2 The Camping Adventure

Dice

Note: Check the Introduction to Role-Playing Adventures for instructions on how to use the dice, how to integrate writing into the RPA, and how to adapt the RPA to different size classes.

Create a character with the class. The following features are important for the story, so inform the class that the character is rich, generous, an activist, does not live by the ocean, and loves children. The class will add the other features.

Roll the dice as students answer the questions below¹, and tell them they will need to change the information if the dice show a 4, 5, or 6.

You may develop the character over several classes in case you want to teach vocabulary related to describing someone.

Make sure to include the following questions:

• What’s the gender of our friend?
• Where is the person from?
• How old is he/she?
• Where does he/she live?
• What does he/she do?
• What does he/she look like?
• What is he/she like?
• What are his/her hobbies?
• Is he/she single or married? Any children?
• What does he/she like doing in his/her free time?
• What’s his/her name? (This should be the last question because it will depend on where the person is from)

My personal experience:

I used this activity with high beginners who had very basic English. Therefore, I went slowly and explored many of the items in the questions over several days. For example, in relation to the person’s job, I asked about it, what days he/she worked, whether he/she liked it. I then asked different students what they wanted to be (I only had teenagers in my class; if I had had adults, I could have asked them to talk about their own jobs).  When they decided where he/she lived, I asked them to describe his/her neighborhood and his/her house/apartment and went on to have students also talk about their homes. When we talked about appearance, I handed out a sheet with vocabulary related to appearance and we practiced using them through different activities.  When they had decided where the person was from, which was different from the place s/he lived in, I ask them why he/she had moved, when, etc. You may explore the situations presented in the same way.

Note¹:  Roll the dice several times to force students to think of alternative situations. For example: if a student suggests the person likes photography, roll the dice to decide if that is true or false. If false, students have to come up with another alternative, and so on. You can say no to suggestions that are not acceptable (for example: he/she is a drug dealer). This also avoids the creation of stereotypes.

Have each group present their ideas to the class.

My personal experience: Susan (the name of our character) was an artist and had a horse ranch. She volunteered in an NGO as an art teacher and also offered children free horseback-riding classes at her ranch.

With the whole class and using the dice, decide:

• How many kids?
• How old are they?
• Where is our friend planning to take them? For how long?
• How will they travel to the campsite?
• Will other adults join our “friend” to help him/her? Who? Why?

Remind the class that our friend (name of character) is very rich, so money is not a problem. The street kids, however, are extremely poor, so (name of character) will have to provide everything they might need.

Place students in groups and give each group one of the cards below. Alternatively, you may conduct each of the activities below one by one.

After students present their lists, ask them to hand them over to you. You will need them later.

Time to start our trip to the beach. Did you remember to bring everything? I have your lists here from our last class. I’m going to test your memory. Do you remember every item?  Tell me the items you remember, and I’ll checkmark them on my list.  If there are any unchecked items, it means you forgot to bring them with you.

Note: Compile the final list leaving the ‘forgotten’ items out. Keep the list available to the students throughout the adventure. Remember that some items can only be used once. For example: rice. Cross these items out when they are used.

Something went wrong during the trip. Brainstorm things that could go wrong during a trip (a flat tire, a huge traffic jam, someone got sick, there was a terrible thunderstorm, etc).  After you have a good list, ask students what happened. As they give their suggestions, roll the dice, until what happened is defined. Have the class then decide on what to do next depending on the problem. Alternatively, you may place students in groups and have each group come up with a solution. In this case, have all the groups present their solutions before you start rolling the dice to see whether they succeeded or failed. Encourage outside-the-box solutions, if possible.

If necessary, teach vocabulary related to setting up camp (put up the tent, get things out of the car, put things in order, make a fire, etc.).

My personal experience: In my class I use TPR techniques to teach the vocabulary. For example, I take a sleeping bag to class to set the scene. Then, we draw a camping site on the board with stick figures to represent different students (e.g., I draw three stick figures dancing around a camp fire and ask: – Who are they? – I use the names of the students. – What are they doing?) Then, I challenge students to remember who is doing what based on the pictures drawn on the board. Next, I ask students to pretend they are on a camping site as I give them commands (light the fire, go fishing, set up the tent, climb the mountain, etc.).  Students respond physically to the commands showing their understanding. When I feel they are confident, I invite the students to play the teacher’s role and give the commands.

Ask students to describe the camping site. Tell them they are alone there. There are no other campers. Then ask the class who will do what. How will they assign different tasks among the people participating in the adventure? After they decide who will do what (e.g., the children will get everything out of the car, our friend [name of character] will put up the tents with [student’s name]’s help).

