Healthy Living
About Arkansas 4-H Healthy Living
Head, Heart, Hands, and Health - healthy living is part of the 4-H program and identity. We believe that healthy habits begin in families and communities. We strive to equip young people with healthy living knowledge and skills to physically, emotionally, and socially prepare them to meet today's challenges. 4-H Healthy Living programs address nutrition, fitness, substance abuse, safety, and social and emotional wellness.
4-H Healthy Living Events & Competitions
4th H Meeting Challenge
Are your 4-H'ers ready to commit? The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service would like to invite your club to participate in the Arkansas 4th H Club Challenge! Each club that completes the challenge before the deadline will enter into the $100 gift card drawing for their district! Each district will have three $100 gift cards to win! The first 25 clubs that complete the registration and pre-survey will get an extra entry.How does it work? Apply three healthy meeting practices to your 4-H clubs/meetings from May - December 2021.
Why is this important? We pledge our “health to better living” and in order to learn, practice, and advocate for healthy choices we are challenging clubs to practice healthy choices during their meetings. Learning these healthy habits early can have lifelong effects on the health of 4-H’ers. How does a club get started?
1. Register and complete pre-survey
2. Record the dates and activities.(A link will be provided after registering.)
3. Share a picture of the physical activity and/or healthy snack demonstration from the meeting on social media. Be sure to use to include official hashtag #AR4HHealthyLiving
4. Complete all three healthy meeting practices by December 31st, 2021.
Resources for Leaders and 4-H'ers
Club Challenge Curriculum
Snack Recipes Ideas
4th H Parent Letter
Arkansas 4-H Food Challenge
The first ever Arkansas 4-H Food Challenge!
The Arkansas 4-H Food Challenge will be tentatively held on Friday, August 6th, 2021 at the Pulaski Technical Culinary Arts College in Little Rock, AR. This is a great facility for young future chefs to get a taste for the culinary life.
Registration is available through your local County Extension office. There will be a $100 TEAM FEE which will cover the cost of cooking ingredients and 4 team members to compete. Each team member will receive the 2021 Arkansas 4-H Food Challenge t-shirt. Payment must be made on or before the registration deadline.
Listed below are helpful resources to get your team started. Feel free to contact your local county extension office with any questions.
Helpful Resources
- Arkansas Food Challenge Rules & Guidelines
- Coaching Tips
- Example Presentation #1
- Example Presentation #2
Healthy Living Programs & Activities
We all know that we need at least 60 minutes of moderate to intense activity every day, but how do you know that you’ve reached that intense level? It’s all about heart rate, but not everyone has a heart rate monitor with them, so we have some ways for you to recognize when you’ve hit that moderate to intense level!
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Levels 1-2 are relaxation or easy walking, something you could do all day long.
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Levels 3-4 are like fast walking or jogging, you’re still comfortable but breathing a bit harder.
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Levels 5-6 are getting out of your comfort zone, starting to sweat and getting breathless when talking.
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Levels 7-8, you can still talk but it’s getting really hard, you may grunt in response to questions, sweating hard, and can only keep up the activity for a short time longer.
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Level 9-10 is the intense activity! You cannot speak, breathing really hard, sweating a lot; you will need to cool down or stop soon.
Check out this video to see the activity heart rate levels in action!
This fun physical activity dice game is an excellent way to get out of your normal routine and spice up your physical fitness game! Print out 2 of the die template below, write physical activities on one of them, and numbers on the other one! Watch the video for more instructions & an alternate way to play if you cannot print out or make your dice.
Arkansas 4-H Virtual 4K - IS BACK!
Arkansas 4-H had just the right social distancing free 4K race! Starting Wednesday,September 1st, through Thursday, September 30th, Arkansas 4-H will host it's 2nd Annual 4K race were 4-Her, their families, and 4-H supporters can run/walk their way into fall season.
Click below to register!
Healthy Living Projects
Health and Fitness projects focus on activities promoting healthy lifestyles and a healthy self-image. Social, emotional, mental, and physical health are emphasized equally. Participants learn nutrition and exercise principles as they relate to health, appearance, lifelong fitness, and wellness.
