Sabrina Johnson

Sister Empey

FCS 380

7 November 2023

4-H Day Camp Write-Up/Reflection

On October 21st, 2023, my FCS 380 class and I hosted a 4-H Day camp. As the hosts, we had to

plan, prepare, and follow through with the plans, including making sure that it was promoted and

that it as inviting to children of all ages. The theme was “Falling into 4-H Camp”. The activities

we came up with were, Yarn Pumpkins, Beaded Corn, Sign Decorating, Leaf Coasters, baking

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies, and several mini games of which consisted of cup stacking,

practicing making a pie crust (using play-do), designing outfits, putting together/matching a

color wheel, and sewing a button onto a piece of felt material. I was specifically in charge of

everything that had to do with the Beaded Corn activity. Just like for the other activities, I had to

research how to make the corn, what was needed to make the corn, and the difficulty level

(developmentally appropriate). It took me about an hour to complete my research. I found out

that it was simple to make the beaded corn, all that was needed was some pony beads (120 to be

exact), and pipe cleaners (craft). By looking at pictures and skimming different websites, I

thought/assumed that to make one beaded corn, a person would need 8 pipe cleaners (I later

realized after I had already ordered and received the pipe cleaners that you only need 4 instead of

8 (bending the 4 pipe cleaners in half to create 8 strands/sticks)). For the Beaded Corn, I needed

to make a prototype, so that the participants would be able to see the result of what they’re

making. I also needed to create a lesson plan so that I knew what I was going to say/do to teach

the children about the Beaded Corn. The prototype took about two hours to make due to counting
out 120 beads and making sure that they touched the bottom of the pipe cleaners. From this

result, I concluded that I needed to count out 120 beads for each participant beforehand so that

one, they got the correct number of beads, and two there was enough beads for everyone. It took

me a little more than four hours to sort out 120 beads for each participant and have them ready in

a bag for them to just grab and go. Some of the goals we set as a class/group are that everything

should fit with in the budget (expense wise) and not go over or under (can’t make anything off of

the children), that all the activities were developmentally appropriate for all ages and

inviting/interesting. We accomplished these goals by checking with experienced/experts on if the

activities were developmentally appropriate and inviting to the participants or not.

The children/participants loved all the activities we planned that they got to be apart of. The teen

leaders especially loved it when they could get involved as well. At first, we had a low turnout,

and then after promoting the camp some more, we had a lot bigger turnout than we would’ve

had. They expressed love and appreciation for 4-H camp and said that “it’s always fun at 4-H

camp!”. The children had so much energy.

For the Beaded Corn activity, most of the children were able to finish within the 20 minutes

given (for each station/activity). There were only a few who did not finish, and this is because

they restarted several times. The participants shared their experiences with ‘Indian Corn’ and

described/explained how it looked and tasted, as well as, what and where they were at when/if

they had eaten it. The only thing that the children really struggled with was keeping the pipe

cleaners twisted together. They kept coming undone due to not twisting them in the middles or

even enough times. Several of the participants mentioned other projects that they had done

previously at 4-H camps, or even at home. They had so much energy and loved every minute of

it.