Career Exploration Day in Ames
This Monday was not a typical Monday for us. We traveled down to campus in Ames for a career exploration day for Iowa State Extension and Outreach. We started our day at the ISU horticulture research farm, where we heard from different research extension staff about their duties at the research farm. We were able to look at apple trees, turf grass, specialized gardening practices, and grape vines. Inside, we heard from a beef specialist, a water quality program manager, and an agronomist. Then we went back to the MU on campus and had lunch with the Vice President of Extension and Outreach, John Lawerence. After lunch, we heard from the Policy, Systems, and Environment Change Coordinator in the Human Sciences department about food insecurity in Iowa. Our final presentation was from the Community and Economic Development/Design group about projects they have completed. We ended the night with a fun 3 ½ hour drive from Ames to Sheldon.
Buckets of Fun with Garden Camp
With 4-H State Conference being held this week, the County Youth Coordinator of Lyon County asked us to lead her garden camp on Tuesday. We have attended a couple of their camps in previous weeks and were excited to lead this week. The kids started by weeding and watering their plots and then harvesting a few vegetables and herbs. Our main activity was decorating water buckets for them to use in their garden. They had lots of fun being creative with their buckets and making them their own. We then had a snack and played a fun game of carrot, carrot, corn (similar to duck, duck, goose).
Tossing it Up in Dayhab
This week for DayHab was our second cooking week of the summer. Since we discussed vegetables last week, we decided to make a salad this week. We split the large group into about 4-5 smaller groups. Each group was able to be in charge of preparing one ingredient. The ingredients we used included lettuce, cucumber, tomato, ham and hard-boiled eggs. The groups would work together following step-by-step, photo instructions to cut the ingredients. We then combined the ingredients together and the large groups were able to eat a tasty and nutritious salad that they made together!
“Winds”day at George Daycare
Wednesday morning we started off by heading to the George Daycare. This week for our outside activities, they watered their garden, sang a banana song, and played produce themed “Would you Rather” and “Who Am I.” Inside they continued to learn about MyPlate by doing a couple of fun activities and also played the same “Name that Produce” game that we did at PoP Club. The children really loved being able to touch the produce and then guess what it was. Inside we also talked about the different parts of a plant by doing a fun narrative lesson. The children started by being seeds on the ground and grew to be beautiful plants. This was a fun way to introduce that plants have different parts such as the roots, stem, or leaves.
Blown Away with PoP Club
Rock Valley was our only PoP Club this week 🙁 Although it was hot and windy we still had a decent crowd for our activity. Like the daycare, we focused this week on the wind. We decided since it was so windy to create take-home baggies with all of the supplies needed to create the pinwheels. Everyone seemed really excited to have their own pinwheel and see it blow in the wind. Our featured produce this week was cherry tomatoes. Almost all of the kids liked eating them!
Joke of the Week
We had a good salad joke to put here but we decided to toss it.
