The last two weeks were by far my favorite two weeks
so far. The week I have been waiting for all year has come and gone and it was
all that I hoped it to be. 4-H camp was a blast. During camp I did a variety of
activities and classes. On Tuesday our first day of classes I taught our low
ropes class and I got to do different challenge course elements with the kids. Out
of all the activities at camp the challenge course is one of my favorite
places. It is a place that pushes the kids out of their comfort zone while also
helping them form bonds with the other kids they are interacting with. At camp
I also taught a day of our CIT class. For this class I had a four hour block in
which I wanted the Counselors in Training to learn the roles of being a
counselor and different qualities they needed to have. We went over different
roles that campers, CIT’s and, counselors have and then we played different ice
breaker games, and time filler games. The great part about all the games we
played is that they all were done without any equipment. This allows them to be
able to play games with the kids whenever they need to kill some cabin time or
even just help them stay in control in an easier and fun way. At camp I also
got to experience the disciplinarian side of the agent, when we had a child
that had to be sent home and all the steps that are embedded in the process.
During camp I also helped lead an activity during free recreation and our great
race.
After
we got back from camp I had to get the ball rolling on the final details of my
Farmer’s Market Day Camp. This was my project I did for the summer. For my day
camp I was told that it started at 11 and ended at 6 other than that I was
given free range to do as I wish with the day camp. In my day camp I taught the kids three
different reasons on why to shop at the farmer’s market. We talked about sustainability and in the
class they all got to plant their own herb into a water bottle and they had
stickers from food bought from Kroger and Walmart that showed where all of our
food comes from. This was a visual to show kids that the money we spend on food
is leaving our area and we could easily keep it here. The second class they did
was on freshness; in this class they did taste testing. We had fresh fruits and
some vegetables that they tried and then we had a either canned or Walmart bought
version of the same item. In this they compared smell, size, texture and flavor
of the different foods. They tried corn, apples, peaches, and tomatoes. They also
learned knife safety. In the last class they focused on food identification. Knowing
what foods are offered at the farmers market is important. So once they were
able to identify all the foods they did an activity called food art, in which
we had different fruits and veggies cut up in different ways and they made
pictures out of their food, we had a clover group, a mermaid, a bicycle and
more. This turned out really well. After they were finished with that they got
to eat their vegetables.
Lastly
during our day camp the kids got to make their own dinner. There were five groups
and each group made a side of the meal. We had zucchini chips, green beans and
potatoes, black bean corn salsa, pretzel crusted chicken, peach blueberry
cobbler and homemade vanilla ice cream. The meal portion took the most planning
because all the fresh food was donated from local farmers. This part was the
most exciting for me because I think it is very important for kids to learn
that healthy food taste good and that eating local is easier than it looks.
I still have have three more weeks but, I am ready to finish strong and continue having a great time in the process.
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