Clubs in School...Ideas?

[raincloud]

After 2 months at my school I've finally been able to really connect with a couple of my students and I'm hooked! I want to get to know them better and I want to get to know other students better as well.

I'm teaching at a public elementary school where the level of English is pretty low. Some students can have full conversations but it's usually only one or two per class. I really want to connect with at least some of my students a little more and I don't have the chance to do that when I'm teaching. There are too many students per class and I only get to see them once a week so it's really hard to build actual relationships with these kids. Honestly I think I only know the names of 5 kids out of like 600!

I only teach between 9:00am and 12:00pm so I have from 12-440 for lesson planning etc. I was thinking I could possibly start some kind of group that meets once or twice a week after my teaching hours.

The reason I posted here is because I don't know what kind of group to start, or if there might be another way I could get to know my students better. If you have any ideas about what I could do that would be friendly for lower levels students I would really appreciate it!

Thank you!

[andcar]

A cool club idea that you might want to consider would be a cheer/cheerleading club. It might appeal more to girls, but some boys might be interested as well since singing seems to be popular in general in korea. Since it's low level students, you can choose the level of difficulty of the cheers, and you can learn both the words and movements (can be simple routines) to get everyone involved regardless of their english level. you can find tons of cheers online from different colleges and universities. you can even watch some movies or movie clips every now and then that showcase cheerleading. For boys, you can start some sort of sports club. for example, if it's baseball, you can learn baseball vocabulary, watch clips of games, have conversations about their favourite korean teams, etc.

hope that helps or at least gets more ideas going!

[StopTheMadness]

Book club? If the students interested have a high enough level, you could all read the same book over a number of weeks. Read aloud to them during the club then ask them to read x number of pages before next time. Then in the next session you could go over any vocab they may have found difficult, answer any questions they may have, etc. You could also have discussions after reading aloud together - what do you think will happen next?, for example.

Another one that could be fun is a board game club. Get to play loads of games with the kids that actually wanna be doing it, and they get to practice their English too.

[rbirchtree]

Chess club. it requires an investment of some money but it's worth it. I am doing it at my girl's high school.

[Sprite06]

I started a newspaper club at my school.  Probably only a good project if you enjoy designing stuff though

[hoshinas]

At my high school I have a lunch time group of 7-10 students.  They are mid-level and they asked to start the group.  On Mon-Wed I structure the subjects and for the rest of the week they choose what they want to discuss.  It works well because we normally have something different to talk about each day.

[reb3444]

At my high school, there is an English Leader's Class Group which the students run and ask me for help when they need it.  They try and do everything in English, but sometimes it is too hard for them.  We also have an English Newspaper, where I am constantly interacting with the students and helping them with their writings and getting them to think of things to write about. 

you could also do a "world leader's" group or Mock UN group and have the students talk about things, but then again...I think you are at an elementary school...so I don't know if that would be good for your level or not. 

[rumple_skillskin]

Film club!  You can do a mix of English with subs or Korean with subs (or no subs, depending on the levels of the students).  Movies. are. awesome.

[betrock]

I started a volunteer club in my school.  We have a group that helps disabled people, another walk dogs at a shelter.  We have a couple of fun fundraisers a year to pay for operations for children from Myanmar (I have friends who work with these children in Thailand).   

It has been fun for the kids and obviously makes them think. 

I am not sure, but I think it would be possible to have middle school children do the same things, and with adaptations, maybe younger kids, too.

[deerchild]

Any clubs that students can learn English will be welcomed at school. What about a reading club or a board game club if you have board games at your school. craft club?? it needs materials , movie club?? watch a movie and teach students expression , pronunciation or intonation.. I think anything will work and I'm sure your co-teachers and vice principle and the principle will love your idea definitely.

[epsurfer]

Another idea, along the same lines as a school newspaper, would be a monthly magazine club.  The students could cover gossip, horoscopes, sports, entertainment (music and movies), or whatever they want/are interested in, and other students who aren't actually involved in the club would also enjoy browsing the magazine once its complete!

But students also really love sports, and I know that some people will do whole lessons on football/soccer terminology that the students have to learn and use while playing soccer (football) and if they use Korean while playing they get penalties (just an idea to spend more time with students doing what they love)

[sunflower]

If your students are low leveled elementary school students, I recommend a phonics club. If they know how to pronounce English words exactly, they can easily read and understand English. Also they will have much interest in learning English.