Clover Kids New Volunteer Training

Clover Kids New Volunteer Training 2013-2014 Note to presenters: This training is designed as a 2 ½ to 3-hour session for newer Clover Kids Group lead...
Author: Pauline Goodman
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Clover Kids New Volunteer Training 2013-2014 Note to presenters: This training is designed as a 2 ½ to 3-hour session for newer Clover Kids Group leaders and volunteers as part of a 6-hour New Volunteer training. If using this outline separate from the New Volunteer training, make sure that you add activities on the 4 Needs of Youth, the Essential Elements, Experiential Learning, and Ages and Stages of Child Development.

Pre-Meeting Preparation  

Gather supplies and handouts listed under supplies Have camera available for photos

Supplies    

Pencils/Pens (1 per volunteer) Clover Kids Toolbox (1 per volunteer) Answers to the Clover Kids Toolbox Scavenger Hunt Box of Clover Kids Curricula - appropriate curricula to include in the box would be: o “A Palette of Fun with Arts and Crafts” o Aerospace “Pre-Flight” Stage 1 and “Flight Crew” Helpers Guide o “Exploring the Treasures of 4-H” (youth and helper’s guide) o “Growing in the Garden” o Iowa 4-H After School lesson plans - printed from: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/4h/page/4-h-afterschool-lesson-plans o Iowa 4-H Clover Kids Meeting Agendas - printed from: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/4h/page/clover-kids-meeting-agendas o “Kitchen Science for Kids” o Minnesota Cloverbud Book, Activity Sheet, and Activities package o “Mud, Muck, and Other Wonderful Things” o Ohio Cloverbud Series I and II Books o “Project Food, Land, and People” o “Step Up to Leadership”, K-5 Mentor Guide o Wisconsin 4-H “Between the Pages” lesson plans (printed from: http://4h.uwex.edu/onlinpro/cloverbuds.cfm) o “WOW! Wild Over Work”

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o Other National 4-H curricula that is designed to be used with children in Kindergarten through 3rd grade American Flag and 4-H Flag Art Activity Card Set Clear Plastic Cups (6 per group of 3 volunteers) Water Red, Yellow, and Blue Food Coloring Paper Towels Various objects of varying textures (at least 1 per volunteer) Clover Kids Behavioral Management Situation Cards (Cut into 11 situations) Handouts o Clover Kids Toolbox Scavenger Hunt o Osceola Cloverbuds Calendar o Yearly Program Agenda o 4H200A “Pick Your Adventure” o Clover Kids Curricula o Clover Kids Meeting Organizer o Art Explosion Lesson Plan o 4-H Pledge Poster o Fingertip Games Cards o Clover Kids Behavioral Management Situation Worksheet o Using Pictures for Assisting with Structure o Pages of Pictures (16 pictures total) o Sandwich Evaluation Form

1. Arrival and warm up (Since this training is part of the larger training, volunteers should have already registered. Greet the volunteers as they come to the session.)

2. Welcome & Rationale (10 minutes) Welcome! I hope you have enjoyed the morning/earlier session and have a greater understanding of the needs of youth/children, the 8 Essential Elements, Experiential Learning and Ages and Stages. The rest of the training will focus on Clover Kids, the Kindergarten through third grade part of the 4-H program. Let’s take some time to go around the room and introduce ourselves. Please say your name, county/city, Clover Kids Group that you are volunteering with, and why you want to work with Kindergarten through 3rd graders. (Start by introducing yourself and continue around the room.)

