a church in carrick-on-shannon

Czech Pages 2

Notes for Helpers on the Children’s Camp (Kycera 2007).

Plan for ten days of teaching. Each day you will have a group of about ten children each . Here’s some ideas. (That means starter points for your own ideas or back-up!). Each day might include a couple of games, a song and a memory verse, but your main focus is develop simple English conversation, to get to know the kids in your group and to encourage them to get to know God better. 

Buy a load of bits for your group: pencils with English writing on, little bags of sweeties etc, (use your imagination) stickers and ten exercise books.

Use the exercise books every day. Make it into a kind of journal with every day’s lesson, vocabulary, memory verse and Bible story in. Get the kids to draw pictures. Encourage them to write down something of a diary for each day in Czech…. even postcards if possible. Assure them that the journals will be marked and prizes given for the best.

Day 1: Introducing yourself.

You could introduce yourself to the group (by yourself or with another English speaker)

“Hello (Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night) my name is………….. I am ……years old. I live in……….. In my family I have….brothers and ….sisters. Their names are……. My hobbies are……”

Each child could learn this paragraph orally and introduce themselves to the rest of the group.

EXTEND: Write the passage into the exercise book. Illustrate it. Encourage the kids to take lots of pride in their books.

Turn the phrases into questions and put the kids in groups of two or three and ask them to interview each other (“Hello: What is your name?…etc)

Write out the Memory verse from the Bible in English. Encourage the kids to memorise one English verse per day (something simple).

Day 2: How do I feel?


Use the same material from yesterday and run through the same pattern, but this time introduce some new vocabulary: “Hello, my name is….[and I feel very hungry today]..etc” Don’t introduce too much too quickly and make sure you carry every one with you.


Add some adjectives to their vocabulary list (For example hungry, angry, tired, happy, worried). Get the kids to draw faces with these expressions (and act them out?).

Write some extended sentences  using the new terms.

Memory verse (oral and then written).

Day 3: About myself

Sing and share the song: “Heads, shoulders, knees and toes”

Teach vocabulary of parts of the body.

In your exercise books, draw a picture of the body and label the parts in English.

Day 4: Going on a walk

If the weather is appropriate, take your group on a short walk into the forest. Plan it ahead of time so that they can learn, say, ten new words.

(You might consider learning the ten words in Czech so that they can teach you something!).

On returning to camp, review and write the ten new words into your book. Draw a picture to illustrate each one.

EXTEND: Write some sentences on this (or even a story entitled “A Walk in the Forest.”). Illustrate the story. Give prizes for effort etc.

Day 5/6: Going to Lunch


Review your conversations from the past four days. Add some vocabulary relating to food and meals.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, (Tea, Supper) 

Describe a typical meal for each of these: lots of new words here.

Encourage each child to share what the Czech equivalent might be.

Draw pictures next to the new words.

EXTEND: Draw up the menu of an English restaurant with a pretty design of food on a page in your notebook (prizes etc.)

EXTEND 2 (into the next day): Do a drama scene involving two people who go into a restaurant and the waiter takes them through the menu.

Day 7: What do I do (for a living)?

ORAL: Review the conversations so far. Mention the waiter from yesterday. How many jobs can you think of? Get the group to give you one each.

WRITTEN: Write down a sentence for each job with an explanation: I am a builder, I make houses for people to live in…etc.

EXTEND: Do a game where the kids act out a job and the other people guess what the job is.

EXTEND 2: Take one job for each kid and get them to write out an imaginary diary for one day doing that job (with pictures).

Day 8: A Water Day

Take the group to the river. Keep things tight and together and introduce about ten watery words. For example: river, stream, flowing, bubbling, wet, liquid, marshy, mud, trickling etc.

Talk about the rain cycle (rain on the hills, rivers into the valleys, into the sea, evaporation ihto clouds, over mountains into rain again etc).

Back in class: write up the new vocabulary.

Do a diagram of the rain cycle (or the river etc). They will know all this stuff in Czech, but keep the English words simple.

Day 9: Looking back 1

EITHER Review the conversation from Day 1. Check how much they’ve improved. Depending on the skill level of the group you could even do a test vocabulary/ sentences and mark them (but make sure no one feels useless!).

OR Or do a “looking back” over their lives. You could do an activity based on dividing a page into the years of their lives and encouraging them to do an autobiography in simple sentences

(For example: Age 4: I attended the……school). Pictures next to their entries

EXTEND: Ask them what they want on the next page. “What do you want to do in your life? Job? Career prospects? Hobbies? Family etc?

Day 10: Looking Back 2

ORAL:  This time look back over the camp. Do a written review of what has happened. Look over the journals (prizes?). Pick good things that each child has contributed.

Discuss the best (and the worst!) things that have happened.

Write down a paragraph review. If possible, each one could reflect on what God has said to them during the last few days. Finish by praying for each child. God may even give you a word of prophecy that you might want to put into their journals.

Not sure? Work on the principle that God really loves these children, that he has entrusted you with a place in their lives and that you will certainly see them again!


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