Contents ‘Learning Through Sharing’… Autumn Family Activities More Activities Snack Idea Money Matters Campus Connection Party Ideas

‘Learning Through Sharing’…Utilizing the Skills and Talents of Older 4-H Youth

Mature, self-confident, resourceful, older 4-H youth are one of the greatest assets to you, the 4-H volunteer leader in creating a ‘Learning through Sharing’ educational environment for 4-H youth. Older 4-H youth can serve in a variety of capacities, serving as a role model, a mentor, and a teacher, coach and friend to their younger 4-H counterparts. To create a ‘Learning through Sharing’ educational environment, 4-H volunteer leaders in cooperation with older 4-H youth need to promote fun, sharing and cooperation, allow children to be creative, provide lots of encouragement, and promote parental assistance. Here are some ideas:

Role Model: Older 4-H youth will automatically become a role model by helping and working with younger 4-H youth. Encourage them to think about their actions, how they talk, and what image they put forth. As a role model, older 4-H youth can give support and recognition, foster friendships, have fun, share in the joys and problems that younger 4-H youth encounter, let members know they care, and just be there for them.

Mentor: The 4-H Leadership Development project, ‘One-on-One’ provides an excellent ‘hands-on’ learning experience for older 4-H youth. It provides older 4-H youth the opportunity to serve as a mentor for a younger 4-H member. The ‘One-on-One’ leadership development project encourages older 4-H youth to serve as a source of support and information for their younger 4-H protege, helping them to be able to complete their first year of 4-H, providing younger 4-H members with a ‘buddy support system’ within their club, and improving communication by having mentors serve as a liaison between the club and parents of first year members.

Teacher, Coach, and Friend: 4-H volunteer leaders are encouraged to utilize the skills and talents of older 4-H youth to teach some of the various learning activities outlined in the Ohio 4-H Cloverbud Curriculum or other related educational activities. Having older 4-Hers teach the various educational activities to younger 4-H youth not only increase their leadership and communication skills, but can create a lasting 4-H friendship with these youth.

Day Camp Counselor: Many counties offer a day camp program for their 4-H Cloverbud youth. Encourage older 4-H youth to get involved as a counselor. Many of the programming activities that are presented in the day camp setting can be adapted for local club meetings.

Source: Cynthia R. Shuster, Associate Professor, Extension Agent, Family & Consumer Sciences, Community Development, Perry County, Ohio.

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Autumn Family Activities

Cloverbuds love to take part in festive activities. You may want to try some of these ideas with your group.

Autumn Outdoor Activities

Nature is full of wonderful changes that happen during autumn. Spend some time as a family exploring these changes.

• Do you know why tree leaves change colors? It has to do with the length of time the sun is out providing them with a substance called chlorophyll. When the days shorten during autumn, there is less sun and, therefore, less chlorophyll and the tree leaves begin to lose their green color, letting their natural color come out. Different varieties of trees turn different colors.
• Do some exploring. Make a leaf collection and see how many different varieties, colors, and types of leaves you can collect.
• Press the leaves between some heavy books or catalogs for several days. When you check them, see what has happened. Have they changed? Why? Try saving them in an album so you can enjoy looking at them as winter approaches.

  When spring arrives, try to match the colored leaves and their shape to the correct spring tree. Compare the colored leaves to springtime green leaves.

• Make a wreath using colorful leaves. Collect beautiful colored leaves before they get dry. Glue to a straw wreath having leaves overlap. Parents may need to assist children with the glue. Hang the wreath where the whole family will enjoy looking at it.
• Animals make changes in autumn. Observe your pet. Do you notice any changes? Check the thickness of the fur. Is it different? Why do you think it is changing? Are there other changes?
• Observe the birds and squirrels. What are they doing? Have you noticed the squirrels carrying nuts and seeds to be stored for winter? Where do they take them? Where do squirrels live? What do you think they are preparing for? How are the birds changing? Do they stay in your backyard? Do some birds move south? Why?
• How do humans change during autumn? Watch your parents or neighbors to see what they do to make changes during this season while they get ready for the next. Do they do things to the house? Do they change clothing styles? Do they buy different foods? Observe what happens and draw some pictures to show the changes.

Source: OSU Extension Family Life Month Packet, 1999.

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More Activities

• Invite friends for a themed play date. Choose a theme such as a pirate event, circus fun, or wild west adventure. Plan for friends to help make decorations or needed props from cardboard boxes and other items around the house and garage (always ask permission before using items). Use some of the following activities or use your imagination to do others.
• Play bean bag, ring, or balloon toss.
• Paint faces or apply washable tattoos.
• Use hula hoops as circus "rings" and have children practice and perform circus, pirate, or wild west acts.
• Set up an obstacle course by crawling under a table, somersault on a pillow, jump through a hoop, etc.
• Make animal masks from paper plates. Children act out the animals.
• Make a masking tape "tightrope" on the floor. Performers walk the line.
• Serve animal crackers by letting children cut animal shapes out of sliced cheese and serve with crackers.

Source: 1994-1995, Let's Party, West Virginia Dept. of Education, Office of Child Nutrition. In OSU Extension Family Life Month Packet, 1999.