Our goals for today’s training:  Model fun-friends-voice-choice  Provide information and training on leading successful and fun Clover Kids meetings  Provide tools to guide you in planning and implementing research based ageappropriate, hands-on, cooperative activities that build life skills in children Kindergarten through third grade.  Strengthen the transition from Clover Kids membership to 4-H membership Clover Kids Group versus 4-H Club You will notice that we differentiate between a 4-H Club and a Clover Kids Group. A decision was made at the state level that since 4-H’ers and Clover Kids are different, what we call their gatherings is also different. We expect different things to happen during a 4-H club meeting than we do during a Clover Kids Group meeting. So, we will use the term “Group” to describe Clover Kids. Materials Explanation Each one of you is receiving the most recent version of the Iowa 4-H Clover Kids Toolbox. (Pass out the toolbox.) This toolbox is also available online at the Iowa 4-H Clover Kids website. We will spend some time today learning more about the toolbox and exploring everything that it has to offer. In order to be green and environmentally friendly, updates to the Clover Kids Toolbox will be available on-line and will not be mailed directly to Clover Kids volunteers. When changes are made to the Toolbox, we will notify county 4-H staff of them, post it on the Iowa 4-H Clover Kids facebook page, and send a notice out on the Iowa 4-H Clover Kids e-mail list. Ages and Stages As you know there is a wide range of abilities of children in Kindergarten through third grade. In your Clover Kids Toolbox, Section B: Child Development, pages 1 and 2 briefly covers the Ages and Stages of Development in Clover Kids aged children. One of our goals in Clover Kids is to provide learning opportunities that match the functioning level of the children involved. We do not want the activities to be too easy or too difficult, since children will lose interest either way. Page B-2 contains a brief list of motor skills, cognitive skills, and social skills and the abilities of children in Kindergarten through third grade. Please keep in mind that every child is different and may be advanced in some skills, but behind in others. Job Description The Toolbox also contains a job description for Clover Kids Group Leaders. Turn to Section E: Group Leader and Volunteer Forms, page 5. This job description gives you: (highlight a couple bullets under each heading)  A purpose for your role: Promote children’s positive development and practice life skills;  Your responsibilities: plan age-appropriate activities and participate in volunteer training;

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The qualifications needed: ability to work with children and willingness to participate in trainings; Who you are responsible to: this will vary by county; What support you will receive: the Clover Kids website is listed here; and The benefits: satisfaction of helping children develop life skills.

Your county may have given you a more specific job description than the one here.

3. Toolbox Scavenger Hunt (15-20 minutes) (Hand out the “Clover Kids Toolbox Scavenger Hunt”. Provide pencils/pens.) We have already started to explore the Clover Kids Toolbox, but now we are going to take the time to figure out what is in it. Please get into groups of two and see if you can find the answers to the “Clover Kids Toolbox Scavenger Hunt” questions. (Once groups are done finding the answers, bring the group back together. If there is time, go over all of the answers together as a group. If there is not time, ask where to find: risk management forms (content); ages and stages information (child development); lesson plan templates (program planning); ways to communicate with parents (communication); examples of recruitment ideas (recruitment); which curriculum to use (resources).) Ask the volunteers:  Was it easy to find the information?  What information is missing that you would like to have? (Please record for future inclusion in the Toolbox.)  How do you plan on using the Toolbox? The Toolbox Scavenger Hunt covered many of the topics listed in the Leader’s Training Log; E-7 in the Clover Kids Toolbox. However, there may be county specific topics and information that we did not cover, so please contact your local extension office.

4. Clover Kids Models (5-10 minutes) Clover Kids is a very flexible program and there can be many different delivery methods. Let’s go around the room and discuss how your county Clover Kids program is currently offered. (Have volunteers discuss when and where their Clover Kids group meets. Make sure that delivery methods such as: Before/After School; 4-H Club Sponsored Groups; Home School

Groups; Community/Neighborhood Groups; and Summer Groups are discussed. See the Clover Kids Toolbox p. A-2d and 2e for explanations of the various types.)

5. Creating a Yearly Program Agenda (20-30 minutes) One of the first steps in having a successful Clover Kids program is creating a plan for your time together. For some of you, your plan will cover a year; for others just a few weeks. Creating this plan will make the planning of each group meeting easier and create a flow from meeting to meeting. Before I give you time to plan your Clover Kids year, we should talk about some important dates in the 4-H/Clover Kids calendar that you need to be aware of. The first item is enrolling children in Clover Kids. In order to be a Clover Kids member, an enrollment form and a medical release form must be completed. If there are fees, those should be paid also. Every county is different as to what enrollment form is required. A sample enrollment form is found in the Clover Kids Toolbox in Section E: Forms: Group Enrollment Forms, p. 1a- 1b. The Iowa 4-H Non-club Member Medical Release Form is immediately after the enrollment form. It is very important that this form be complete and up-to-date. You want to make sure that you know of any medical conditions that your Clover Kids might have. Check with your county 4-H office as to when Clover Kids enrollment needs to be completed. Some counties with year round Clover Kids programs will require a fall enrollment. Programs that start in the spring might not need enrollment until a week before the program starts. Other programs will accept enrollment all year round. Iowa 4-H uses the 4-H Online program to manage 4-H enrollment. This is an online program that families can use to manage their 4-H information. It is a county decision as to if Clover Kids are enrolled in the 4-H Online program as individual members or if their enrollments are handled differently. If your county allows Clover Kids to exhibit small animal livestock projects during your fair, county deadlines may apply to your members as well. Ensure that your members have the necessary paperwork turned in to the extension office by May 15th. Check with your extension office for other important livestock dates. It is important to check your county’s newsletter or website for other events or deadlines that are approaching for your members and make sure that your families are aware of these. Good communication with your families is important to ensure a successful beginning to every

