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Happy New Year!
January 2021
1: New Year Holiday (UCCE closed)
5 @ 7pm: County Council Meeting Zoom
18: Martin Luther King Day (UCCE closed)
February 2021
2 @ 7pm: County Council Meeting Zoom
5-7: County 4-H Presentation Day
12: Lincoln’s Birthday (UCCE closed)
15: Presidents’ Day (UCCE closed)
20: Youth Animal Science Drive Thru
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Need to set up a zoom meeting? Please Complete this survey
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🦠COVID-19 Updates: Stay Home Order Extended
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In accordance with the state Stay Home Order, the Sonoma County 4-H office is closed to the public. We are always available via email.
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Requirements for Recording Youth Member’s Images
Cyber safety is critical and a shared responsibility of 4-H staff, volunteers, parents, and members. As the California 4-H YDP expands the delivery of 4-H learning in virtual environments, ensuring the safety of our youth members is critically important. As such, a guidance document has been developed and is posted on the 4-H Virtual Toolbox: Virtual Management page for staff and volunteers to use.
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Tips and Best Practices for Zoom Club & Project Meetings |
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As we navigate the new restrictions for in-person meetings, I’ve had several club leaders reach out to our office asking for ways to keep our youth engaged in our virtual meetings.
I want to share some ideas to help club and project leaders. If you have additional ideas please email me at damariscal@ucdavis.edu and I would be happy to share with the rest of the club leaders.
Improving Engagement:
- Provide prizes or incentives to the members who have their cameras on. Example: “If you have your camera on, you will enter a drawing at the end of the meeting for an awesome 4-H Frisbee.”
- Timed Challenges: Let youth know you started a timer and they have to get their answers in time. Example: “Trivia Time! You have 60 seconds to list as many of our club projects as you can!”
- Movement Challenges: Take breaks where you lead stretches, dances, play “Simon Says” Example: “We are gonna have a dance break for 1 minute, you don’t have to have your camera on if you don’t want to, but you have to be silly and dance.”
- Zoom Around The Room: a game where you describe objects and members have to put the object in front of the camera. Usually the first 2-3 members who present the item, get the “point.” You can play this game multiple times during the meeting, to keep members alert.
- Sing Alongs, Cheers, Virtual Handshakes: Add your own twist to start and/or end the meeting with energy. - Make a Theme: “Funny Hat Day,” “Rep Your Team Day,” “Pajama Day,” “Stuffed Animal Day.”
- Offer Off-Line Challenges: Tell youth to draw, write, sketch, or reflect on their favorite moment of the meeting/week over a short period of time. Assign “Homework” to draw, write, sketch, etc.
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Happy New Year! I hope everyone found a way to celebrate safely and with at least some of the people you care about! I have to be honest, I was as pleased as anyone to say goodbye to 2020 and the multitude of hardships it brought our way. But I do want to take a moment to reflect on the positive things that came from it as well. I learned (sort of) how to use Zoom, we have learned to implement new ways of working, playing, and socializing. We taught more people there is a right way to wash our hands (I’m smiling) and we saw once again, how resourceful our community continues to be. I’m looking forward to the new year as an opportunity for continued growth, ingenuity, and camaraderie. We are all forever changed, but it wasn’t all bad.
Presentation Day, Fashion Revue, Teen Events, Livestock Judging? We are looking forward to our old favorites being reinvented or reformatted, and I am learning to embrace ongoing change. It isn’t easy. But even I can learn by doing! The 4-H program taught me that. Our members and volunteers show me that every day!
Thank you to everyone who managed to figure out registration in this awkward year, and to every volunteer and supportive parent out there who keep helping out youth members learn by doing. I look forward to the time when we can begin meeting in person again, but until then, stay safe and keep finding creative ways to make the best better! Don’t hesitate to reach out with questions, suggestions and ideas.
