End of Summer Means Back to School Fun

It seems like we just started having fun this summer, and now it is time to head back to school. So what better way to kick off the school year than with a back to school bash the 4-H way?

Our cloverbuds started off by making their own treasure boxes using pasta to create texture and then spray painted their boxes to make it a really cool and unique design. The juniors were busy with their own creative design at the time as they got pillow cases ready to tie-dye. They each used their own twists and turns to create patterns and then got colorful with the dye to express themselves in a unique way.

While the paint and dye started drying it was off to the next project. The cloverbuds worked on decorating their very own flower pot pencil holders and creating their own flower pens to stick in it to help brighten their day. The juniors brightened their day by making sun catchers to hang in their rooms, lockers or wherever else they might brighten their days.

After a quick snack it was time to work on bookmarks. Each one personally decorated with bright colors names, and for some the somber thought that they might need their book marks right around the corner. For others, who love to read, it is impossible to have too many bookmarks and they just couldn't wait to use their new tool.

Bookmarks lead to a personal story through collages. The cloverbuds used cards to make their own holiday placemats while the juniors cut out magazine photos to talk about what is important now and show what they want in the future. They were very creative, cutting out photos that represent things like the road they want to take, how they don't want to waste time, and the things they hope to enjoy in life.

When it was time to go everyone got to take home a 4-H backpack loaded down with all sorts of supplies that will come in handy when they go to school. They also got an insulated 4-H lunch bag, and a few snacks that they can enjoy as they adjust to their school schedules from summer. Even though the 4-H back to school fun day marks our official end to summer, we are looking forward to hearing about school experiences, and more 4-H programs during the rest of the year.

Cooking Up Some Fun!

It was our last day of Cloverbud Day Camp and did we ever cook up some food, toys and fun! We started the day with a new team game that went over really well...well okay the balloons went over our heads (as planned) really well.
To help celebrate our last day Mrs. Janice made smoothies and we had an unofficial smoothie mustache contest. It was really neat and the smoothies, according to Jayce were, "really nasty but good!" We drank up all the smoothie mixture and then headed into our groups with Mrs. Christy and Mrs. Janice. We decorated our recycled cans from Thursday and decided how we were going to use them. With Mrs. Janice we made our own tortilla chips from whole wheat tortillas and Mrs. Janice's homemade seasoning. We also baked our chocolate chip cookies that we made the dough for on Wednesday. It has been in a freezer in a log and all we had to do is slice off a cookie. It was fun.
After lunch we had a very special visitor. Miss Michelle from Richmond County came for a visit with her rabbit Carolina (she has two rabbits the other one's name is Virginia). Her rabbit weighs about 20 pounds and is on the endangered species list. We learned all about rabbits, endangered species, wild animals vs. domestic animals and we even got to pet Carolina. We saw her food and even got to see her give herself a bath. It was extra special neat!!!!
After our visitor we got a little wild and carefree cooking ourselves a toy.
Miss. Shea Ann let us break up into groups and we made super sweet play dough. We used butter, powered sugar, corn syrup, salt and vanilla. It was lots of fun to make and even more fun to add color to. We each got to take some home to play with. It was lots of fun.
Then we settled in for our afternoon snack. We each got to have a chocolate chip cookie and try our chips and salsa. The chips and salsa were extra special good and we made the biggest chocolate chip cookies ever. After snack we got our last playtime with all our new friends and gave great big hugs to all our adults who helped keep us busy all week. We all are excited about coming back next year for even more hands on fun and accidental learning.

Cloverbuds Get Down and Dirty

As soon as we started the day all the cloverbuds knew they were going to get the chance to play in dirt (for those serious gardeners I should say soil...but dirt translates so much better to 5-8 year olds) and most were excited about this opportunity. Of course there was lots of fun to happen before we got down to shoveling dirt.

We started the morning by splitting into groups to play lots of games that get us moving. They are all fun games we can play at home and will keep in motion and away from televisions and computers. We got to dance to High School Musical Music on a dance mat. We hopped around on our hopscotch rug. Then we fell all over ourselves to play twister, and had all sorts of fun rolling the fitness dice and following the instructions. It was all a sample of different ways to be entertained and maintain movement in our lives and help build the foundation for a healthier lifestyle.

