Weekly Extension Internship Reflection #9

By: Grayson Meck

This weeks summary:

Well, here we are finishing up my second to last week here at the Henrico County Extension Office, and I am happy to say that I’ve enjoyed it very much! This week was the last camp I’ll be planning to lead and working with Mr. Ed, but we still have our Money Day Camp with Miss Kim next week, as well. Over the last four days we’ve covered topics like soil, pollutants, water, and my day-wilderness. Activities were designed to teach each camper about the importance of maintaining a clean, healthy environment in which we can grow our food and go about our daily lives. On my day, we had several activities that involved a competition or some sort of game because I had noted from my previous day that the campers did not and could not sit still for more than about an hour. First, we played animal charades in which each camper came up to the front and had to ask the class questions in order to reach a conclusion about which animal I was holding up behind them. Then we played a game of musical chairs where I read a story about a degrading ecosystem that was quickly losing the components of its habitat, and if they sad down on the chair that was next, they were out. Our outdoor activity was called Birds and Worms, and I placed small, rainbow colored worms in the grass about 25 feet away from the campers. The object of the game was have a relay race in which the campers could see the important effect that camouflage has on wildlife since the yellow worms were harder to find than the green ones. Following a quick food web demonstration with a ball of yarn, we had our snack-trail mix to represent bird food followed by a nest making session made out of a rice crispy treat. Our next few activities included Beak Tools-which demonstrated the need for certain birds to have distinctly shaped beaks depending on what they eat and building a homemade bird feeder out of paper plates and paper plat holders, string, and cheerios. Unlike my day from the Horticulture Day Camp, I actually did finish up a little too early, and Ed had to hop in with a quick Food Web Booklet activity. In the end I was satisfied since the kids said they had a fun time, nobody got hurt, and everybody learned something new. Next week is Money Day Camp with Miss Kim so I will sum up my entire internship in my next post!