Best,
Sara
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🌟 All Star Ambassador Highlight 🌟
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Hello, we hope everyone had a great time celebrating the holidays and
hope you got to see some family. We also hope everyone has made some good New Years' resolutions and are sticking with them. Just to touch up on last month's newsletter, we are still accepting stuffed animals till February 1, 2021. The stuffed animals are being donated to, Valley of the Moon a local children's home. As a reminder for safety, everything has to be new. There is contact-free pick up as well as drop-off. Please if you need more information or have questions email kileyandersen19@gmail.com.
In recent news we have the Cloverdale Citrus Fair coming up. From February 12th - 14th. It is a drive-thru fair with food.
The hours are,
Friday– 11 am-8 pm
Saturday – 11 am-8 pm
Sunday– 11 am-8 pm
Carson Hay, Sonoma County 4-H All Star Ambassador
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📢 SoCo 4-H Club Shout Out: Two Rock 4-H
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Two Rock 4-H welcomes all members--young and old, returning or brand new--into our club community. With a diverse mix of ages, interests, and backgrounds, youth are able to grow with the support of peer mentors, friends, and adult facilitators by their side. Two Rock strives to use its collective strengths to give back to the Sonoma County community and encourage its members to “Make the Best Better” in all that they do.
Two Rock offers over eighteen different projects ranging from archery to breeding beef. Members enjoy exhibiting at local fairs and sharing their activities at countywide events such as Fashion Revue and the ChickenQue. Projects focus on skill development through collaborative, mixed-age meetings that hone in on different topics, such as Dog Showmanship and the planning of service projects. This year, despite COVID-19 limitations, projects have come together to celebrate all that 4-H has to offer via Zoom and continue to expand their project-specific knowledge, sharing it with our entire club community through presentations during our virtual monthly meetings.
In typical years, Two Rock 4-Hers enjoy caroling at Sunrise Assisted Living and laying wreaths for the Wreaths Across America Project, but have switched gears and written holiday greeting cards for isolated residents of assisted living communities, an initiative led by the Citizenship project, and focused their sights on helping out with Wreaths Across America again in future years. In the spring and summer months, members come together to create both a Butter & Eggs Day Parade float and a Chickenque booth before attending 4-H camp and volunteering as servers for the Two Rock Fire Hall Pancake Breakfast. In between major events, Two Rock 4-H focuses on developing executive planning and communication skills through club committees, giving members a chance to help coordinate the club in an interactive activity or project and practice speaking in front of an audience.
Two Rock 4-H enjoys being part of the Sonoma County 4-H community and looks forward to further adapting to the pandemic and creating fun virtual events for its members before eventually coming together face-to-face. To learn more about what projects and community involvement activities Two Rock 4-H has to offer, you can visit our club website www.tworock4h.com and check out our new club instagram @tworock_4h!
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🍀 Sonoma County 4-H Events 🍀
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Fashion Revue Workshop
Do you have questions about the 2021 Sonoma County Fashion Revue? Join us at 6:30 on the evening of Friday, January 22, for a discussion about this year's Fashion Revue. Please RSVP by January 21 to receive information on how to attend the online workshop.
To RSVP and submit questions, please fill out this Google Form:
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Sonoma County 4-H Fashion Revue is tentatively scheduled April 9-11 |
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Sonoma County 4-H Presentation Day
February 5-7, 2021
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Registration form and details at:
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New significant edits to the UC 4-H Presentation Manual!
Check out the new
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2021 Youth Animal Science Drive-Thru Event
February 20, 2021
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Registration is now open!
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Event Description
The 2021 Youth Animal Science Drive-Thru is an educational event for youth (and their adult leaders, teachers, and mentors) who raise, care, breed, show, or are interested in learning more about livestock animal production in the areas of (1) beef cattle, (2) dairy cattle, (3) small ruminants (sheep and goats), (4) swine, and (5) poultry.
Invited Participants
Youth (any age) and adults from youth organizations who provide animal science education, including 4-H, FFA, and Grange.
