School Enrichment Programs
Fauquier County 4-H is pleased to offer several educational activities to support classroom learning. Many 4-H school enrichment programs address objectives covered in Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL's). All of these programs are offered free of charge. See the pages below to learn how your school can get involved in Fauquier County 4-H’s school enrichment programs.
The "Beginning of Life" 4-H Embryology project provides the opportunity for children between the ages of 5-18 to explore the life and growth processes utilizing the chick embryo. The Embryology Program centers on the incubation of eggs. One dozen fertile eggs and an incubator will be provided as available to each school or youth group on a first-come/first-serve basis for use in conducting the project. The anticipation of the hatch greatly adds to student interest and excitement about learning.
Unfortunately we will not be able to offer Embryology in 2023 due to staffing shortages. We hope to offer this program again in 2024.
Activities in our Mobile Maker Space are encourage tinkering and creative problem solving while teaching STEM concepts. Examples of activities that we can provide to your classroom or afterschool program include:
- Art Bots - learn about motors while creating a robot that draws. (Grades 3+)
- Makey Makey and Coding - turn anything that conducts electricity into a keyboard. Bananas can become pianos, playdough can become a videogame controller. Coding with Scatch can be worked into a 2 - 3 hour Makey Makey program (Grades 3 +)
- Squishy Circuits - learn about electricity and create light up creatures with playdough (Kindergarten - 4th grade)
- Moisture Meter - Learn how to use a voltage meter and coding to measure soil moisture. (Grades 6+)
All Mobile Maker Space activites are offered free of charge. To schedule an activity, contact Lenah Nguyen at lgeer@vt.edu .
Kids Marketplace is a financial simulation adapted for elementary and middle school-aged children. Students receive a job and a monthly income in play money and decide how to spend it at the animal shelter, fun station, grocery store, bank, and other expense stations. Students are encouraged to save a portion of their income and to contribute some to charity.
The 4-H Forestry School Enrichment Program provides the opportunity for Fauquier County children and youth to gain a better understanding, deeper appreciation, and hands on-experience in Forestry. Classrooms that participate in this school enrichment program can receive free tree seedlings and a presentation about the importance of forests in our everyday lives. Through this program you will also have the opportunity to complete activities from the Virginia 4-H Forestry School Enrichment curriculum such as tree identification, collecting and preserving leaf specimens, learning about Virginia forest products, tapping a Maple tree, planting seedlings, and tracking seedling survival.
This program is available to all Fauquier County youth, but please note that curriculum for this program is designed to support 4th and 5th grade SOL's. We generally open registration in December once we know what seedlings will be available.
The purpose of this activity is to familiarize participants with the barber pole worm life cycle, the signs and symptoms of parasite infections in goats, the use of tools to diagnose parasisitic infections, and the appropriate time to use products to deworm animals. This curriculum is designed to satisfy Scientific Investigation, Reasoning, and Logic and Living Systems SOL's for grades 1 - 12, but is also a lot of fun with Kindergarteners. Warning: we talk about poop a lot in this activity, and there is an opportunity to eat chocolate "goat poop" and gummy "barber pole worms" at the end. Contact Lenah Nguyen at lgeer@vt.edu to schedule a 30-45 minute Goat Parasitology Lesson for your classroom.
This website is a collection of 4-H resources that are useful in a school setting. Resources are organized by grade level, SOLs, and CTEs.
https://sites.google.com/vt.edu/virginia4-hresourcesforteacher/home
Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) is an educational outreach program of Virginia's land-grant universities: Virginia Tech and Virginia State University. The goal of the VCE Speakers Bureau is to connect youth with VCE experts on a wide range of topics. These experts will convey research-based information to your students and enhance your students' learning in a live virtual format. These presentations are open to school classrooms, 4-H Clubs, and homeschool groups and are offered at no cost. A full list of presentation offerings can be found here: https://sites.google.com/vt.edu/vce-speakers-bureau/virginia-cooperative-extension-speakers-bureau