With exams nearly over for another year it was down to me to find some end of term entertainment for the students. Of course, in educational style this always looks better if there can actually be some educational benefit or curriculum tie up within the activity.
With lethargic students who within a few weeks will have nothing but time on their hands for six weeks it is actually quite a challenge to motivate and engage any of them.
Luckily I found a website that listed lots of different workshops for schools which was a great help in deciding the type of activities that could be undertaken. In this directory you could find maths workshops, art workshops some of which were help by illustrators who you would know their work. There were also more active activities such as circus skills and team building workshops. I decided on the latter, which proved to be a great success.
The day consisted of the students in groups of approx 8 – 10 participating in problem solving activities. The variety of activities was great with some being large puzzles too scenarios where the students had to solve certain problems using the equipment provided. It was great to watch the students interact, have fun and show their learning at the end of the sessions. It will definitely be a repeated experience for next year’s students.