member’s 4-H experience. Sending a note home with your members that has important details or deadlines included is helpful for parents that don’t stay for every meeting. Encourage your county extension office to send a 4-H newsletter to all Clover Kids families. Receiving the newsletter will help your Clover Kids and their families feel like they are part of the 4-H program. Sharing a program plan or calendar with your families will encourage them to make sure dates are on their calendars and a Clover Kids meeting doesn’t get forgotten about. Here is an example of a calendar that is being used this year in Osceola County. (Hand out the Osceola Calendar.) Each of you will receive a blank Yearly Program Agenda that you can start to fill out. (Hand out a blank template for Yearly Program Agenda. Provide pencils/pens.) Start by thinking about when you meet and how many times. Now you can start thinking of themes and the objectives/outcomes you want to cover. A theme is the overarching topic or idea that will be covered during the meeting. Examples of themes might be: Pumpkins or Bubbles. Objectives are the specific items that the Clover Kids will learn. For example in the pumpkin meeting, Clover Kids might learn the life cycle of the pumpkin. During the bubbles meeting, they would learn that it takes air to make bubbles. An Outcome is the result of the meeting. What do you want Clover Kids to be able to do because of the meeting? An outcome of the pumpkin meeting might be that Clover Kids become better communicators by teaching others about the lifecycle of the pumpkin using the pumpkin life cycle model they created. An outcome of the bubble meeting might be that Clover Kids learn how to observe, an important part of being a successful learner. Which of the 5 life skills do you want to focus on? Remember that the five life skills the Clover Kids Program focuses on are: Self Understanding; Social Interaction; Decision Making; Learning to Learn; and Mastering Physical Skills. You can focus on more than one in each meeting. For example: active games and even craft projects focus on mastering physical skills. Discussions and working in partners/groups strengthen social interaction skills. Are there any specific 4-H projects areas that you want to highlight? Iowa 4-H has 34 different projects areas. Linking your Clover Kids activities to 4-H project areas helps your members see

what they can do when they are old to enough to join 4-H. (Hand out 4-H200A, “Pick your Adventure”.) The next three columns on the Yearly Program Agenda are: Activities, Crafts, and Games. These three items are the actual things that the Clover Kids members will be doing during your meeting. Ideally, the activities, crafts, and games will all relate to the overall theme of the meeting. We will go more in-depth on these 3 items in a few minutes. To give you an idea of the different themes, activities, crafts, and games that you can incorporate into your yearly plan, we have brought examples of Clover Kids curricula with us today. Many of these resources are available from your local Extension Office; can be downloaded from an Extension website; or purchased from another state Cooperative Extension service. There are many resources available for you to use when creating a Yearly Program Agenda as well as individual lesson plans. We have brought some of those resources with us today. (Have volunteers look through the resources available. If Wi-Fi is available in your location, encourage volunteers who have a tablet, smart phone, or e-reader available to look at the websites listed to go to the websites listed on the “Clover Kids Curricula” sheet to explore what is available.) Many of the resources that are here give you objectives, group size, time frame, and background knowledge. As you look at the activities and curricula, you will have to make the decision as to how many activities to plan for and consider how the activity may have to be modified for the ages and abilities of the children in your group. You will now have some time to start putting together your yearly plan. While planning, think about the Clover Kids Activity Checklist, D-2 in the Toolbox; as well as other resources and curriculum listed in the Toolbox. (Put people into groups. This can be by experience with working with youth, it can be at random, or let your volunteers put themselves in groups. The main objective is to let people work in small groups and do some planning. Bring the large group back together to discuss.) Ask volunteers: 

What were some themes/project areas/life skills/objectives that you want to cover this year?

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What are some obstacles to creating a yearly plan? How can you work through those obstacles? How will having a yearly plan benefit you? How will it make your program stronger?

