Welcome to the Intermediate Level of Picture Perfect YOUth! Enjoy the journey of personal growth as you explore the personal development project.  Let's get started!

 

Picture Perfect YOUth Intermediate Level Project Manual -- Print this manual for each member in the project group or if you plan to complete as an individual study project.

 

EVALUATION: Educators and volunteers are encouraged to use the Common Measures evaluation instrument to evaluate the Personal Development Project. Whether you are teaching Picture Perfect YOUth, Heritage Scrapbooking or Scrapbooking, this instrument will work! Common Measures Evaluations.

 

Tips on Using The Project Manual

• Manuals are divided into four sections centered around the four H's -- Head, Heart, Hands and Health.
• Some lessons have a section called "Developing the Picture" which is information about fair projects. Be sure to review this information and the activity associated with the fair project. Look for the blue ribbon!
• Every lesson has a section called "Panoramic View." This information includes links to videos, websites or suggested activities youth can do to learn more about the topic covered in the lesson. Some suggestions are great leadership and citizenship opportunities youth can do in the area of personal development to help them grow their project work. Those items in the "Panoramic View" section are provided below to make it easier to access the links.

 

Check out the extended activity links and project activities below for each lesson in the Intermediate Project Manual.

 

Head: Managing and Thinking Lessons:

 

Goal Setting Tree

• Read a book for teens on goal setting and other topics. Visit your local library, download, or purchase from a bookstore. Some titles to look for include:
  • Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations by Alex and Brett Harris
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey
  • The 6 Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make by Sean Covey
  • Don't Sweat the Small Stuff for Teens by Richard Carlson, Ph.D.
  • The Code: The Five Secrets of Teen Success by Mawi Asgedom
  • The Success Principles for Teens by Jack Canfield
  • What Color Is Your Parachute for Teens by Carol Christen and Richard N. Bolles

 

Study Skills for Success

• Homework tips: on making homework more enjoyable and get more out of it.
• Tips, Tricks, and Life Hacks for Testing, Homework, Papers: A video by a teenager (Jill Cimorelli)
• Create a homework music playlist that is not distracting. Consider using instrumental music so you are not tempted to sing along instead of read or study.
• 7 Best Excuses for Missing Your Homework: A nice homework stress reliever video.

 

Solutions for Problem Solving

• Can You Solve The Bridge Riddle? This is a video created by Alex Gendler. See if you can solve the problem.
• Can You Solve The Prisoner Hat Riddle? This is another video created by Alex Gendler for you to solve.
• The Humor that Works provides problem solving activities to challenge creativity. Try these fun activities to help you think creatively and practice problem solving.

 

Using Money Wisely

• Keeping a Money Diary is a good way to learn money management. This website provides information to help you track your income and expenses in a different way.
• There are different ways to give to others. Explore this website to find out how to give without spending any money.

 

Heart: Relating and Caring Lessons:

 

CELL-utations!

• Cell Phone Etiquette
  • ABC News -- Cell Phone Etiquette
  • Cell Phone Etiquette 101
• Easy Etiquette for Preteens: Minding Your Manners - this website has a section on cell phone etiquette as well as many other topics. Explore and see what new tips you can find.
• Research the laws for cell phone use in vehicles. Encourage your parents and other drivers to follow the law where cell phone use is concerned. You might just save a life!

 

Did You Hear What I Said?

• Active Listening: Katie Owens at TEXxYouth@Conejo
• Student Production of Active Listening Skills

 

More Than Me

• Read the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. Think about how others did show or could have shown empathy to Alexander.
• Write a thank you letter or card to someone who has shown compassion to you. Describe how you felt and why his or her kindness was so important to you.
• Sesame Street segment explaining empathy.
• CBS This Morning segment about 1st graders who sent empathy notes to a Vikings football player.

 

The People In Our Lives

• Research older adults and discover contributions they mad to society during their later years. Examples to get you started include U.S. Presidents, Albert Einstein, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa.
• Read the story of Elizabeth Layton to learn about her life and talent.
• Celebrate Intergenerational Month in September. InterGenerationMonth

 

Hands: Giving and Working Lessons:

 

Teamwork: It's How You Look At It

• Movie Montage on Teamwork.
• Good Teamwork and Bad Teamwork.

 

Modeling Leadership

• Leadership Lessons from the Dancing Guy - This video would be a good resource to show during the discussion of the Group Activity: The Model of Leadership.
• Practice your leadership skills by leading a group in a teambuilding activity. Do a search on the Internet to find an activity.
• Expand on the Leadership Banner activity and create a display to showcase your leadership skills, leadership opportunities and more. Exhibit the display at your county fair, school or other events.
• Read the article from Harvard Business Review called Leadership Lessons from 10 Wildly Successful People. Look for qualities you admire in a leader.

 

Targeting Citizenship

• What Does It Mean to be a Citizen? View this video by Points of Light on being a citizen.
• Bet You Didn't Know: Independence Day is a video posted on the History.com website. This is a good overview of the history of Independence Day.
• Jefferson Writes the Declaration of Independence video is posted on History.com. This video would be good to watch after playing the game, Symbols of Citizenship Memory Match.

 

Health: Living and Being Lessons:

 

Success Begins with me

• Make a list of famous people you admire. Choose one from your list to research on the web to find positive articles or information to back up the reasons you admire them.
• Find a quote about responsibility you like. Create a poster with the quote and place it in your room where you can be reminded of it daily.
• Explore the blog, Youth Frontiers Character Movement, to learn more about character, morals, responsibility and more. Look at the list of "tags" on the right side and choose words like courage, character and respect.
• Develop an educational display promoting a leadership opportunity you have had in 4-H. Showcase life skills you used to carry out your leadership duties. Incorporate pictures of you demonstrating your leadership.

 

I.D. Good Character

• Review the list of character traits in the handout. Put a check mark beside positive character traits that help you to be a person of good character. Put an X next to character traits that are negative.
• Showcasing Kindness. How can you show kindness to others and spread it?
• Sequoia Middle School developed a video on the Six Pillars of Character. View it and think about ways you can promote the pillars.
• This video called Got Character showcases movie clips demonstrating character traits.

 

Living Under Pressure

• View the Pass It On video from Values.com. This is a great example of positive peer pressure.
• Explore the website Your Life Counts. Check out the 20 ways to avoid peer pressure.
• Take the quiz How Are You Doing? on the Above The Influence Website.
• The Behavioral Science Guys created a video called One Simple Skill to Overcome Peer Pressure. Watch it for some great ideas.

 

Cyber Space: Keep It Safe

• Review the video, The CyberWise Guide to Digital Citizenship.
• Explore the NetSmartz website for teens to learn more about Internet safety.