My Last Day in the Office

Today is my final day down here with Albemarle 4-H. I have had a great summer, met awesome people, participated in awesome events, learned lots, and had fun! I am glad I had another opportunity work with Karrin and spend my summer with a great group of people and amazing children. The workshops we hosted, camp week we planned, Boys and Girls Club events we helped with, and all the planning and organizing we did was definitely worth the hour and fifteen minute drive down here every day this summer. I enjoyed working with the other 4-H/ANR intern Courtney and feel like we both had a successful summer. It was nice to have another set of hands to help with all kinds of projects and another person to talk through ideas with. I have thoroughly enjoyed all ten weeks of this internship!
In 8 days I will begin a semester of student teaching in Rockingham County, and will finish up my college degree. After that, you may see me back around this area or in another extension office around the state. Only time will tell where I will end up, but I know I will never be far from 4-H. :)
Thank you everyone for making my summer such a great one! I'll see you soon!

Food Challenge

Yesterday, Courtney, Karrin, and I all hosted a Food Challenge Workshop. The workshop lasted for 6 hours, and boy were we all full by the time the workshop ended! Food Challenge is a new competition for 4-H members where youth are given a list and some ingredients as well as a clue and they must figure out what they are supposed to make based on what they are given. There is a pantry that the children may go to and then they must prepare their dish, find and document nutrition information, and find the costs of the dish they prepared. A big part of this challenge is to include as many food groups as possible into your meal. This is where MyPlate comes in and introduces children to the 5 food groups: grains, dairy, vegetables, fruits, and protein. We had all kinds of dishes we made yesterday that had between 4-5 food groups present in each! We made: blueberry pancakes, french toast, turkey sloppy joe, a chicken nacho/taco salad, taco macaroni and cheese, chicken salad, and Italian pizza dip. Everything turned out awesome and was quite tasty!
We had a larger list of children who signed up to come to the workshop but we only had two children show up so Courtney and I joined our one girl participant and Scott, a volunteer, joined the boy participant and we did girls versus boys for each dish we prepared. Karrin had chosen the recipes so Courtney and I didn't know what we were making! It's harder than I thought it would be! It's like the tv show Chopped, only it's in real life!

Our rivals...the boys team! 

Taco Mac and Cheese and Chicken Salad

The girls' fabulous French Toast!

Chicken Nachos or Chicken Taco Salad, whichever you prefer!

Telling everyone about our dish's prep steps, nutrition facts, and cost.

As you can see in the pictures, we made a huge mess in the kitchen (which we cleaned up), ate tons of food, and learned about food safety and MyPlate nutrition. This was one of our most fun workshops we've had this summer!

Karrin is also looking at putting together a competition team next year if anyone is interested in joining a team and competing in the Food Challenge Competition. There are junior and senior teams, so it is open to lots of children of different ages! If they would have had this around when I was in 4-H I would have totally competed in this competition! It's awesome!

Junk Drawer Robotics Round 2!

Thursday and Friday of this week concluded our Junk Drawer Robotics Workshops! We had 6th-8th graders this week and made a variety of things. This week we made: movable hands, catapults, extended grabbers, cars that we raced, and drawbots. With lots of supplies we were able to make some awesome cars that raced very well! Everyone had fun and used their imaginations to come up with some awesome designs for everything we did! This week's workshop was one of our most successful workshops this summer! We are looking forward to our Food Challenge Workshop on Tuesday! 

Our group with our awesome racers!

Our cool hands that moved!

Constructing our cars to race!

Siblings!

All of our cool cars after the race!

We had fun! 

Junk Drawer Robotics Workshop

I spent yesterday morning and this morning teaching a Robotics Workshop for children. We ordered a kit from a 4-H Junk Drawer Robotics curriculum book and had lots of popsicle sticks, straws, marshmallows, rubber bands, and other fun materials to be super creative and make all kinds of STEM projects with. We made popsicle stick catapults, popsicle stick extended grabbers, bridges, and tons of other cool things! A big part of this workshop was to let the kids be creative and try to take something they envisioned and create it with materials. This was a success!

With the catapults we made, we discovered that heavier objects flew farther/better than light objects and we tried flinging ping pong balls, mini marshmallows, plastic Easter eggs, pieces of straws, and balls of duct tape to test our theory. We had a competition to see whose catapult could throw things the farthest, but it was pretty much the same.

Everyone used their imaginations and we used a lot of creativity over our 6 hour workshop! 