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Snack Idea

Apples are plentiful during autumn. Wash, core, and slice fresh apples. Allow the Cloverbuds to eat the apples plain, spread them with peanut butter, or dip them in caramel sauce. Serve the apples with milk for a nutritious snack.

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Money Matters

Below is information adapted from the Get Current on U.S. Currency resource kit. Use it to teach Cloverbuds about the security features of the redesigned currency. You may want to use this information as a supplement to the Mall Mania lesson in Cloverbud Curriculum Series II.

Show Cloverbuds a new and an old $5.00 bill. Ask them how they are different. Point out which bill is new and which is old. Ask the Cloverbuds to guess why the Treasury Department changed the design of the money. The Treasury Department designed the new bills with security features so they are easier to identify as real and to keep people from making fake money.

Although the same pictures appear on the front and the back of the old and new money, the portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the new bill is larger, more detailed, and is positioned to the left of center.

The new currency also has a security thread that is embedded vertically in the bills. When held up to light, the thread, which is about 1 inch from the left side on the front of the $5.00 bill, appears blue. The thread can be seen from either side of the bill. The microprinted words say ‘USA FIVE’ on the $5.00 bill. The thread is a different color and is located in a different place in each denomination of new currency.

For fun, show the Cloverbuds a new $10.00 and $20.00 bill. Have them try to find the security thread, identify itās color, and read what is says. On the $10.00 bill the thread is to the right of the portrait of Alexander Hamilton. The thread glows orange. The words ‘USA TEN’ and a flag symbol are repeated on it. On the $20.00 bill the thread is located to the left of the Federal Reserve System logo on the front of the bill. It glows green. The words ‘USA TWENTY’ and a flag symbol are repeated on it.

The new currency also has an ingrained watermark that appears in the white space to the far right of the portrait. Visible from both sides of the bill when held up to the light, the watermark contains the same image as the billās portrait.

A large numeral printed on the back lower right corner makes it easier to read the denomination. Although the $5.00 bill does not contain this feature, the lower right number on the front of the other new bills changes from green to black and back when the bills are tilted.

Currency Tidbits

Is paper money made from paper? No. Paper currency is printed on material made of 25 percent linen and 75 percent cotton.

What happens to bills that are worn and torn. Show your group a bill that is in bad condition. Citizens with bills that are worn or torn can take them to a bank and exchange them. The bank sends worn-out money to the Federal Reserve. They destroy it by burning or shredding it. The average life span for currency ranges from 18 months for a $1.00 bill to 9 years for a $100.00 bill. Most $5.00 bills are in circulation for 2 years.

Additional Resources to Help You

Get Current on U.S. Currency is a resource kit developed by the Department of the Treasury to help provide fun, entertaining ways to teach our youth to know their money. The kit contains worthwhile information, activities, a quiz, and a word-find. Order a kit by writing to New Designs for Your Money, Attn: Education Services, 1801 K Street, NW, Suite 1000-L, Washington, DC 20006 or faxing: 202-530-4500.

Check out the following websites for more materials that are both educational and entertaining:

Bureau of Engraving and Printing www.moneyfactory.com
U.S. Treasury Department www.ustreas.gov
U.S. Mint www.usmint.gov
Federal Reserve System www.federalreserve.gov

Adapted from Get Current on U.S. Currency by Joyce Shriner, Extension Agent, FCS, OSU Extension, Hocking County.

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Campus Connection

Hello Cloverbud Volunteers!!!

Believe it or not, the autumn/fall season is upon us whether we like it or not. As you plan your Cloverbud get- togethers and group activities where ‘learning is fun,’ think about how to take advantage of things uniquely autumn. This strategy will help you make the activities a ‘sensory experience’ for the children. Sensory experiences engage the learner not only by what they hear, but also with what they feel, touch, taste, and smell. Cloverbud activities become so much more meaningful when we can connect with as many of the children’s information receptors as possible.

The autumn season is full of special visual colors of reds, browns, and oranges; smells of frosty mornings or food cooking; sounds of leaves rustling or wind blowing; touch sensations of snow falling or the taste of pumpkin pie. Make your Cloverbud activities more meaningful this autumn by bringing your Cloverbud members’ senses to life as they see, touch, taste, smell, and hear their way to greater levels of understanding. In doing so we can enhance life skills such as learning to learn, physical mastery, and self-understanding.

Thanks for all that you do as Cloverbud Leaders and Advisors!!

Have FUN!

Scott D. Scheer
State Extension Specialist,
4-H Youth Development, Preadolescent Education

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Party Ideas

• Make "spiders" by painting paper egg carton sections black and inserting 4 large black pipe cleaners and pasting on eyes.
• Play Monster Mash (a variation of musical chairs) using spooky music or sound effects.
• Have a costume changing relay race.
• Freeze water in a food handler's disposable glove. Remove the glove and add the "frozen hand" to the punch to create a bewitching brew.
• Using seasonal cookie cutters, cut party shapes out of prepared sandwiches.

Source: Let's Party, West Virginia Department of Education, Office of Child Nutrition 1994 - 1995. In OSU Extension Family Life Month Packet, 1999.

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Keith L. Smith, Associate Vice President for Ad. Admin. and Director, OSU Extension TDD No. 800-589-8292 (Ohio only) or 614-292-1868