Kids at the Ban Yang Kaeo School

By Maddy Todd and Mikayla Holt

During our time at the Ban Yang Kaew School, we spent time with the students playing games focused on their English language skills. The children at this school surprisingly were not shy or timid towards us, considering that we are strange foreigners to them.

The 5th and 6th grade students went over the English alphabet, numbers, shapes, and multiplication. We also played different American games and sang American songs. Some games we played included “Red Light, Green Light” “Duck, Duck, Goose” and “Tag.” We sang “Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes” and “Baby Shark.”

The 1st grade students worked on counting in English from 1-10, the English alphabet, drawing, paper folding activities including paper airplanes & fortune teller folded papers that were educational teaching colors, numbers and letters in English. Students also played various active games outside of the classroom including “Red Light, Green Light,” “Duck, Duck, Goose” and “Simon Says.”

Our main goal was to spend time with the kids and have a fun, positive experience with them as they have not had opportunities to spend time with foreign, native English speakers. This was also the first time Westminster Students have spent time in the village of Ban Yang Kaew and we were provided with the unique opportunity of being the first American college students these children have ever met. This was a great chance to set a precedent for what to expect in future visits from Westminster Students or other foreigners.

We had such a fun time playing with the students of the Ban Yang Kaew School and we feel lucky that we were given this opportunity! The kids had such cute and fun personalities and they weren’t very timid to interact with some strange foreign college students. The experiences and skills gained from this day will stay with both the Westminster students and the Ban Yang Kaew students for a lifetime.