4-H Day Camp Write-up

For our 4-H day camp, I was teamed up with Annika. We were in charge of

setting up the “heart” activity. We decided that a great activity that would fall under the

umbrella of the “heart” portion of 4-H would be involving communications. We wanted

them to experience the benefits of keeping a journal so we bought some journals,

stickers, markers, and other materials for them to decorate the journals we handed

them. We also gave them a list of journal prompts which included some of the following

prompts:

- Write about a family member you admire

- What is your favorite family vacation or tradition?

- List down places you would like to go and why you would want to go there

- What are your favorite things to do?

In total, we spent about ten hours individually (twenty hours collectively)

brainstorming ideas, gathering information and materials, creating the lesson plan, and

then implementing the lesson. I also spent about two hours helping other classmates on

their materials. To prepare for camp, we made lesson plans that had detailed

instructions so the children could teach someone else or recreate the project at home

with their family if they wanted to. We also made an “example journal” to show the

children what their journals could be transformed into if they wanted to truly make the

journal their own.

 This experience will benefit me greatly as I go on to teach in a high school

classroom. One class in particular that I think this experience will benefit the most in is

interior design. Sometimes, if not most of the time, interior designers need to be able to

take something ordinary and transform it into a beautiful piece of someone’s life. This

journaling activity that Annika and I implemented has that same potential.

One way that I can incorporate this experience of 4-H camp into an interior

design class is by giving my students an assignment where they have $100 to transform

a room into something new. This can potentially teach them frugality, self sufficiency,

and budgeting. With this assignment, they will have to compromise their own visions of

a space to accommodate the potential budgets of their future clients. They won't always

be able to have a high fund to decorate a space so this activity can teach them to be

creative with what they have.