After our morning snack we split into groups to work with Mrs. Christy and Mrs. Janice. We worked on recycling cans and offering a new purpose to them. Today we painted them, and other accessories (that will be magnetic) and will get to decorate them tomorrow. Mr.s Janice taught us how to make salsa. We got to stir and measure and find out all about cilantro. We will try the salsa on Friday after it sits and we make chips to go with it.

After lunch and story time Mrs. Kerrie came to visit. She told us all about plants and that it takes sun, water, air and nutrients (or food) for plants to grow. Miss. Shea Ann said love was also involved and Mrs. Kerrie said it might be five things it takes for a plant to grow. She read Jack and the Beanstalk to us and then she let us decorate our very own pots. After she showed us that a plant doesn't have to be in a pot to grow. We planted a bean seed in a wet paper towel and put it in a plastic bag. When it sprouts we will plant it in a pot and let it grow even bigger. She also let us plant beans in our decorated pots. We added our own soil to them and made the hole for the seed and watered them. It was lots of fun.

For snack we got to have sweet potato chips with yogurt dip. Mrs. Janice dehydrated thin slices of sweet potatoes until they were crispy and then we dipped them in a special dip we helped make on Tuesday. It was really good.

We ended the day by finding out that a hamburger could be a plant. Everything in and on a hamburger comes from plants. We even had the chance to design and draw our own hamburger plants and share them with everyone. Mrs. Kerrie drew one also and we had a contest to see who had the best drawing. Miss Shea Ann said it was a tie.

At the end of the day we had learned all about plants and had become official gardeners. We had recycled and learned some fun healthy cooking recipes. Just one more day to go. Can't wait to see what is in store.

4-H goes Greener

If Wednesday had a theme it would be recycling day. Almost all of our activities centered around using, reusing, reducing and of course having a bunch of fun. We started our day in the normal way with our games that encouraged teamwork and sportsmanship. We revived the game of Hot Potato and had a blast passing the ball and finding new ways to work together and not against each other to win.

After our rousing games and morning snack we split up and worked with Mrs. Christy and Mrs. Janice. Mrs. Janice showed us how to make chocolate chip cookie dough (with and without eggs for those that have allergies) and a healthy wiggly jiggly jello snack. We worked on cookie sheet memo boards with Mrs. Christy. Each memo board shows each campers personality and creativity. It will also allow magnetic reminders, pin up notes and all sorts of other things for parents to help communicate with us.

Lunch time was as active as always and then we settled down to story time with Mrs. Tanya. She read us a Sr. Seuss story and then the Buccaneer Bunny. She even brought a recycle craft for us to do. We made picture frames frames recycled two liter Coca-Cola (and Diet Coke) bottles. Then we played a really fun game, "Who wants to Buy my Donkey". It was lots of fun and Mrs. Tanya was really great to come play with us.

After Mrs. Tanya left Megan and Mrs. Jane came by to do have more recycling fun with us. We made our own American Flags then decorated Cd's to make really neat wall hangings. In between we tried our wiggly jiggly jello jigglers and it was really good. How could purple and blue jello full of fruit be anything but good?

We ended our day playing our favorite freeze game on the carpet. We lay down and whoever moves first is out. It gave us a chance to think about all the fun we had and how much more is still to come.

Focus on Teamwork Tuesday

If you ask the cloverbuds it was a day of games, food, crafts and fun. If you look harder you might find that they had a day of learning how to work together as a team, communication and group dynamics, all disguised as fun hands on learning opportunities.

We started the day with some team working games that included team relay with balloons and a creative passing game that let the youth do a little problem solving. There was a lot of fun, tons of laughs, and a few worn out giggles as we went through the really fun process.

After morning snack we got to visit with Mrs. Christy and Mrs. Janice. We recycled old Cd's into personalized photo frames and made a healthy snack of banana popsicles. Actually the snack, which was lots of fun to make, involved bananas on a stick with strawberry banana yogurt and then sprinkled with chocolate chips, sprinkles, coconut or whatever we wanted to put on them.

After lunch we had story time, and are learning all about chicken little. After that we split up into groups and worked on a special leather craft project. we had a choice of a pencil case, mouse pad, journal or change purse to make. We learned how to sew them when we put them together and then personalized our works of art with markers. After testing our yummy banana Popsicles, we worked on a wood craft project. We each got either a photo frames, puzzle or stand up characters to decorate with our own personal decorations. After we played a really neat freeze game. Tomorrow we will have a rematch to see if we can determine an ultimate winner.

