Winter Fair - and Christmas Cookies!

Congratulations to all of the kids participating in the Winter Fair. This is a great turnout - and doesn't even include 2 other kids that came late and missed the picture - - - -
REMINDER: We will be baking and frosting cookies to donate to two local shelters on Friday, December 19th. Please consider making the trip on Saturday to deliver this gift. Please e-mail me to let me know we have this covered. Bring Items for UMCOR Flood bucket so we can call this DONE - and bring Sewing Kit items if you've picked them! thanks - Mrs. M.

Thanks so much to all of you who have already dropped gifts off for our Adopt-a-Family project. We have made 5 girls stuck in a shelter over the holidays MUCH HAPPIER knowing that someone cares enough to remember them. THANKS TO YOU - we DO make a difference!

Fair THIS Friday & Upcoming Cookie Baking

Hi Everyone!

Most of the information you will want is on the sidebar - top item.

Remember also to bring cookies to send to Iraq - this will be our last shipment before Christmas!

If you need directions please call. I don't want to post this on the WWW!

See you Friday - 6PM at the Church... Hint: Rt. 40 - North!

UPCOMING COOKIE BAKING.
On Friday, December 19th - we will bake & decorate cookies as a Community Service Project. I will divide the group in half geographically and meet as two smaller groups. The cookies will be donated to two very worthy organizations that Mrs. Nichols has identified for us.

First: The cookies made at Rodda's will go to the "Inn From the Cold". C Church downtown is hosting 10 homeless men from Josephs House Shelter for the ENTIRE month of December. These cookies will be a welcome treat for them as they face the holiday without a home to call their own and few family members to share it with.

Second: The cookies finished off at the school will be taken to Damien Center. This organization serves lunch & dinner to people in our community living with HIV/AIDS and their families. These families will certainly enjoy the outreach from our group of young people as they cope with their illness thru a holiday season.

Please remember - the cookies will be made and/or decorated on Friday night. We also need an adult and several children to help take these donations downtown on Saturday morning. PLEASE PLEASE consider doing this. TRULY amazing things come from our childrens hearts when they see the fruits of THEIR labors appreciated by strangers in need.

4H Geocache Trip!

Despite threat of rain - we did it last Saturday. We succeeded in finding 3 of 4 geocache stashes in F. Park. Everyone got a chance to work with the GPS device and get their hands on a cache. Pretty Cool. Here is the crew looking frantically for the 4th cache. We didn't find it. Better luck next time ehh? I'm sure Mrs. D can put together another nice set of cache's around here. We even talked about hiding and maintaining one of our own in the town park! Whatcha think? See you all soon!

GREAT JOB

Great Job on Winter Fair projects everyone. Remember to keep them safe for the next month so they are still nice and fresh to take to Winter Fair on 12/5... Also - bring anything you can't complete at home and we'll work on it at the meeting 11/21...

xxxxxxx
NOTE TO X-stitches. Remember to be patient - we have a month to complete this. I"ll try and have some workshops inbetween the meetings so you can get some more help.
xxxxxxx

a BIG THANKS To Mrs. Gorbaty for all the work on Logos and Silk Screening. The shirts and other items silk screened are gorgeous. I'll try to post a photo soon!

Choose a Winter Fair Project

I have added a POLL on the top of the SIDEBAR - please participate so I can gauge how many and how often people are using this tool. Please vote only once! thx - g

The full list of Winter Fair (December 5th) categories is listed in the sidebar. Almost ALL Of them require the use of a LOT of natural materials. Mrs. Donlon and Mrs. Morton have found some projects that fit in the categories. We will help you with one or more of these projects during BOTH November meetings. You may also choose to work on other unique projects on your own and bring them to the Fair.

Some of these are very simple - others will require a bit of time at home to complete..... Check back often - e-mail Mrs. Donlon or Mrs. Morton with any questions you may have.