4-H Camp: Sun, Mosquitoes, and 209 People Having Fun

We made it back from Holiday Lake with all of our luggage, supplies, and campers! We had a successful week, and although we had some rain interrupt some of our afternoon activities, we had fun! Indoor campfire was not quite the same as having campfire outside, but we made sure the campers had as much time as possible outdoors! They played GauGau Ball, sand volleyball, 4 square, and many other games during free recreation times, and some of our evening activities included a scavenger hunt, a late night swim party (complete with glowsticks), and a Science Show!
There were classes to fit anyone's interests from canoeing to making things out of duct tape! Every morning was filled with fun class activities! Everyone had a good time!
The food at camp wasn't bad this year. Although the menu doesn't change very much from year to year, the campers get enough to eat and there is always salad bar and peanut butter and jelly bar (it's actually soy butter, but basically tastes the same as peanut butter) if someone would rather eat that. We had tacos, cafeteria square pizza, spaghetti, hot dogs, hamburgers, and chicken tenders just to list a few of the meals...Not bad for camp food! It got us through the day/night, but I wasn't upset to come home and make some of my own food...:)
I only had about 18 mosquitoes by the end of the week and after a 4 hour nap Friday, I was a little more functional and I was good to go! I had only had about 20(+/-) hours of sleep the whole camp week.
Overall, camp went by pretty smoothly and was one of the least hot, least stressful years I've had ever! I hope everyone else had just as much fun as I did! :)

The whole camp group!

We've Got Everything Except the Kitchen Sink Packed Up for 4-H Camp!

This week, we have been packing for 4-H camp next week! We have packed just about everything anyone could possibly need for a week away from home! Craft supplies, posters, game supplies, extra toiletries, gift bags, thank you notes, envelopes, duct tape, snacks, extra sunscreen...we've got it all! If we forgot anything, I'll be quite surprised!
I have been working REALLY hard on all of our Minute to Win It Game supplies! We have 11 games planned, and I have worked really hard to find good games, gather up all the supplies, label each bag of supplies, write instructions, etc....to make sure the games are flawless! I sure hope the campers enjoy them since I worked so hard to make them perfect!
I also will be teaching a class at camp, so I have been coming up with ideas for the class, finding recipes and instructions for different things we will be doing in class. We have lots of fun activities we'll be doing at camp and it is going to be a busy week! I just hope everything goes as planned.
I have a lot of packing to do at home this weekend, and a busy weekend planned, so this should be interesting! Hopefully I won't forget anything! If I do...there is a Walmart nearby. :)
We've all been working hard to get everything ready for camp, I can't believe it's almost time!!

Wacky Science Workshop Fun!

Monday and Tuesday, we hosted a Wacky Science Workshop. We had three participants come in for the two day workshop and we did all kinds of fun science activities! We made homemade slime, built our own volcano and made it erupt, we made instant snow, watched egg shells disappear in vinegar, learned about density by layering liquids with different densities in a clear cup, and watched what happens when you put Mentos in diet Coke! We did other experiments and had fun seeing what happens when you mix baking soda and vinegar together. On Monday, we had a surprise and NBC 29 News showed up to film us doing some science experiments and we got to be on the news! It was cool! Everyone had fun and learned a lot!

Check out one of our clips from the news! (They made two different ones and the second one was a little better, but this is the one they put up!)

http://www.nbc29.com/category/175568/video-landing-page?clipId=11657466&autostart=true

A Morning at the Lake...Holiday Lake, That Is...

We left the office this morning at 8:30 to drive down to the Holiday Lake 4-H Center and have our pre-camp meeting with the Nelson County Extension Agent and the summer staff leader down at camp. We went over our camp week schedule and plans, discussed events we need staff help with, and went over a few more details about our camp week before we took a little walk around the campground. Karrin and I knew what the campground is like, but we wanted to give the new intern, Courtney, a look around the camp at the cabins, dining hall, and other important areas. Everything went well and our short visit made us all excited for July 13th to get here so we can head to camp! We have a lot of packing and planning to do before then, but we'll get it done! :)

Boys and Girls Club Round Two

Dylan teaching a group of students about healthy breakfast meals

I spent my morning at the Boys and Girls Club in Charlottesville helping out the FNP intern with his nutrition program again this morning. I jumped in a little more today and helped him teach the class this time. One group was a huge group so we ended up splitting the class in two sections and I got to teach my own section. We had groups of the children in the classes come over, six at a time, and make blueberry-banana smoothies. The children all enjoyed being involved in making the smoothies and were anxious to try the smoothies as soon as they were done. Children learned about the different food groups: protein, dairy, fruits, vegetables, and grains, they also reviewed safe food handling techniques, and added onto their knowledge by learning about breakfast and healthy breakfast meal ideas. It was fun to hear the variety of foods that students had eaten for breakfast. They ranged from Bojangle's fried chicken with hot sauce to hot dogs, chips, and eggs, bacon and sausage. Many children had eaten cereal, and I was a little surprised by the number of students who had skipped breakfast. Breakfast is such an important meal, and the main lesson today was to let the students know how important it is to eat breakfast and to try to include at least 2 food groups in each meal to make them healthier and make them more nutritious. We discussed alternatives to some sweet cereals and unhealthy fried foods and tried to think of healthy fruits and veggies to incorporate into our breakfasts. 

