4-H Youth 
Development Program
Sprouting Hands-On Experience with Tamuning Elementary School’s 4th Grade Classes
Above 1: Tamuning Elementary’s 4th Grade students working together on 4-H’s Seed Germination Activity
Above 2: Young student being very careful as she begins her Seed Germination Activity
On March 03, 2017, the 4-H program visited Tamuning Elementary School’s 4th grade classes. 4-H’s Life Skill of the day was Planning and Organizing with their Seed Germination presentation.
Case in point: The University of Guam’s 4-H Youth Outreach Program’s Seed Germination taught the students where seeds come from as well as how they should be placed in the ground and planted.
After every presentation 4-H’s goal is to apply what they teach the kids so that they can absorb what they learned in the classroom. This allows the students to get hands on experience. On this day’s activity, the students’ project was to sprout either watermelon, cucumber, or pumpkin within the given zip lock bags.
During the activity, the students were excited and anxious to see the results of their projects and are eagerly waiting to see their first plants sprout. The connecting point between the activity of the day and the Life Skill is to give the students the opportunity to set short term goals by planning effective ways to achieve their goals.
The 4-H Program allows opportunity for the students to grow and take on small tasks that they feel secure doing. Activities such as seed germination also allow opportunity to show the students that even when we plan, things don’t always go the way we intend and with the help of the 4-H mentors the students are guided to reorganize their plans so they continue feeling confident and are able to keep their eye on the end goal.
Life Skill: Planning and Organizing & Seed Germination
The 4-H Youth Outreach and Development Program creatively incorporated their designated Life Skill of Planning and Organizing with Seed Germination by reminding the kids of the steps they have taken in order to begin sprouting their seeds.
In the beginning of the program the students participated in drawing their “Garden Goals” and how they envisioned, planned and organized their gardens.
Left: Featuring photo by Tamuning Elementary’s Ayden Quinata. This wonderful drawing illustrates the different plants he would want in his garden such as watermelon, peas, banana, pineapple and pepper trees.
Right: Featuring photo by a Tamuning Elementary student in Miss Theresa Puzon’s 4th Grade class of an outstanding drawing of a 3 part garden, organized with different garden goals for each designated plot.