For Winter Fair projects on November 7th, everyone needs to bring:

White Glue
Scissors
Markers
Cardboard tubes (toilet, paper towels, or gift wrap) to use and share
Supplies specific to project YOU choose to work on...
Other non-fair project items listed on the side-bar!!! (esp cookies & Relief Kit Items)

Look at the pictures, appropriate ages, material lists and decide on one or two you would like to make. We'll be working these CENTERS STYLE - with a leader for EACH project at separate tables. You can spend time at one center - or several.....
A mouse (and also reindeer and pine-cone heart ornaments (not pictured) will be pre-meeting activities in November that everyone can try their hand at. These are tiny - but can be taken to the fair. All materials will be provided, unless you have some special unique thing you would like to add.

Cross Stitch Ornament - - - this is geared to kids 4th grade and older. If you want to do this project, you do not need to bring anything. All materials are supplied (aida cloth, pattern, needle and floss of appropriate color for chosen design). These pictures are just examples. We'll have 10 or more to pick from on November 7th.

Christmas Card Star Ornaments - These will be appropriate for ALL ages. Please bring:
An assortment of old christmas cards that can be cut up!
A hold punch if you have one
Small scraps (6"x6" or so) of posterboard, cereal boxboard, etc - - to stabilize craft.
12" of ribbon PER ornament for hanger
GOOD paper cuttiing scissors.

Snow Globe - all Thrills & Skills age groups can make this shakey globe- - - Kids can choose what kind of winter scene they want to make. We will provide green foamy to make Christmas tree and silicone to seal the lid to the jar. Please bring:
1 to 3 SMALL plastic figures (people, animals) to put inside that will fit with the theme of your winter scene. Legos, soldiers, polly pocket, etc.
A jar of appropriate size AND IT'S LID! (small square profile as shown will be easiest to work with) Make sure it is big enough to accomodate your figures.
Glitter - any color you have or want!

Cardboard Reindeer - this is for kids of any age - - - We will have goggley eyes, ribbon, pom-poms and bells if these aren't in your stash at home. Please bring:
Construction paper
twigs for antlers
any special items you want for decoration.

Cardboard Scarecrow - - this is appropriate for our 2nd & 3rd Graders. Older kids welcome too. We will NOT use a perishable apple, rather a 2" diameter stick and several pinecones to form a bench for the scarecrow! We will supply, natural fiber yarn, pinecones and burlap! You will need to bring:
4-6" long stick or branch (perhaps 1" in diameter) for bench. Maybe a nice flat rock.
8"x8" piece of fabric for his tunic (we will have some if you dont' have this on hand

Your own yarn if you want it to be a bit more unique

Pine Cone Wreath - - this is also geared to 4th grade and above. If you want to do this project, you need to bring:
18" of ribbon or a recycled bow to adorn their wreath.

Just News & Updates!

The Morton's covered their Sewing Boxes today. There are a couple of tricks. Many may also need some trim (ribbon, rick-rack, etc.) to cover exposed raw edges (the bane of sewing projects). If anyone would like to come and get help - please call Morton's or Donlon's and we can set up a time. It took about 30-45 minutes per box.

Mrs. Nichols provided a list of what people drew to contribute to the RELIEF KIT at the October 3rd meeting. Please check the sidebar for items you chose to bring. I know several brought these to the last meeting. As soon as Mrs. Nichols confirms that she has them - I'll delete and add new items to the list for our 2nd Relief Kit!

Our next meeting isn't until Friday, November 7th. Mrs. Donlon and Mrs. Morton are working to make a list of suggested projects for the Winter Fair. As soon as we have a list - and perhaps some pictures, I'll post them here. Please Continue to check in. We will provide many of the supplies. Depending on what you pick - we will have a list of items to bring for your specific project. Check the SIDEBAR for an abbreviated list from the Clover Chronicle.