6. Developing Lesson Plans (25-35 minutes) Now that you have your Yearly Program Agenda ready, you can start planning an individual club meeting. (Hand out a blank template for Clover Kids Meeting Organizer. Provide pencils/pens.) The Lesson Plan/Meeting Organizer template starts off by asking for the Theme, Life Skills, Objectives, and 4-H Project areas. If your Yearly Program Agenda is done, you will be able to transfer the information right from your yearly program agenda to your lesson plan. The next part of the template is what you will be doing with the Clover Kids. For each piece of the meeting, you can write a time to start it or how long it should take, the name of the activity, the materials needed, directions, and the life skill/objectives, and project area covered. Listing the materials needed here makes it much easier to pack for your meetings and even set-up the various activities at your meeting location. Listing the life skills, objectives, and project areas next to each activity, assists you in making sure that you are purposeful in covering all of those areas. Going through the different pieces of the template, you will notice that the meeting starts with an Icebreaker Game or games. The “Pledge of Allegiance” is a great way to get your members calmed down after the game and ready to focus on the topic/theme activities. If you like to sing, include songs in your meeting. There is also a section for a craft or creative activity. Clover Kids love games, so there is more time included for games. Saying the “4-H Pledge” at the end of the official meeting is a great way to teach the pledge and signals the end of the meeting. Don’t forget to include snack, whether it is provided by you, the parents, or even the Extension Office. A great tip to remember is to always have at least one extra game or activity to do just in case everything goes faster than you think it would. Feel free to switch the order of the activities, crafts, songs, and games to fit the meeting theme and the needs of your Clover Kids. Our suggestion is to always keep the beginning (“Pledge of

Allegiance”) and the ending (“4-H Pledge”) the same, to create structure and consistency for the Clover Kids. Now let’s take some time to start planning activities for a meeting. (Put people into groups. This can be by experience with working with youth, it can be at random, or let your volunteers put themselves in groups. The main objective is to let people work in small groups and do some planning.) You will be given 15 minutes to plan activities for a meeting using the curricula and website available. While planning, think about the Clover Kids Activity Checklist, D-2 in the Toolbox. (Give groups 15 minutes to work on the lesson, then bring them back together.) Ask:    



Are there any groups that would like to share their lesson? Does anyone have any questions about planning activities? Did anyone have to modify/adapt an activity to meet the needs of their members? Why? How? Why should we use activities/lessons from curriculum such as the Ohio Cloverbuds or others listed in Section H of the Toolbox? (research based, age appropriate, tested by others) Why should we link Clover Kids activities to 4-H project areas?

7. Mock Meeting: Art Explosion (20-30 minutes) Let’s review what you have learned up to this session. You have been given tools to organize a Clover Kids meeting including the Clover Kids Toolbox, the Yearly Program Plan, and the Lesson Plan Template. You have also been shown examples of curricula full of age appropriate activities for Clover Kids. Now let’s see a sample Clover Kids lesson in action. (Select a few attendees to act as assistant club leaders or parent volunteers to assist with activities during the mock meeting. Make sure that the ratio of 1 adult for every 6-8 youth is observed. You will probably only be able to get one of the activities completed. Make sure that you are demonstrating the importance of having supplies ready ahead of time, stations set up for various activities before the meeting and being ready for the unexpected. Feel free to discuss these items with the attendees.)

1. Ice breaker – Name Game: Invite everyone stand in a circle. Toss a ball to someone and have them say their name and what their favorite art activity is. They then pass the ball to someone else, until everyone has had a chance to share. (Ex: Painting, coloring, drawing, etc.) 2. Pledge of Allegiance – Say the “Pledge of Allegiance”. 3. Activity #1 – Name that Color – (This is a large group activity leading into a small group activity. Have the group sit in a circle, show the group the following black and white pictures.) What color are these items usually?  Set 1 – Heart, Apple, Stop Sign  Set 2 – Leaf, 4-H Clover, Grass  Set 3 – Corn, Sun, Sunflower Everything has color! Have you ever mixed colors? We are going to mix colors to see what happens. (Divide the group into groups of 3 to create a small group activity. Give each group 3 clear cups with water and 3 empty clean cups. Have the groups add food coloring to the water cups: these are the primary colors.)  Cup 1 – 1 drop of red food coloring  Cup 2 – 1 drop of yellow food coloring  Cup 3 – 1 drop of blue food coloring Ask:  What will happen if you mix red and yellow? (Have the children pour some red and some yellow water into an empty cup.) Answer: Orange  What will happen if you add a drop of blue to the red cup? (Have the children pour some red and some blue water into an empty cup.) Answer: Purple  What will happen if you add a drop of yellow to the blue cup? (Have the children pour some blue and some yellow water into an empty cup.) Answer: Green 4. Texture: (Gather the small groups together to create a large group. Have the group sit in a circle. Ask them to put their hands behind their back. Put an object in each member’s hands. Go around the circle and ask each to share how their object feels. Once everyone has shared, have members look at their object.) All the ways you described your item are called textures. Things can be smooth, rough, sharp, bumpy, etc. Just like everything has color they also have texture. 5. Craft – Make seed mosaics - Explain that the craft would be to make a seed mosaic.

