Learning By Doing
The 4-H Youth Development Program promotes learning-by-doing. A five-step process helps turn activities into learning experiences. You will notice that each of the activities in A Palette of Fun has combined two of the five steps into the three-step model of “Do, Reflect and Apply”.
The experiential process of learning engages
children in the activity, encouraging them to think more, explore,
question, make decisions, and apply what they have learned. 
Experience
“DO”
Palette!
Paints! Brushes! Create! This
is the “doing” part of the activity and it immediately focuses the
attention of the child. Encouraging the child to learn by doing rather
than telling or showing how presents opportunities for life skills
development. You act as the facilitator or the “guide by the side” in
the experience providing structure and the environment for the child to
create. The
“DO” step provides directions for the children to follow. You observe
and add value to the experience by providing resources,
information, and answering questions.
Share and
Process “REFLECT”
What
happened in this experience? What did you do?
What did it feel like to do this activity?
These are “REFLECT” questions to ask the children. This is the
time for the children to generate information and share their observations
with one another. Children who contribute should feel their idea is
important and valued. Encourage
the children to answers each other's questions rather than you answering.
There
are several ways to process an experience. For instance in the “GO
ROUND” - Each child shares one word or idea about the experience while
you “go around” the group. A
child always has the right to pass, but is encouraged to participate.
Children can express the “SWEET AND SALTY” - What did you like
(sweet-Hershey kisses) about this experience? What were some of the
problems (salty-pretzels)? Another
example is “STORYLINE”- Ask each child to relate one line of the story
of what happened in this experience.
Be as creative as you can in sharing and processing the experience.
The goal is to keep the children engaged.
Each activity uses open-ended questions that focus the
children towards the experience, the life skills learned, and the
knowledge of art skills.
Generalize and Apply “APPLY”
The “APPLY” step is a time to talk with the children. The
discussion becomes more personal. So what? Now
what? What did the experience
mean to me personally or to my everyday life? The subject matter alone
could remain the focus of the discussion. But, A
Palette of Fun encourages the process to move towards life skill
development. Children can express what they really learned and how they
can use what they learned in other areas.
Or they can actually show that they have mastered a skill by
performing another activity requiring use of a new skill.
Adapted
from A Palette of Fun with Arts and Crafts, a 4-H
CCS publication.