April and May are busy days for myself but I enjoy them more than any other month because I get to be outside! Another reason I love spring so much is all the Farm to School Days I get to attend. Several schools in Rockingham County host a Farm to School Day for students to learn more about where their food comes from and general agriculture. Keister Elementary, Stone Spring Elementary, Lacey Spring Elementary, and Plains Elementary School are just a few to name.
4-H Butterfly Club
Due to all the snow days we have had lately it’s been a while since the last post! However, things are going full swing with the NEW 4-H Butterfly after-school club at Mt View Elementary. Club members are busy learning about butterflies, why they are important, and working on club projects. The first club project that members were tasked to complete was to build their own butterfly out of recycled materials and to include a moving part on their model. Let me say that we were excited that they were SO into doing this project that it took a little longer than expected-club members will finish next club meeting to present their models to the group. In addition to learning about butterflies, the members are completing club projects with a STEM approach and learning about 4-H leadership at each meeting. Check out the photo’s below!
4-H has partnered with several Rockingham County school’s to provide Character Counts! education in a fun and new way! Teaching methods range from a CC! Superhero visit to lunchrooms and classes, reviewing short film clips of movies to discuss positive and negative character, and learning character through visual experiments. This week I covered the CC! pillar Respect (yellow).
ROCKETS!
I love when we are teaching students STEM without them even knowing it because they are having so much fun! Using the 4-H curriculum guide Rockets to the Rescue is an easy way to do this! Participants are given materials to create their own rocket-but no instructions on specifics of the design. May sound a little daunting huh? Nope! These kids LOVED creating their own rocket by design and were making friends with their partners that they had never met. The final test was to see if their rocket could launch 20ft away into a hula hoop (the target). They were given a test run and if their design didn’t seem to work they were back to the drawling table to redesign! Interested in learning more about Rockets to the Rescue? Contact me!
*This was a workshop that I helped with for the Augusta County 4-H Program
Colored milk? You may ask what this has to do with career day at South River Elementary that I attended today. First off, let me start by saying that besides myself I had my co-worker Jeremy Daubert (Dairy Extension Agent) come along to talk with the kids. Virginia Cooperative Extension has MANY areas of help and support to offer besides the 4-H Program. In our office we have specialists that can help you with horticulture, crops, food & nutrition, finance, and livestock questions. Since Jeremy and myself grew up on dairy farms we both decided to combine our extension jobs and love of milk into a fun activity. I spoke to kids about the fun lessons and activities I have with kids and hopefully inspired some future educators! Jeremy went straight to the heart’s of all animal lover’s when he spoke about his visits to farms and cute pictures of cows with their baby calves. I have a feeling that we could have earned best career presentation in the eyes of the kids and out done the fire trucks and police cars if we would have brought a cow and baby calf. However, with the dreary morning and persistent rain showers we stuck to the indoors.
Want to learn more about the job of a 4-H educator and what we have to offer? Contact us ! Not only do I go to career day’s-I can also present to your faculty and staff!
Milk Experiments
The above presentation of colored milk was achieved by simply mixing powdered Jell-O mixes with milk. Check out this website below for a cool science experiment with milk:
