UKC

I have to give a "climbing" presentation to a group of 40 6-year-old Italian kids...in English. Approx 90 minutes. It's a short themed English lesson as part of a week-long summer course. I need it to be as interactive as possible, but with 40 kids it's a challenge. I've put the word climbing in inverted commas because the primary aim is giving them some English input and...erm..."fun". So any activities that can loosely be thrown into the general theme of mountains, climbing gear, nature etc... are valid. Weather permitting we'll be outside and I can set the rope up in a tree.
(Scant) Ideas I have:
Initial presentation (so no audience participation): short video of me, the hero, doing heroic things in the mountains (3 minutes). Short presentation of some gear.
Me to prusik up rope, then abseil back down.

Interactive part (with 40 kids!)

*Tug 'o war competition
*"Circle" game: Me to create large circle with 60m (old!) rope laid out on ground, with the ends tied together. All kids stand in large circle facing inwards and grasp rope, then walk back, pulling it outwards until it's under tension. Then using tension they all lean back/sit down etc...as a type of grand "confidence team building" exercise (hope that makes sense).
*Avalanche transceiver search
*Bowline-tying

Any other suggestions? Inspiration? I'd like to get rocks involved (fervently hoping that doesn't end in tears and nobody gets stoned to death) or some other "nature" dimension. Any creative teachers/scouters/girl guiders out there?
Cheers!

In reply to Kean:

I think you may have too much already. It will surprise you (unless you've worked with groups of kids) how long setting up, steering, explaining each task to that many kids will take and that would be in their first language. Drop the prussiking up stuff, they won't have a clue and they'll be bored.

Keep it simple and achievable, any pictures of climbing should really be of other kids doing it, abseiling, stuff that inspires them to give it a go, not make them think they need to wait 10 plus years to be an adult, they than can do some death defying stunt. A few kids with smiley faces bottom roping a Mod, is worth 10times you hanging off some overhang. You can expand that a little bit to people climbing to the top of mountain, but it has to something that can grasp.

In reply to summo:

Cheers...good advice. I've got no snaps of kids climbing, but some pretty incredible snaps of smiling kids in Nepal...so they'll probably be more into that than me trying to look buff...
I think they'll be into a bit of knot-tying, no? A skill they can take away and show their parents.

In reply to Kean:

Plan your thing from the point of view of "what are the kids doing" (minute by minute) rather than "what am I doing."

If the answer is ever "listening" or "nothing", rethink that bit!

In reply to climbwhenready:

I hear you! I've got an idea of "painting stones"...but 40 kids all painting at the same time...? Maybe...

In reply to Kean:

Think a bit about what you want them to achieve by the end of the session?

Is it most important for them to learn some English words? To have fun? To be happy and occupied for 90 mins?

Painting is nice and gives them a souvenir to take home. But not that much chance for speaking and listening to English unless you make a real effort to add it in, maybe they can learn the names of the colours. Maybe laminate word lists for each table?

How many adult/ teenage helpers do you have? I would probably split them into groups of around 5 for painting and do it outside to minimise mess in the summer.

Have a blue peter, here is one I painted earlier as an example to show them.

Personally I wouldn't show them something as fun as climbing and then not let them have a go, seems a bit mean if you get to climb a tree, and they don't. Maybe stick with nature as a theme.

In reply to Kean:

Split them into 2 groups of 20 with one active group and one sit down group, which will swap activities at an appropriate point. Give the active group a search and rescue theme. Split them into 4 parties of 5, and tell them they have to search for a missing person/ i.e. tailors dummies. Each group picks a leader who gets to boss everyone around. They find dummy with broken leg, patch him up and then rig a simple stretcher to carry him back. All become heroes and lots of English used.

The sit down group can either get to paint mountains and climbers (I.e you dressed in all your climbing gear,) or draw maps of the area naming all the relevant features in English or design a new piece of climbing equipment and then stand up to explain how it works.

Keep intro to no more than 10 mins, then fire the starting gun.

Good luck

In reply to Kean:

If you want them to tie knots, a bowline is not a simple one to start with! If it's about learning words, can you have flashcards with words and pictures to play some kind of matching game in groups? 6 year olds love dressing up, can you get some "mountain climbing" gear for them to play in? How good is their English? I really like the rescue idea above...

In reply to Kean:

You haven't got very long. Go for some show and tell with kit, pictures. Get them to draw pictures or posters with some key English vocab that might be useful, e.g. weather terms, positions (not climbing but on, under, next to, etc.) Get them to imagine and write or tell a sentence or paragraph about some mountaineering and share it with medals for best...

