Getting Outside with Cloverbuds

It’s beginning to feel like spring and summer and it is a great time to be outside.  Being active outside with Cloverbuds is so fun and so very important.  Being outside improves children’s academic performance and helps build critical thinking skills.  They learn about the world around them.  Relaxing in the great outdoors reduces stress, as it does for many adults, too.  Children learn to appreciate the world around them and begin to understand their role within it.

How can you incorporate the great outdoors into your Cloverbud meetings? Could you move your 4-H meeting outside?  Could you incorporate a hike? Could your club recreation activity be outside?

In the Big Book of Cloverbud Activities, there are many outdoor activities to try with your Cloverbud members.  For instance, Chapter 23 is all about habitats as homes for animals. Youth will learn what a habitat is and can even make their own.  Check it out!

Some other ideas to do with children as the weather is warming up:

  • Plant a garden- let the children pick what to plant
  • Go on an insect hunt
  • Blow a dandelion
  • Make hopscotch and play with your child
  • Play with sidewalk chalk
  • Go on a bike ride
  • Take the dog on a walk
  • Make pictures of the clouds in the sky
  • Fly a kite
  • Go fishing
  • Blow bubbles
  • Go on a theme hike (ex. Find things that are purple, ABC hike, shape hike, etc.)
  • Read a book outside
  • Have a yummy picnic
  • Creeking
  • Search local park system and find programs

Encourage youth to find their spark outside this spring and summer.

 

Source: The Nature Conservancy