Lots-O-4-H-Fun!

The first day of Cloverbud day camp is a treat every year and needless to say this year is no different. For those of you not familiar with the 4-H lingo, Cloverbuds are our 5 to 8 year old youth. In the 4-H world they get a chance to see and experience a lot of what our older youth do but not in a competitive role. Often the cloverbuds try it out and receive ribbons, and ideas on how to improve and by the time they are juniors (ages 9-13). However Cloverbud day camp is a little different because this is often the first introduction these youth have to 4-H and the experience that can lie ahead.

The cloverbud day camp has a set schedule each day. The difference for them is that different volunteers come in to visit and we do all sorts of fun hands on projects everyday. Today being the first day we started with the normal get to know you games, making our rules and consequences, and just trying to figure out where we all fit in. We are also lucky that we have two teen leaders helping this week Chris and Tierra. They will probably show up in our pictures each day and we are excited that they are helping with all the fun.

One of their favorite projects are working with Christy and Janice. Christy Strickland, a Family and Consumer Science Agent will be working with the youth all week on green crafts. They will learn all about recycling, leaving a smaller carbon foot print, and how to have fun find another purpose for every day items. Today they used potatoes, carrots and celery as paint stamps to create their own green frogs on their own reusable bags. They will get their finished bags on Friday along with all the others things they will make with Christy this week.

Janice Fields is also a Family and Consumer Science Agent and her speciality is teaching healthy cooking and nutrition. She worked with our cloverbuds talking about whole grains and they got a chance to make their own afternoon snack, a whole grain shake snack. They mixed all sorts of whole grain goodies together like cheerios, wheat chex and pretzels add some homemade taco seasoning and had a yummy treat to snack on in the afternoon.

After lunch we played all sorts of neat games with Mrs. Stacie from Exploration Station. We even made animal collages and made our own animal boogie oogie dance moves up. She had soo much fun that she even gave us tickets to visit her at the Exploration Station after our Cloverbud day camp. We had tons of fun.

Then Ms. Shelly and Miss Scarlet from the library came to visit. We heard all about the library and the different programs going on at all the libraries around the county. Then we made tie-dye handkerchief by drawing designs with sharpie markers. After we were done drawing we painted them with rubbing alcohol which made the designs run and looked like tie-dye designs. They were so cool. Ms. Shelly also gave everyone a pencil which will help us get ready for school in a couple of weeks.

After our yummy snack time we got ready to do a community service project. We created some really neat art work and with a little help we cut it out and pasted it to the bottom of a clear gem. Then Miss. Shea Ann helped us attach a magnet. We chose one to give away to someone we don't know and brighten their day, and got to take the rest of them home with us. they were really neat.

After processing our day we got a little play time and we are looking forward to tomorrow. who knows what is in store? Can't wait until tomorrow to see.

Up to our Shins in Biotech

It might have been our last day for 4-H Biotech camp but it was a doosy. Today we travelled to Fort Fisher Aquarium to learn about the biology of crabs, and other marine animals. Of course it didn't hurt that we got to get wet too.

The morning started with salt water crabbing, at the Fort Fisher Aquarium. Our staff leaders gave us instructions on equipment and helped us split up into pairs, before our hike toward the ocean. We stopped at a little inlet and baited our safety pin hooks with little fish and cast it near us in the water. As something nibbled on our fish we tried to scoop it up in our nets. We had several crabs caught by our wiley crab catchers. After catching the crabs we examined them and learned weather or not they were male or female and why. We saw one that only had one claw and learned that crabs have a defense mechanism that allows them to drop a leg or claw if something has hold of it so they can get away. Their leg or claw will grow back over time and they can function well with out it in the meantime. All the crabs we caught were released back into the inlet without being harmed.

After leaving the water, and changing into dry shoes and clothes we had lunch and then headed back into the aquarium. There we got to see an albino alligator like we heard about at the science museum on Monday. We also got see poisonous tree frogs, all sorts of marine life like fish, stingrays, and sharks. We learned about lobsters and whales and got to see the diver in the big fish tank as he talked to us about the fish he was swimming with. There were eels and seahorses, and stuff we just don't normally see. It was a fun filled day that gave us learning, opened up new avenues, and made us think about our future.

We are hoping to have another program next year with new adventures and new opportunities to see what the world of biotech has in store for us now and in the future.