In reply to Kean:

Hi all,
Many many thanks for your ideas. Really useful guidance. I'll now review my ideas and see how I can improve my plan.

In reply to Kean:

my son gave a couple of talks to his classmates when he was about 10 or 11. One was on ice climbing and required him to get dressed up etc and the other was on rock climbing.
The kids were most fascinated when he passed round things like a deadman, a number 11 hex, ice axe, warthog, very tiny HB brass nut...etc.

I think you have to get them handling kit and preferably dressing up in it. Interactive is def the way to go

In reply to Kean:
Do tell us what you finally did and how it went.

In reply to Ann S:
Will do...although I've now been roped into doing two sessions: there's also a group of 40 3-year-olds! Gawd!

In reply to Kean:

If you only have trees why not set up a zipline - doesn't need to be too long.

Fig 8 knot is useful and recognisable but demo of granny v reef also useful.

Means to demo actions of friends / chocks ??

Means to get each kid suspended - on a knot they have made perhaps; that alone would soak up the time ! Will u have a helper ?

In reply to Kean:


Have you made a Last will and testament?

In reply to Kean:

Are you alone or do you have a helper? 40 kids is a lot, but when my son was in primary school the main attraction at his birthday parties was abseiling from our balcony (and later when everyone was a bit older, the roof).
If you have trees, maybe rig a pulley somewhere high up, and pull the children up and lower then down again.
Also, letting them handle gear, put on a harness or helmet, clip carabiners into rope loops, or decapitate their neighbour with your ice axe is always good fun.

40 three year olds? Run, just run....

CB

In reply to Kean:
Actually, it should not be so complicated esp given the age. Few will take on board the more intricate details you could present. Your outline should be a) excite the imagination b) discuss terminology c) involve everyone in practical exercises. The value of the session may be judged as vocab retained - so look for crossover with the everyday world - ex. danger/safe, hand/foot, up/down, done/undone (knots) etc Repetition of basics will leave a longer imprint than a grand tour of diffuse tehnicality. (Forget the friend demo !)

but (edit) I think an exercise getting them off the ground / suspended will be more striking

In reply to Kean:

40 3 year olds. Wow.

In reply to marsbar:

on cbeebies i-player there is a 'my family' episode on climbing. It's aimed at preschoolers. Have a look at how they introduced the concepts and you can maybe pick up ideas from that.

Chances are in a group of 40 6 year olds you'll have one or two of them who have tried it or can talk about their family doing it.

kids love looking at stuff so if you have them split up into groups of (say) 8, you could give each one a sling, can, nut, quickdraw to look at and touch as you talk about them.

They also like silly stuff - how many elephants or cars can a sling hold... get them guessing.

In reply to Kean:

Well, session one was this morning: 3 to 6 yr olds. It went well but very surreal experience. I said to the organiser "I'm not QUITE sure what I'm doing." She replied "Welcome to our world!"
40 of them with approx 4 helpers. First weirdness for me was being peered at by all these wide-eyed tots and being billed as "the expert".
My grand entrance was me dressed in full ice climbing kit, trailing a rope attached to another rucksack out of sight in the adjoining room. I asked a couple of tots to lend a hand hauling and suddenly had 40 gnomes scrambling for the rope to get in on the action. Great fun. Then I changed into rock climbing gear. Then I started introducing a mix of specific and general terms in easy English, ranging from boots to trousers to rope...big surprise for me when I pulled out a compass...they were totally, mind-bogglingly fascinated by it (compared to "boots" and "socks", about which the consensus was "smelly"). I had to go round the entire group showing it to them. Then we played a memory game, with them chorusing a set of vocabulary. Then I let them loose on all the gear. Then I dressed some of them up. Pretty endearing seeing a 5-yr-old tot of a girl dressed in oversized harness, boots, jacket, helmet, brandishing two ice axes...and clutching a teddy bear!! Finally team photo with them all clutching a climbing rope.
I also had the short video and some stock photos kids climbing.
So all in all it went OK as a first attempt. Needed one or two more structured activities and a tad more interactive English but thanks to the many great pieces of advice offered I think I managed to avoid a fair few pitfalls and they enjoyed themselves.

Tomorrow, 6 to 12 yr olds & I should be able to set up a few more activities.

Sincere thanks again for all the great advice.

In reply to Kean:

Well done - education through entertainment - best for that age group. We host pedagogique farm visits for school groups - and always searching for the right balance.

In reply to Kean:

Sorry to be late to the party, but I used to get roped in to do pretty much as you've described. The real winner was placing ice screws in big ice cream tubs of ice. Everyone wanted a go.