By Sonja Heineck | Marketing Manager
DAKTARI opened its bush school in 2006 - making this our 10-year anniversary!
Some might think that means we have everything down to a science - all the lessons are set in stone and ready to go, every class runs like clockwork, each week is simply repetition.
This couldn't be further from the truth! While we are far from "winging it", the teaching program gets constant attention. We strive to provide the best experience for the volunteers that visit us and, of course, the children coming to camp. This means that the teaching program needs to be improved all the time.
In the past several months, it has had a lot of work done. From simple statistic updates to completely rewriting lessons, we put a shiny new face on the teaching program. Thankfully, our small staff doesn't have to do it alone! The volunteers that come to DAKTARI and teach the lessons each week are crucial in helping us revise the program.
Recently, some our volunteers found that the Knowledge Hunt lesson, designed to reinforce the animal facts we teach, needed to be enhanced. Instead of filling out a worksheet while walking around the camp, the volunteers designed an intricate, 14-clue scavenger hunt! The kids LOVE it and will often run from clue to clue, trying to be the first team to finish.
Our bush walk also got a new activity. Normally, the children present facts about different trees that you can find in the African bush while we take our Thursday morning walk. In order the make sure the other students are paying attention, the volunteers added Tree Fact Bingo to the walk. Each child gets a bingo sheet and can only check a box once they can name the tree that corresponds with the fact in the box. It's been a big success and the children are paying more attention during their classmates' presentations!
As always, we feel very lucky and grateful to have such engaged, excited, and creative volunteers who help make our program better every day. To learn more about joining them, check out the link below!
Until next time,
The DAKTARI Team
Links:
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