our fellow teachers and administrators, we settled on 5 main classroom themes: Diagon Alley, Potions, O.W.L.s, Sports, and Magical Crafts.
My coworker Allison and I took charge of Diagon Alley, where we featured lessons surrounding Gringott’s Wizarding Bank (with a money management theme), The Leaky Cauldron (where students learned to make their own butterbeer), and Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions (where students dressed up and took a picture in front of ‘Hogwarts’ – thanks to a nifty Chroma Key App).
Other teachers came up with innovative lessons like: making sock house elves, playing indoor quidditch, making edible potions, learning about upcycling, and discovering their own patronus!
The 4-day camp was a TON of fun (albeit exhausting) and I think the teachers had as much fun as the kids. I can’t wait to do this again!
Want more detailed information about these classes? Send me a messageĀ and I’ll be happy to share!
We haven’t taught at a public school and our friends who do were actually just telling us about their summer camp’s theme! It sounds so fun! (maybe not preparing it) But what a fun way to interact with the kids and get them excited! I think Harry Potter camp would be my favorite!! Way to be right on trend with the new book that came out too! Awesome idea!
Thanks very much for reading! This was a great camp and tons of fun ^^
This is so cool! While I was in Beijing before we would also create activities around recent events like this one. Have any of you guys by chance read the book? I don’t know where I can buy it, haha
Hi Jackie! Thanks so much for reading my post! We were thrilled to have the opportunity to choose this topic as many of us are Harry Potter nerds!! We haven’t read the new book yet, as our main bookstore is selling copies 2x the retail price in the USA. I do have a couple friends who have downloaded the e-book version, but haven’t had time to start reading it yet. Do you have an e-book reader/ipad?
This looks like a lot of fun! My boyfriend was always a bit stressed planning his summer and winter camps but I always loved hearing about the topics and concepts he came up with. Super awesome idea and I’m glad to see they loved it.
Thanks so much for reading and your response Laura! This was the first time in my 2 (short) years in Korea where we’ve had input on the theme – it was super hard work, but really paid off!
What a creative way to teach! I believe that the best way to learn anything is by playing and having fun. I learned English mostly by watching cartoons and playing computer games. I was also a huge Dungeons and Dragons fan and I read so many books that my vocabulary went though the roof. I’m glad your students got to experience English learning by using imagination.
Hi Emre – thanks very much for reading! We were thrilled to teach English through something we were passionate about. Many of the students knew the series and surprised us with their knowledge of the books and movies. It was easily one of the best camps I have taught. š
That’s an amazing idea for a camp! I’m just finished 3 weeks of English camps (I work at 3 schools so needed to have 3 camps) and I’m exhausted! This year I went for a different theme everyday- crafts, movie, food, sports and music. It was really fun but not as fun as the Inside Out themed camp that I did last year. Harry Potter would be so fun, I bet your kids loved it!
Woah – Inside Out camp? That sounds fantastic – I loved that movie to bits and it is such a great platform to start talking about feelings, etc. Thanks very much for reading – I hope you can enjoy a bit of downtime before the next semester starts! Cheers!
I have a friend who is always preparing for winter and summer camps. She Would always complain of too much work to do but always end up feeling good about it-)
Yep – it’s quite hectic at times! Sounds like we may repeat both our camps this winter.. Will still be exhausting, but very little prep time -WHEW!
I haven’t taught in a public school myself, but the idea of multi-themed camp sounds awesome! I bet your students had a blast and how perfectly timed for a new HP book.
Thanks for reading! It really was tons of fun ^^
How fun!! I remember doing a fun Harry Potter camp in my first year in Korea…the kids loved it! Well done for being such an inspiring teacher!
Thanks Roxy! We had a great time ^^
Wow very creative! I imagine the kids having a blast! Nice camp~