Parents Meeting - Notes from Monday 10/13

6 Mom's met and discussed a lot of items. This was a very productive session. Some changes are:

1) We will no longer have a snack - - we have a lot of things to do. Having a snack disrupts the flow and pretty much ENDS the meeting... AND - many parents felt that having snack AFTER activities (8:30 or so) is JUST too late. This will also reduce the clean-up efforts at the school and at home after the meeting.
2) We will rearrange the room so that kids are in smaller groups at individual tables.
3) We will have PLACE CARDS - so that children of various ages and attention spans are together. These are not PERMANENT seating assignments - we'll move kids as needed week to week. We are hoping to mingle the Supergirls and Mermaids, foster everyone getting to know one another, AND work on behavior for some of our younger kids.
4) THE KIDS are NOT to leave the room except to use the restroom. ADULTS will let latecomers in if the door is locked. We will not tolerate kids running up and down the halls any more.
5) We redesigned the Sewing Box project. I apologize to all for the leaders not providing enough instruction in advance so that everyone could come adequately prepared. We also apologize to those 4h'ers who have already completed t hese boxes. Please try to explain - that we needed to have boxes more consistent in size - and too many kids were unprepared on the 3rd. It is our hope that these completed projects can be put to use for other storage needs - - thanks for your u nderstanding...
6) We stressed that everyone should try harder to be in our room by 7:00 SHARP! Remember that often there are dances and sporting activities that will limit parking. Please factor this into your commute.
7) If you miss a meeting - please contact the leaders so that you can catch up... We will provide materials and instruction so that you can do this at home or get together with a small group outside of the meeting for help and to work together.
8) We need to stress to ALL CHILDREN (including mine) that they should treat the leaders as they do their teachers. Not interupting, not giggling, not walking all over the room... We have a big group and we need to work on respect for everyone. This goes for adults too - background conversations really make it hard for the leaders to keep the kids attention - and be effective. THANKS ---

g

REMINDER

Parent meeting is tomorrow, Monday - October 13th. We will meet at Brunswick BBQ at 7PM. Hope to see most of you there.

We will discuss lots of things including: 4H membership, Relief Kit project, Cookies to Iraq project, behavior, timeliness and project expectations.

Take care - enjoy this beautiful day and see you tomorrow.

g

Thrills & Skills in Advertiser

Our "Media Coordinator" - Cah - put an article and picture into this weeks ADVERTISER. This effort is but one step towards being an Honor Club. Making known our and the 4H Presence in THE County is but just ONE thing we are working towards this year. MANY THANKS TO Cah.

Documenting Community Service, Working at the Fair, participating in County Wide events (like Cabin Fever Workshop for Adults & Family Fun Day for kids in February) are but a few things we will strive to do this year to become an honor club.

Please save any copies you get at home - and perhaps get a copy or two from a neighbor for those who don't receive it and/or misplace their copies. This is something all the kids should keep in their RECORD BOOK folders...

thanks -
g

Welcome to our CLUB BLOG

Hi Everyone:

Welcome to the first 4H Thrill & Skill BLOG post. Using this easy -to-update venue, we hope to keep everyone up to date with what is happening in our group.

We have lots of wonderful things planed for this year. I will add our calendar in the coming weeks. Here you will be able to check who is bringing snack, who is on the clean-up crew, and what you need to bring to the next meeting.

We hope to provide enough information so that if you miss a meeting - you can come to the BLOG to "catch-up".

From the scuttlebutt (aka: Gossip) I've heard - your Project Leaders (Donna & Gretchen) feel that we need to have a parents meeting to make sure we are all on the same page.
We will have a parents meeting early next week. Please check back here for more details and/or keep your eye on e-mail. If you are unable to make this date - please let Gretchen know so we can chat another time.

We want this to be a rewarding and beneficial group for everyone.

You have no doubt noticed that we stepped up the pace a bit. We also structured the meetings to try and keep the kids from being bored and/or not-busy.

Many projects are started or explained during the meeting and the kids need to finish them up at home. Most of our projects can be entered into the Schaghticoke fair - and we are trying to give them enough direction and enough time to do a good job. Something they will be proud to have their name on when it is on display next August.

We have address lists for everyone so that contacting other members is not an issue. If you need a copy or lose it over the course of the year - pleaase let me know. I DO NOT think it is appropriate to post such information on the web.

Thanks for reading. Gretchen

Pictures from 2008 Camping Trip