School Enrichment

Benefits of 4-H and School Partnership

North Carolina schools are being inundated with change: new expectations for what youth should learn, new technologies for delivering instruction, and new proposals for how to define and govern public schools. North Carolina has the fourth fastest-growing enrollment in public school systems in the country. Students enter the system speaking more than 180 languages (Action for Children North Carolina, 2008).

4-H understands that all youth need to acquire 21st Century Literacy...the ability to read, write, and compute with competence; think analytically; adapt to change; work in teams; and use technology. Learning 21st-century skills, enhancing the standard course of study, and providing opportunities for youth to grow personally and further connect to their communities are just some of the benefits 4-H offers schools.

4-H partners with schools in an effort to engage students. Through these partnerships with schools, students enhance their ability to self-regulate and their ability to define their own learning goals, and evaluate their own achievement.

School Enrichment

4-H has a variety of curricula that have been designed to develop essential life skills in alignment with the NC Standard Course of Study. Along with personal learning benchmarks, the curricula align with specific objectives of grade-level standards. 4-H offers training to school professionals on the curricula and can provide materials to support classroom lessons. Teachers teach the lessons while the 4-H professional provides support to ensure a positive learning experience.

Your local 4-H staff can work with you to design an individualized program tailored to fit your unique classroom needs, built to enhance the North Carolina standard course of studies.

Ways To Connect

Randolph County 4-H offers three different ways that schools can get involved with 4-H and provide students with fun and educational 4-H programs:

• Teacher-Led School Enrichment

  • • Educators partner with Randolph County 4-H staff to provide 4-H programs to students in this teacher-led program opportunity. 4-H staff will provide needed resources and training, and teachers will autonomously lead the program. Some teacher-led 4-H school enrichment programs are offered during predetermined weeks of the school year with registration deadlines, while other teacher-led 4-H school enrichment programs can be offered and provided flexibly at the teachers discretion at any point during the school year. View our Opportunities page and/or the Grab 'n' Go section below to learn more.

• Randolph County 4-H Led In-School Enrichment

  • • Educators partner with Randolph County 4-H staff to provide 4-H programs to students, with 4-H staff leading and facilitating the in-class program during normal school hours. 4-H staff will provide necessary resources and facilitate this in-class program.

• Randolph County 4-H Led After School Enrichment

  • • Does your school offer after school care? Coordinate with our 4-H staff to provide 4-H programs to your on-campus after school students. 4-H staff will provide necessary resources and facilitate this on-campus, after school program. 

• Homeschool/Alternative School Enrichment

  • • Are you interested in 4-H opportunities outside of the traditional school setting? Reach out to our 4-H staff and discover the various 4-H partnership opportunities -- like clubs, programs, and school enrichment -- that will work best for your youth! 

• Career Fairs and Parent Night

  • • Is your school hosting a Career Fair, Parent Night, or seasonal festival event? Randolph County 4-H loves attending these events at local schools. Our involvement can be tailored to your event -- we can hand out fliers and resources, set up booths with hands-on activities, facilitate educational demonstrations in an in-formal classroom setting, and more! 

NC 4-H Curricula 

NC 4-H offers a wide variety of print materials and online offerings, all of which are aligned to NC and National K-12 educational standards.  Click the links below to view the NC 4-H Curricula webpage. Contact Randolph County 4-H staff to learn how we can provide curriculum to you!

• Curriculum Titles, Grades K-5

  • • Mooving Milk from the Farm to the Fridge

    • Winged Wonders

    • Be A Bone Builder

    • Astronomy

    • and more!

• Curriculum Titles, Grades 6-8

  • • Energy Transformation

    • Microbes on My Mind

    • TechXcite

    • and more!

• Curriculum Titles, Grades 9-12

  • • Soil To Seed

    • Microbes: The World Within - High School Exploration

    • From Natural Selection to Classification: Building on Concepts

In addition to the curricula listed above, Randolph County 4-H is excited to offer additional program opportunities, including Citizenship, Healthy Lifestyles, Leadership, Robotics (littleBits and SPIKE) and more.  Check out our Opportunities page to learn more about upcoming program and partnership opportunities.

Randolph County 4-H Grab 'n' Go Kits

Randolph County 4-H offers Grab 'n' Go Kits for school enrichment programs, 4-H club meetings, and community youth organizations. These kits are strategically designed so educators can simply "grab" them from the 4-H staff and "go" have fun with youth in their educational setting. All necessary resources and materials are pre-packaged and ready for in-classroom use - minimal preparation required. 

Current Grab 'n' Go Kits available for checkout include:

• Seed Germination 101

  • • Recommended Grade Level: K-5; 6-8

    • With this hands-on science kit students will watch the germination process take place over the course of 10 days following the initial activity. This kit provides materials appropriate for grade levels K-8, including all of the necessary supplies for each student to create a seed germination green house necklace, germination scientific observation logs, worksheets, books, and more!

    • Suggested instructional time: 45 -90 minutes for initial lesson; 15-30 minutes every other day for the following 9 days.

• Egg Drop STEM Challenge

  • • Recommended Grade Level: 3-5; 6-8; 9-12

    • This kit provides teachers with all the necessary supplies for students to create their very own Egg Drop safety nest.  Students will be challenged to create a safety nest in which an egg can survive a 6-foot+ drop without cracking or busting! 

    • Suggested instructional time: 60 - 90 minutes.

• Solar Energy: Cooking With The Sun

  • • Recommended Grade Level: 6-8; 9-12

    • This TechXcite: Discover Engineering! module introduces students to the direct use of solar thermal energy through the design of a solar oven. With this curriculum and provided materials, students can conduct up to 4 experiments to explore heat transfer through radiation and conduction. 

    • Suggested instructional time: 60 - 90 minutes per experiment.

• Snowstorm In A Jar

  • • Recommended Grade Level: K-5; 6-8

    • With this hands-on STEAM experiment, students will create their very own snowstorm in a jar while learning about density, properties of liquid, and chemical reactions. This kit provides all materials and resources needed for students to conduct and observe the experiment, including optional/additional hand-outs, worksheets, and books! 

    • Suggested instructional time: 20 - 50 minutes, dependent upon usage of optional/additional resources.

To learn more about our Grab 'n' Go Kits or to check out a kit, contact Taylor Wright, 4-H Program Specialist at taylor_wright@ncsu.edu. 

For more School Enrichment opportunities, contact your local 4-H staff.

allison_walkers@ncsu.edu  OR  taylor_wright@ncsu.edu

(336) 467-2927 (Allison)  or (336) 318-6013 (Taylor)