The Blueberry-Banana Smoothie Recipe is:

1 Cup Blueberries
1 Banana

1 Cup Yogurt (we used strawberry)

1 and 1/2 cups milk

1 Cup Ice

Put all ingredients in the blender, blend until all ingredients are well mixed and smooth (our blender took about 8-10 seconds). Pour and enjoy! 

This is a healthy, fruit and dairy filled snack or breakfast item!

4-H Camp Counselor Training (& Ice Cream Social!)

I headed back down to the office on Saturday for the last camp counselor training session before camp in a few weeks! We played some games to help the teens from Nelson County and Albemarle County to get to know each other a little better, practiced singing some camp songs, learned about campers in different age groups, and took the Readiness for Camp Test to see if the teens were ready for a week of fun, supervision, and role modeling. We had a good turnout and almost all the teens were able to make it to this training session. It was fun to see the teens I met last year and meet the new counselors too! I had to leave a little early to get to my other job, but as I was leaving, the teens were getting ready to dive into some delicious ice cream with lots of fun, tasty toppings! This made me excited to get to camp and see what it is like this year!

A Day at the Boys and Girls Club

I spent all morning yesterday at the Boys and Girls Club helping another intern with their Food and Nutrition class. I arrived a little early, after missing my turn and having to hope for the best as I made random turns and miraculously made it to the correct entrance. I pulled in, helped the other intern, Dylan, carry some supplies inside, then began chopping up watermelon, capping strawberries, peeling and slicing kiwi, opening cans of pineapple, and washing grapes. These were all supposed to be made into fruit kebobs for the kids to eat after Dylan had taught his lesson about food safety and cross contamination. We also had strawberry yogurt for the kids to dip the fruit in which sometimes happened and sometimes didn't. My hands were covered in fruit juice the whole morning and it was a sticky situation, but a successful one! The kids loved the fruit and kept asking for more, which is a good sign! It was awesome to help the kids learn and watch as they tried new fruit. Many of the children were convinced that they didn't like kiwi, but after trying it, they changed their minds. One child came up to me and asked if I was peeling a potato, so I rolled the kiwi over so he could see the green inside and I asked him if it looked like a potato...he said "well, no...what is it?" So I told him that it was a kiwi and that he would get to try it in a second, and he loved it! It was a fun morning, and although it was a little hectic with 25ish children in each class and a limited amount of time, we got everything done, and I left during lunch time when Courtney came to take over my spot. It was cool to do something different that I have never done before and spend the day with children at the Boys and Girls Club.

The way I spent my morning...chopping up delicious fruit!

Livestock Field Day Fun!

Saturday, we hosted our first Livestock Field Day where we had local 4-H members, supporters, and volunteers help 4-H members learn more about showing different livestock and what to expect in the show ring. We had a heifer, 2 lambs, a few chickens, and a rabbit all ready to demonstrate how to be shown. Children watched as some animals were led around and set up into show position, while some of the children got to have actual hands on experience and lead the animals and set them up. The children learned and practiced good showmanship skills, learned how to interact with buyers and write buyer letters, lead, show, and set up show animals. We had a good turnout and a successful day, we look forward to doing this again and having even more participation and fun!

Kim Mayo teaching the participants about showmanship

Learning about showing chickens!

Setting up a lamb

Rabbits are cute! 

When showing cattle.....

Both children and adults learned about showing at the Field Day! 

Albemarle Automobile Adventures

As Karrin, Courtney, and I prepared for our 4-H Livestock Field Day tomorrow, we decided to go check out the location of the event yesterday. We jumped into Karrin's car and headed to the farm that the livestock event will be held out. I had never been to that side of the county and was excited to see this farm. We plugged the address into our GPS and off we went! We arrived at the road we were supposed to be on, but after driving a few miles, never found the farm. The address we had put into the GPS didn't even exist! We turned around drove back to another farm and stopped to ask for directions. A guy told us to drive three miles down the curvy, gravel road and it would be on our right...so we did. The gas light lit up to tell us we were almost out of gas, but we kept driving!

We drove past the place again and had to turn around and go back. Finally we found the farm and looked around. We left the car running because the one time we turned it off, it barely started again because it was so low on gas.