Event Layout
- Drive-thru stations: the concourse will be lined with stations; each station will have presenters who share information/provide demonstrations on a topic (participants will remain in their vehicles)
- Individual, species specific, agriculture tracks will be offered; each will have their own set of stations and individual time slot
- Stations will take youth through the specie’s life cycle/stages of development or stages of production, touch on biosecurity protocols, and end with a commodity connection
- Additional non-interactive displays and visuals will be setup between each interactive station for participants to read/observe on their own as they approach the next station
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Supporting Youth Through the Pandemic
The attention and care of adults to support youth has never been a greater need. Your skillful presence is ESSENTIAL to their well-being.
We’re so pleased to be offering a video series featuring Dr. Chelsey Hauge of Positive Parenthood. The video series is for 4-H volunteers, parents, guardians and UC ANR employees who want to know specific strategies to help youth, as well as the caring adults in their lives, cope and thrive during these challenging times.
This 6-part video series is hosted on the California 4-H YouTube Channel. Each video is between 10 – 15 minutes with so many great actionable steps that adults can take to help support youth when they have tricky behaviors.
December videos live now:
Upcoming January videos:
- Reducing Conflict and Reinforcing Positive Group Dynamics
- The Three Yesses and Helping Kids Feel Felt
- Priming for High-Stress Events
In January, we’ll be giving you a sneak peek about an upcoming opportunity for volunteers, parents, guardians and employees to receive additional support and coaching from Dr. Chelsey.
If you haven’t yet checked out those videos, you don’t want to miss it! And watch for the continuation of the series in early January as we help build calm and cooperative families, groups, and communities
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4-H Nominees for National Ag Day Program |
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National 4-H Council is pleased to offer an agriculture leadership opportunity for 10 students to represent 4-H during the 2021 National Ag Day Student Leadership Program. The program prepares and engages young people to raise awareness of the importance of the agricultural industry and its impact on our nation’s society and economy. This annual program will be held virtually in March 2021.
Nominations are now being sought for the program. Each LGU may nominate up to two delegates to represent 4-H.
4-H representatives should:
- Be between the ages of 18-23 and enrolled in post-high school education
- Be 4-H alum or currently active in collegiate 4-H
- Have a strong interest and/or career plan in the agricultural industry
- Have the desire to learn about communication and leadership skills
- Be able to participate in all of the virtual sessions (listed in agenda)
Please click here for additional details and the tentative agenda. Nominations are due by Friday, January 15, 2021.
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Tech Talk
Tech Talk is a space for leaders, teens, and adults, from beginners to experts to get personalized help in working through the challenges they are facing delivering 4-H in a virtual environment. This time is informal, and the content will be created by participants and the questions and challenges that they bring to the room. Think of Scott as your personal technology coach offering PRACTICAL SUPPORT to help you get to success in a virtual 4-H world.
See flyer for more information
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Hosted monthly beginning January – June 2021
2nd Tuesday 7pm – 8pm
4th Saturday 10am – 11am
(Must be active CA 4-H Personnel, Volunteer, or Youth Member to attend)
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2021 Virtual Statewide Events
More details on the following events will be coming out soon.
February 20, 2021: Equine Public Speaking Contest
March 13, 2021: Equine Field Day
May 15, 2021: Hippology Contest
May 16, 2021: Horse Judging
June 21-27, 2021: California 4-H Classic Horse Show
July 23-25, 2021 Virtual State Leadership Conference
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Due dates for the 2020 Record Book Competition are yet to be determined.
The State Record Book Evaluation for the 2019-2020 program year will likely occur after the beginning of 2021. The Sonoma 4-H Office will send out more details when they are available or you can continue to check back on the state website.
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Save the Date!
2021 Virtual Youth Summit
March 26-28, 2021
Ages 11-13
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Diamond Clover Application
Now completed online.
Applications are available year round and open for youth members who are at least 17 and adult volunteers not older than 25 years.
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