6. Game – Hog Call - Have everyone find a partner and think of two words that go together (compound words like: peanut and butter, ice and cream, corn and dog, etc.). Have each person in the pair go to opposite ends of the room. Blindfold them or have them close their eyes, turn around a few times, and yell out their word. They are supposed to find their partner by using ONLY the predetermined set of words. 7. 4-H Pledge 8. Snack 9. Dismissal (extra games as needed or a book to read to the group while waiting for parents to pick up) (Hand out the Art Explosion lesson plan and verbally run through the rest of the meeting with the volunteers briefly explaining what you didn’t have time to complete. Hand out the 4-H Pledge poster for them to use with their Clover Kids group.) Ask volunteers:   

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What was the theme of the meeting? How well did the activities follow the theme and meet the objectives of the meeting? What do you do when your activity only takes 6-7 minutes for the members to complete instead of the 15 minutes you have allotted? Extra games or books are great transitioning tools. (Hand out the fingertip games to volunteers.) How was the flow between small and large group activities? What would have made it better? How does the way we handle the flow between activities and the activities themselves affect behavior?

8. Behavioral Management Scenarios (20-25 minutes) (Before the training, cut the “Clover Kids Behavioral Management Situations” into individual cards.) One of the most difficult parts of being a Clover Kids Volunteer/Leader is managing the group of children. Our next activity will allow you and a partner to explore some possible behavioral situations that may happen in your Clover Kids Group. Please divide yourselves into groups of 2-3. Each group will be given a situation and a “Clover Kids Behavioral Management Situations Worksheet”. Read through your situation and answer the questions on the “Clover Kids Behavioral Management Situations Worksheet” as you work toward a resolution for the situation/misbehavior. You can use the information in the Clover Kids Toolbox Section C: “Developing Positive Learning Environments and Group Management Strategies” as a resource. Think about how you will share the situation and your resolution with the large group. (Give the groups time to work through their situations. Walk through the groups and listen to the discussion, making note of statements that the volunteers make and issues that they work through. Once everyone has worked through their situation, bring the volunteers together to discuss the situations and the resolutions.) Now that everyone has had a chance to work through the situations, let’s share our situations and the resolutions. (Ask for volunteers and have each group briefly share their situation and the resolution. Try to keep the sharing of each situation to 2 minutes. Allow others to comment on the situation/resolution with a suggestion or a comment.) When every group is done sharing, ask the volunteers:  Have you ever dealt with any of these situations?  What suggestions/techniques did you learn?  How will you handle behavioral issues differently now? Using Pictures for Assisting with Structure Penni Gaul, a member of the Clover Kids Action Team, is a Special Education teacher. She uses pictures in her classroom as a way of assisting with structure. She provides a picture schedule of what the time they have together will look like. Then as they go through the schedule, she points out the picture that they are at. Each of you is receiving a copy of her explanation and 16 picture cards that you can use with your Clover Kids Group. (Hand out “Using Pictures for Assisting with Structure” and the 2 pages of picture cards.)

9. Transitioning 3rd grade members to 4-H members (5-10 minutes) Our final discussion for today will be on transitioning Clover Kids to 4-H. The Clover Kids program is a becoming a very important part of the 4-H experience for many families, but once a member has “aged out” of Clover Kids it is important to keep them on the right track to joining a club and staying an active 4-H member. Some of the ways this has been done is by hosting a graduation ceremony, providing members with club/leader information for clubs in your county, hosting a fire-up night to introduce Clover Kids to leaders, giving away prizes at your last meeting, providing activities to do throughout the summer, having Clover Kids participate in the fair, and conducting joint activities with a 4-H club. Have you heard of any other ways to transition Clover Kids to 4-H? (Invite volunteers to share their experiences and ideas.)

10. Wrap-Up (5-10 minutes) Ask:  

Do you have any other questions about Clover Kids? Is there anything else that we need to cover?

Would you please complete this simple evaluation form? (Pass out the Sandwich Evaluation Form.) It is a “Sandwich Evaluation Form”. For the top bun, put one positive thought about the training. For the meat and toppings, please provide some constructive critique. Finally, for the bottom bun, provide some positive thoughts about the training. If you have any other questions or comments, you can write those on this paper also. Thank you. As we conclude our time together, I want to make sure that you realize how important you are to the 4-H and Clover Kids program and to the children and youth of Iowa. You are helping to shape and grow our future. Thank you.

… and justice for all The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center at 202-720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write to USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410, or call 800-795-3272 (voice) or 202-720-6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Cathann A. Kress, director, Cooperative Extension Service, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Ames, Iowa.