Roll the dice to see if they were able to do everything. In case they failed, ask them why they failed, and what kind of help the person needs (e.g., Peter and Paul were assigned to set up the tent but the dice said they failed. Ask them why. Was anything missing? Did they do anything wrong? Is anything broken? Can it be fixed? Can somebody help?)

Tell the class that everything is ready. Tell them it is 5 p.m. and the sun is going to set soon. What is the weather like? If necessary, teach weather vocabulary. Then start rolling the dice to decide what the weather conditions are (for example, if you get a 1 or 2, it is cold; if you get a 3 or 4 it is nice; if you get a 5 or 6, it is hot. Then continue to define through the dice whether it is raining, cloudy, sunny, etc.

Say: It’s time to have something to eat and then go to bed.

What will the children eat? What will they do before going to bed? With the whole class, elicit ideas. For example, eat sandwiches, roast marshmallows, take a shower, brush their teeth, etc.

With the whole class, tell students that our friend (character’s name) told a spooky story. Tell one yourself pretending to be the character. If you can’t think of a story, there are several websites you can access, such as this one: https://koa.com/blog/kid-friendly-spooky-campfire-stories/

Now, place students in groups and have each group create a spooky story and tell it to the class. You may choose to use the picture cards attached and tell student to include them in the story.

Optional: Teach a traditional camp song or a card game.

Tell students the campers had a wonderful day at the beach.

Place students in small groups and ask each group to draw a picture of something that happened during the day. Tell them to pretend these are photographs of one interesting moment.

Have the groups present their “photo” to the class and explain it.

My personal experience: In one of my classes, I took one of the students out of the group and told him he had been burnt by a jellyfish. I instructed the student to jump up right after the groups presented their photos, and start screaming that he had been burnt by a jellyfish. He did so and asked the class for help. The class came up with different solutions and the next day I brought in a text on what to do in this situation as it is very common in Brazil. If you have other common events (being stung by stingray, stepping on sea urchin) in your area, you may choose to use it.

Say: It’s 5 in the morning. Everyone is still asleep. Day is breaking. The campers wake up to horrible screeches. They don’t sound human. They hear people speaking and gunshots. The sounds are coming from the top of a mountain nearby. (Character’s name) and the kids decide to investigate. What’s the plan?

You can do this as a whole class or place the students in groups. Either way, use the dice to determine whether the plans succeeded or not.

Note: From this point on, you will need to improvise according to the suggestions, but challenge them all the time by rolling the dice or asking for additional information (For example: how did they climb the mountain? Was it hard or easy? How long did it take? Was there any incident? Were they quiet or did anyone start sneezing?) Make it hard. The harder it is, the more students will enjoy it!

They see the entrance to a cave. There are armed men guarding the entrance.(Roll the dice to determine how many.)

With the whole class, ask the following questions and roll the dice to see if the answers are acceptable. If not, students will have to come up with alternative answers.

• What do they look like?
• What can they see around?
• Any roads?
• Any cars?
• Any trees?

Say: They can still hear the screeches. The screeches have turned to moaning now. Something is in that cave and it is hurting. Your mission is to discover what it is and save it. Come up with a plan (or plans if you have a large group).

As students suggest their plans, roll the dice until one plan has a good chance to succeed.

As soon as they start carrying out their plan, tell them that something went wrong and half the group were captured by the armed men.

If you have a larger class, divide them into two groups (or three groups in case anyone stayed behind in the camping site). One group will play the role of the captured people; the second group, the ones who escaped; and the third group, the people who stayed in the camping site (if that is the case). Give each group one of the cards below.

If you have a small class or are working with one student, develop each of the situations separately.

Note to teacher: go around offering help to the different groups.

Ask the groups to present their decisions and what they found out. Challenge their suggestions by rolling the dice.

With the whole class, execute the plan to save the captured friends and the creature (by this time everybody knows what creature it is.

My person experience: In one of my groups, it was a mermaid; in another, a blue and red dolphin, in another a giant singing crab. In the case of the mermaid, they gave her special powers to use her voice to break chains.

Roll the dice as they suggest their plans, starting with very low odds (I was using a six-faced die, so I started with “only if you get a 6, will you succeed) and improving the odds until one of the plans is successful. If the plan fails, ask them why it failed, and so on.

When they finally succeed, say: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

• Why were you captured? What went wrong?
• What is inside the cave? What creature is it? Why are the men guarding it so carefully? What’s special about it?
• Where are your capturers keeping you?
• You also hear them say that they will fly the “creature” in a helicopter to a ship tomorrow.

• How did you escape?
• Where are you now?
• Devise a plan to save the ones who were captured.

• Your friends have not come back. You are terribly worried.
• What are you going to do now?