4-H Art Program - Clover Cafe

Reaching out to your local 4-H extension office is a great way to work with the community. I have been involved in 4-H throughout my life and it has helped me grow as an individual and give back. It is so much more then an agriculture program, and as an adult I have been able to host after-school arts and crafts meetings with my students!
I have worked with students of varying ages (P-12) and backgrounds, showing them different types of art and other useful information applicable to all people. Our first day consisted of creating our own stress balls and learning how to cook bacon and eggs in the microwave in situations where a stove or an oven might not be available. In our second class, students burned wooden signs or learned photography; in our third class, students had the option to create sand art mandalas or string art animals. It is a nice way to relax at the end of a perhaps hectic school day, and the children enjoy it. We have many more planned!
Students may not get the opportunity to try out these different types of arts and crafts in a normal school setting or at home. I felt it was important to reach out to the student body in this way because I am the art teacher and have access to these sometimes weird materials. I also wanted students I do not see every day to come in and enjoy art. Only one of the students I served during my service project was a student of mine. I could reach a wider audience of high school, middle school, and even elementary school students.
They were all from different backgrounds and skill levels, but they came together to create fun and interesting crafts. This helps me understand that every student can work at their own level and from their own experiences to be creative in some way that suits them best.
I am hoping a few improvements will come from this project. So many of my non-art students have a difficult time believing that they can be creative or create any type of art. I want them to understand that they can. I want to see more confident students as I continue teaching. I hope this will also help boost the number of students taking my classes. I want my art programs to grow, and fostering the enjoyment of art in outside student body populations is a great place to start.

---