The school holidays are what students always look forward to as they get to rest and have fun. There are no classes, and they get more free time to do what they want.
During school holidays, tuition classes usually continue to keep the students on track, so that they are more prepared for school when they head back.
This is much to the dread of many students because of their negative association with learning.
But you can change that as a tutor!
Here are three ideas to make school holidays a meaningful one for your students.
Special lesson plans
Although there still is tuition, students deserve to have some fun during the holidays. There are many ways that you can incorporate fun into your lesson plans so that students can play and learn effectively at the same time.
1. Fun and Games
Apart from the usual worksheets and assessment books, you can make use of different materials to make your lessons more engaging. Games make everything more fun!
Organising games for your students do not have to be complex. You can use simple materials such as flashcards, or even no materials at all.
Here are some game ideas:
1.1 English: ‘Guess Who?’
Students will be given a group of fictional people to look at, and you will decide on one of the fictional characters at the start of the round.
The students will have to guess the fictional character that you chose by asking related questions on the character’s appearance.
This game will promote students’ understanding of adjectives and descriptions, as well as hone their communication skills.
1.2 Math: Taboo Multiples
Decide on a number and make the multiples of that number taboos. Students have to recite numbers ascending from 1, but must replace the taboo numbers with a word.
The aim of the game is to familiarise students with the multiplication tables and train their focus and reflexes.
1.3 Science: Density & Floating
Get your student to put different objects into a container of water and notice how different objects float differently in the same water.
Simple experiments like these can be done up to show students how the density of different objects can affect the way they float.
1.4 History & Literature: Acting them out
Since History and Literature are event-based, you can get your students to act out certain scenes so that they can immerse themselves into the roles and remember the events better.
1.5 Geography: Locating places on the map
Give your students a world map and let them play simple games like crossword puzzles to locate the right countries or continents.
This will help them to familiarise themselves with geographical locations.
2. Outdoors field trip
Many would think that tuition is constricted within a home or classroom.
Although uncommon, some tutors do take their students outside to have physical, hands-on learning journeys and stimulate their senses. The results might surprise you!
Here are some ideas:
- Science: Discover and observe the different plants, flowers or insects outside
- Math: Grocery shopping to practise calculations, measuring the length of different objects
- Language: Playground to identify different items, materials and actions
- History: Historical places
- Literature: Act out plays at suitable venues that may resemble the scene
- Geography: Discovery centres
But if you do bring your students out, remember to ask their parents for their consent and be extremely careful with the students’ safety.
Get to know your students better
Students who have a close bond with their teachers are more likely to feel comfortable enough to open up and bring up any questions that they have in mind.
It is important for students to clarify whatever doubts that they may encounter in their learning, in order for them to have a good understanding.
For your students to feel comfortable with you, you can spend some time during the holiday lessons, when their pace is less hectic, to have some proper conversations with them. Get to know what kind of problems they face, what kind of help do they need, etc.
A tutor’s job is not just limited to coaching academic materials, because if your students’ wellbeing isn’t taken care of, it will be a challenge for them to excel academically as well.
By getting to know them better, you will be able to understand how you can best help them in their learning.
Work on their weak areas
This is something that many tutors might have already thought of, but I would suggest always kickstarting the holidays by doing some fun stuff like the ones I’ve mentioned above, first, before working on their academics.
A good break is always necessary to refuel the students’ motivation. If they are forced to do the same thing (worksheets, assessment books) over and over again, they will eventually develop hate for learning and lose the drive to work hard.
So, after you’ve done some engaging activities like the ones above, you can then slowly shift the focus back to academics and encourage your student to make good use of the precious school holidays to catch up on their weak topics.
Students will definitely have some loopholes in their understanding here and there, and the school holidays are a good time for them to strengthen their foundation so that they can start the new term ready to learn new things.
Conclusion
The school holidays are a good opportunity for your students to accomplish many things such as having fun, recharging, and improving themselves.
As a tutor, you have the power to make holiday tuition classes meaningful for your students. I hope that this article has been helpful in giving you some ideas to do just that!
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