When we left the farm, I remembered that we had passed a tiny, old, overpriced gas station at some point on our journey, so if it was in service we could stop there on the way back! We drove into a tiny town and found the post office and the small gas station. We got excited because we finally would have gas and knew we would make it home! However....
This tiny gas station did not take credit or debit cards...only cash. Courtney and I had left our wallets at the office, but Karrin had hers! And inside was...four $1 bills. We had $4. Gas was $3.03/gallon. So this was good. Karrin went in and paid for $4.01 of gas and we were on our way once again, with the gas light still on and the car still beeping at us to fill up the tank. Eventually we made it on to Rt. 29, then I-64, then we saw the Exxon station and zipped in to fill up the tank before heading back to the office.

None of us had ever had the pleasure of breaking down on the side of the road because we had run out of gas, and none of us wanted yesterday to be the day to try it out. But after our visit to Exxon, Karrin's little car was happy and full of gas once again; and ready for our next adventure!

But wait...that's not all! Little did I know............

On my way home after work, my car started overheating and I had to pull off the road twice and turn the heat on high to let it cool down a little bit before attempting to head a little farther up the road. After pulling off the road for the third time, I called my dad and a tow truck came to the rescue! I got to ride in the nice air conditioned cab of the truck and have good conversation with the driver before dropping my car off at the repair shop and riding home with my mom. I'm driving my family's super cool minivan today. (ha!)

So many fun-filled car events that keep your adrenaline rushing! 

Finally made it home. :)

The Interns' Incubator Adventure

Yesterday, the other intern, Courtney, and I took a bunch of incubators back to the storage shed. These incubators had been used to hatch chicks in different classrooms around the city and county this Spring. We had quite a stack of them waiting in our office to be put back in the shed, so yesterday we took our second trip to the shed with all of incubators in the back of my car. (Of course we picked the hottest day ever to do this!)
We put the address into the GPS's on our phones and had to make one stop to pick up one final incubator before heading to the shed. The address we put in our GPS's was the address Google gave us for the location, however, technology failed us and we ended up in the middle of nowhere, at the wrong place. We ended up "arriving at our destination" which was the sketchiest apartments ever with the smallest parking lot imaginable. Luckily, I had heard Karrin say something about a school near the location we were supposed to go to, so we quickly typed in the school's name and headed off in the complete opposite direction we had been going.
Eventually we arrived at our destination, got the incubator, and headed on our way to the shed, where we safely deposited all of the incubators. We made it through construction sites, 4 different (wrong) parking lots, a VERY abrupt right turn that almost ended with the car up on the curb, and a 30 minute detour. But! All of the incubators are safe....and so are we. :)

Reading Makes Cents Workshop

Yesterday was our first workshop! It was a success! We read a few books that related to money, talked about money, played Bingo and Wheel of Fortune, painted piggy banks, made our own credit cards, and much more! We had a good time laughing together, discussing all kinds of facts about money, and learning more information about something people in our society use every day!

A few fun facts about money that we learned are:

1) Money is printed at 12 different locations across America. (ex. Philadelphia, Atlanta, New York...)
2) The number 13 is incorporated all over the dollar bill in different places - this represents the original 13 colonies.
3) The average life span of a dollar bill is 18 months, larger bills have different life spans.

After everyone made their own Bingo cards, we played bingo and learned about the people who are on the front of bills and coins, learned the name of some important locations and buildings that relate to money, and the winners got candy! (Everyone won) :)

We even watched part of The Emperor's New Groove during lunch! (The Emperor in this movie loses his kingdom and all of his money and has to live with the peasants and see how much money affects society.)

We had a busy day, but everyone was very excited and involved for the whole day! Can't wait for the next workshop! :)

During an intense round of Wheel of Fortune!

 Our wonderful Wheel of Fortune Contestants!

Making our own money and Credit Cards!

PieDay Friday

This week has been full of fun events! We started Monday with a tour of the office and meeting everyone (re-meeting some people for me), then jumped right in and got to work. Even though the building's lights were off, it didn't stop us from getting work done! We copied almost 100 camp packets so that we would be prepared for tonight's camp class sign-up night, then had to put them all together. We did some planning for workshops, blog stuff, and I began to plan for my camp class. Although the weather has been quite dreary with it raining every day this week, we were busy having a good time in the office! Tonight should be exciting as many adults and families come in to sign up for camp classes and fill out forms!
Today Karrin took Courtney and me to the downtown mall to check out the new Pie Chest. We got pie for everyone back here at the office and enjoyed our PieDay Friday lunch! :)

Chicken Bacon Garlic Pie and Chocolate Hazelnut Pie from The Pie Chest

Hello Again!

Hello!
I'm back for my second 4-H internship with Albemarle/Charlottesville 4-H! I'm excited to see what activities we will be doing this summer and who I will meet! It looks like we have some pretty awesome workshops planned and I'm sure summer camp will be just as exciting as it usually is! I do know that we have some sweet camp classes classes planned! This summer is going to be great and I am really excited to be here in Albemarle County again! :)