Why host a Spanish camp?
One of the most successful and fun ideas I've had over the years was hosting a Spanish camp. There were so many things I wanted to do with students that just weren't possible in 45 minutes in a group of 35. So, though several people thought I was crazy, I decided to set up my very own camp! The students who have participated in camp have consistently told me that it was incredibly valuable for them. Most of them have gone on to take 4 or more years of Spanish classes after attending the camp. Here is a testimony from a student who attended camp the first year I did it (she was writing me a recommendation letter):
I envisioned the camp as a week-long cultural immersion experience. Every morning, we would spend 3-4 hours playing games, doing art projects and practicing conversation. Then, each afternoon, I would take the students on a field trip to experience some aspect of Spanish-speaking culture in our community. Here is a flyer I handed out to all the students in my Spanish 1 classes, which has a lot of the details about the camp.
Ideas for Fun Activities
We spent each morning doing immersion activities and playing games. Below is a list of some of the activities we particularly enjoyed:
-Art Day: I taught the class about two artists and their work (Dalí and Botero). We watched the short film collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí. Then, students had time to create their own masterpiece in the style of either artist.
-Food Day: on the day we went to the grocery store and cooked in our school's Home Ec room, we spent the morning learning about foods from various countries and playing games with food, such as El Precio Perfecto, where students tried to guess the price of various pretend foods.
-Movie Day: we watched El Camino a El Dorado in Spanish and then learned about the real Spanish conquistadors along with Aztec and Maya culture.
-Language games: we played a ton of language-heavy games, such as Scattergories, Taboo, Hangman and Mafia. Mafia was their favorite by far!
-Breakout EDU: On the day we went to a Cuban restaurant, we spent the morning doing an adaptation of the CUBA O CASA Breakout kit from Martina Bex.
-Music: We learned a song every morning. We would listen first, do a cloze activity with the lyrics, learn the chorus at a minimum, and watch the music video.
Practical considerations
Location: I was able to use my classroom for free, because I was not making a profit. If I had tried to profit off of the camp,
I would have had to pay for a building use fee.
Insurance: It is highly recommended that you get some liability insurance for your camp (and it was required by my school in order to use the building). The cheapest policy I was able to find was through K&K Camp Insurance, but many companies offer such policies. This was the largest expense of running the camp.
Transportation: Since I was going to have a relatively small group, I used my own car and then recruited parents to assist with transportation. The first year I just had one mom with a big van volunteer for every day, but other years I had parents volunteer for 2-3 days and they switched off. This is not a fool-proof system! There was one year I couldn't get a single parent volunteer and I had to scrap the camp altogether. However, overall it has worked well and I have not found a better system.
Cultural Activities: Obviously, not every city will have the same cultural activities available (I think Boise is one of the few places with a Basque museum) but I'm sure you have something wonderful in your town! Get creative! I found local dance teachers to teach us some authentic dances (we've done salsa, tango and flamenco) and took the kids to a tiny Mexican grocery store where they shopped for authentic ingredients and practiced their Spanish with the cashier and the butcher (I checked in advance to make sure the employees actually spoke Spanish and didn't mind a troop of middle schoolers tromping in to practice their language skills).
Budget: $675
Costs:
- 255 – insurance
- 150 – dance teacher
- 50 – Basque Museum Group Rate
- 33.75 – Waterpark (3.75/adult + 2.50/kid)
- 50 – Donation to Hispanic Cultural Center (Free)
- 136.25 to spend on grocery ingredients, gas and parking
I tried my best to run the camp as cheaply as possible so that it would keep costs low for families. I think I had $12 leftover the last time I ran a camp in 2019, so I bought a couple of novels for the classroom. When you are setting the price of your camp, make a list of your projected costs, add $5 per student for miscellaneous unforeseen expenses, and then figure out how many campers you need to make your camp feasible. My minimum is 8 campers, as any smaller number makes it too costly to insure the camp.
Overall, I would recommend starting a camp to any language teacher who has ever felt like they needed more time and freedom to teach the fun stuff! It is a very rewarding experience for me, my students, and even for the parents we've brought along.
Happy camping!
